How did the beloved author C.S. Lewis understand the mystery of the Eucharist? Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963) was a British scholar and lay theologian known for his studies in Medieval and Renaissance literature, his popular expositions of the Christian faith, his Perelandra space trilogy, and his famous Narnia tales. Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, his […]

Eucharistic Teachings
Eucharistic Teachings · January / February 2021
The Call to Holiness From Glory to Glory: The Saints Below and the Saints Above
How have Catholic and Methodists grown together in their understanding of holiness and the sacraments? Since January 1967 Methodists and Catholics have been engaged in an international dialogue on various questions which are shared and divide the two Christian communions. After the breakthrough on the question of justification by faith between the Lutheran World Federation […]
Eucharistic Teachings · November / December 2020
Two Books or Three Books to Read?
Can the results of human creativity and ingenuity be pathways leading to God? Where do we find God? Where does God speak to us? Several answers can be given. One traditional answer is to speak of the two books God has given to us, namely the book of the Bible and the book of creation. […]
Eucharistic Teachings · November / December 2020
Fossil Fuel Divestment: A Sacramental Act of Love of Neighbor
Does our sacramental worldview call us to divest from fossil fuels? The poor communities around the world are already the early and disproportionate victims of the current ecological degradation and we cannot remain indifferent any longer to the increasingly desperate “cry of the earth and the cry of the poor” (Laudato Si’, 49).1 A call […]
Eucharistic Teachings · September / October 2020
Discovering the Dynamic Spiral of Ministry: Exploring Insights of Recent Popes
Pope Paul VI, Pope John Paul II, and Pope Francis all express that the Church must be missionary. How do they propose we live out this missionary calling? Energy, dynamism, and growth are common images evoked by the simple word “spiral.” A spiral connotes advancing action, increasing or developing movement. And yet, a spiral, even […]
Eucharistic Teachings · July / August 2020
The Unity That Only Eucharist Can Achieve?
When it comes to migration, does the Eucharist unite or divide us? One of my favorite lessons with my theology and ministry graduate students is to have them look out an assigned window, in clusters of at least three, for approximately five minutes, and record individually what each sees. Inevitably they learn about the limitations […]
Eucharistic Teachings · May / June 2020
Image of God: Icon or Idol?
What does the biblical tenet of the human person made in the “image of God” teach us about our relationship to creation? What is it about the universe that so fascinates the human spirit? We turn to the sun during the day looking for warmth and reassurance, and to the night sky in wonder and […]
Eucharistic Teachings · May / June 2020
John Zizioulas and the Priesthood of Creation
Influential Orthodox theologian John Zizioulas proposes that humanity’s proper role in relation to the universe is as “priest of creation.” What does he mean by this and what are the implications? Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’ had its official public release in Vatican City on June 18, 2015. The experts invited to speak at this […]
Eucharistic Teachings · March / April 2020
Caryll Houselander on the Eucharist
Through her own struggles with the Catholic Church in her day Caryll Houselander found a deeper relationship with Christ in the Eucharist. What might her experience offer us today? Frances Caryll Houselander (1901-1954), a British Catholic author, artist, poet, visionary, and mystic, wrote a number of popular books during her lifetime that had a deep […]
Eucharistic Teachings · January / February 2020
Flannery O’Connor on the Eucharist
The Catholicism of the great twentieth century author Flannery O’Connor is well documented, but what can we glean of her eucharistic theology? Flannery O’Connor (1925-1964), one of the prominent American fiction writers of the twentieth century, was born in Savannah, Georgia to devout Catholic parents. In 1938, her family moved to Milledgeville in central Georgia. […]