by Father Robert Lauder Probably every spiritual tradition and every spiritual writer encourages people to be humble. The advice is important but not so easy to achieve, and that seems a little strange to me. If humility, as spiritual writers claim, is seeing things the way they really are, why is it so difficult to […]
Arts and Culture
Fr. Robert Lauder is a philosophy professor at St. John’s University and the author of “Pope Francis’ Spirituality and Our Story” (Resurrection Press).
God’s Love Liberates Us
by Father Robert Lauder A PHILOSOPHICAL AND theological problem, or should I say mystery, has been on my mind lately. I have been reflecting on this problem for several reasons. One is that it involves at least two important mysteries – the mystery of God and the mystery of human freedom. Another reason is that […]
The Gift of a Great Production
by Father Robert Lauder I AM EMBARRASSED to confess that I never heard of The Josephine Foundation until last August. That I heard of the foundation when I did enabled me and eight others to have an experience of the theater, which was not only exceptionally enjoyable but also inspiring. This would not have happened […]
Three Special Gifts in The Life of the Church
by Father Robert Lauder A FEW MONTHS ago, three of my priest friends died within a short space of one another. Each was a special gift in the life of the Church. All sorts of memories have come back to me since their deaths. Bishop Sullivan I first met Auxiliary Bishop Joe Sullivan when we […]
Are We Suffering from a Kind of Despair?
by Father Robert Lauder For more than 40 years, I have been teaching the philosophy of existentialism, or at least my version of existentialism. When people discover that I teach this philosophy, they often ask “Just what is existentialism?” I have been asked that question a few hundred times. I have come up with a […]
What Has Happened to the Sacrament of Reconciliation?
by Father Robert Lauder IN THE LAST 50 years, there has been a dramatic change in the use that Catholics make of the sacrament of reconciliation previously referred to as the sacrament of confession. The change is obvious, but the reasons for it are not, at least not to me. One reason I am writing […]
Tearless Compassion
by Father Robert Lauder Recently, I gave a talk on compassion. In preparing the talk, the first thing I did was to look up a definition of compassion in a dictionary. I read the following: “sorrow for the sufferings or trouble of another or others, accompanied by an urge to help; deep sympathy; pity.” The […]
The Spirit of Love
by Father Robert Lauder MY EXPERIENCE, and it may be the experience of all Christians, is that at different moments in my life, some doctrine assumes a new importance; some belief, that may have been somewhat peripheral, assumes center stage. I am embarrassed to write that for the last few years belief in the Holy […]
The Gift and Challenge of Freedom
by Father Robert Lauder Third in a Series AT ST. JOHN’S University in any philosophy course that I teach that involves some serious reflection on the mystery of person, I emphasize the freedom of the human person. One reason I do this is that I believe freedom is one of the great gifts that God […]
Marcel on Love
by Father Robert Lauder Second in a Series I FIND THE philosophy of existentialist personalist Gabriel Marcel very attractive. It speaks very much to my experience. For Marcel, hope, love and fidelity were important human acts that led a person into the realm of value, of what really matters, of what Marcel called the mystery of being. […]