Joan Chittister

Joan Chittister: The seventh beatitude is all about motives, with the real reason for what I do, which, however good it makes me look on the outside, may indeed be poisonous on the inside.

Joan Chittister: Under the aegis of "defense," we have come to exalt the kind of violence that undermines every layer of our society. But now, one U.S. bishop is waking us up to what the Beatitudes are really all about.

Joan Chittister: "Blessed are the merciful," the fifth beatitude contends, "for they shall receive mercy." Jesus says that the kind of mercy we give will be the kind of mercy we get when we need it. Mercy is not an event; it is a way of being in the world.

Joan Chittister: I saw recent hints that our country — after years of protests about police brutality, women's equal rights, justice for all — may be beginning to boil over.

Joan Chittister: We must allow ourselves to face, to mourn, what is happening to our lives, to our country, to our church. And the Beatitudes are clear: What we ourselves do will be what will "comfort" our mourning.

Joan Chittister: Without poverty of spirit, simplicity of desire, or contentment with enoughness, there can be no awareness of the riches that come with simply being alive, of being loved and loving earth and all in return.

Joan Chittister: In a world of warring tribes and ever larger bombs and the displacement of thousands, how could "blessed are the meek" possibly have real meaning for us in this day and age? I'll tell you.

The renewal of the United States depends, Jesus' declaration of the Beatitudes implies, on us, on our own integration of these values in life — regardless of the system we see being bent out of shape or the toxic individualism that is poisoning it.

From Where I Stand: In 2020, common good, the general welfare, collapsed in the United States. Many lost their rights to life while others crowed their freedom to do whatever they pleased in the name of "Americanism."

From Where I Stand: Benedictinism is about the essence of the Rule of St. Benedict and its place in the culture and in the soul of humanity, now. That's what Patrick Henry preserves for us in his upcoming book on Benedictinism.

From Where I Stand: The greenness of life is withering, and we are late in coming to consciousness about climate change while we wait for the government or science to save us as we ignore the damage we are doing to ourselves.

From Where I Stand: As long as we silently accept Donald Trump's big lie and do nothing to expose it, he will see that the people he lied to about it keep voting the lie's carriers into office.

From Where I Stand: Now in its infancy, a new form of synodality — such a rare model of operation in the Roman church — is fast becoming a new sign of both hope and despair.

From Where I Stand: COVID-19 lockdowns didn't deprive us of anything in the realm of faith. Instead, they are simply requiring us to dig deeper for spirituality ourselves — which is what we have always been meant to do.

From Where I Stand: Lent is not about giving up our adult candy or immersing ourselves in pain. Lent is about being honest with ourselves, changing what needs to change in our lives, making our world a better place and growing into the Light.

From Where I Stand: We are clearly a people in transition. But going from what to what? Abba Pambo, a Coptic desert monastic of the fourth century preached, "If you have a heart, you can be saved," and his words offer us wisdom now.

From Where I Stand: If you want to resolve a problem, you must be willing to face it, to address it consciously, to confront it. We must stand up to the wind that's shaking the pillars of our republic.

From Where I Stand: It is not the force of power, or the power of force, that can save us. Only inclusiveness and equality everywhere — not party bosses or class conformism — can really save us.

From Where I Stand: Rule making or rule breaking? Each of these has its place. The moral response requires that we decide which is most life-giving at any given time.

From Where I Stand: My mother insisted that there was something to be learned in everything. I've learned a lot from President Donald Trump in none of the ways I wanted to.