Collected here are articles and reviews that have appeared in print, as well as a presentation of my books. There are a few interviews and some sound material, notably my reading of the Gospels in Greek, a project that remains work in progress.

Eternal Word in Time

23 April 2025 Die Tagespost
The Christian proposition is founded on the claim that an Eternal Word, the metaphysical and intentional source of all there is, engages with the world and speaks to it for its flourishing’s sake; and that this Word, at a given point in time, entered history to renew human nature from within, repairing malfunction, so to speak, by re-installing the operating system. Continue reading

Desert Fathers 17

22 April 2025
Things do not always get sorted out; illness is not always healed; sometimes fractured relationships cannot be mended. To trust God is not to assume that I will be alright - it is to know that, whatever happens, sense may emerge from senselessness, redemptive purity from destructive contamination. Continue reading

Pope Francis RIP

21 April 2025 Letter to the Faithful
Pope Francis spent his life proclaiming the historical, ethical, and metaphysical impact of the resurrection. He taught us to see, and interpret, life's circumstances in the light of Christ's victory over death - this we will faithfully do. Continue reading

Conversation with Luke Coppen

18 April 2025 The Pillar
Letting ourselves be taken by the hand by the Church, our Mother, we shall appreciate the Marian dimension of our faith, not just as 'devotion', but as the atmosphere within which we live and move and have our being, where, with Mary, Christ's Mother and ours, we learn to own and express our deepest grief and our most exultant joy, carried by a well-founded hope that is at once intelligent and visceral. Continue reading

Desert Fathers 16

16 April 2025 The Monk and the Actress
If I set out to correct, or worse, to condemn, another on the basis of bitterness, anger, or revulsion, my words, however tinged with glacial piety, will bring no blessing; no, they are likely to do harm, perhaps even to induce despair, causing little ones to sin while readying my own stiff neck, the support of my conceited head, for the millstone. Continue reading

Desert Fathers 15

8 April 2025 Penthos
We may have known times when an action or a word of ours has ruined something precious; when that which, a moment ago, was integral and dear lies at our feet in pieces, mud-splattered - at such times the voice of God resounds in our inner ear, ‘Adam, where are you?’ And we have no answer. Continue reading

Desert Fathers 14

1 April 2025 Compunction
Despair tends to issue from ambivalence, situations in which we feel overwhelmed by confused pain, unable to enact a response. What we can articulate, we can learn to deal with. Continue reading

Conversation with Sofia Carozza

1 April 2025 Pilgrim Soul
My little peanut heart starts growing as it becomes more and more able to assume into itself the reality of other lives. It starts growing, step by little step, towards the dimensions of God's heart, which is a heart without any limitations at all. Continue reading

Desert Fathers 13

26 March 2025 Silence in Grief
We discover what is in our heart when, notwithstanding the manicured elegance we like to project, someone steps on that toenail, whether by accident or design. Such discovery is pretty unpleasant, but useful. Continue reading

On Baptism – Conversation with Tibor Görföl

22 March 2025 Communion
I get quickly bored by attempts to just condemn the contemporary world, or to proclaim that it's gone off the rails. If we as Christians could only look out on the world with a bit more love, and I don't mean a feeling of lovey-dovey love, I don't mean being emotional or endlessly affirming, but looking out on the world and seeing it as a world that merits to be saved by grace. Continue reading

Conversation with Ulises Rodríguez

20 March 2025 La Encrucijada
What has the monastic tradition taught us about being human? Is contemplation in competition with rational enquiry? Continue reading

Desert Fathers 12

18 March 2025 Staying Put
Whether our lot today is struggle or rest is not all that important. What matters is to let God act as he sees fit and not to miss his visitation because, instead of being peacefully present in our cell, our tent of meeting, we are out and about, driving downtown distributing questionnaires on the spiritual life to passers-by. Continue reading

Desert Fathers 11

11 March 2025 Flee, and Be Saved!
If I am very good at something, and recognised by others as being good, I am tempted to define myself in terms of this gift. The gift is a blessing; but once I display it as a possession in search of admiration or power it may exercise corrupting influence - it takes purity of heart to negotiate great talent. Continue reading

Conversation with Paula Gooder

4 March 2025
Our wounds will finally heal when they have become so one with Christ’s, so fully surrendered, that we no longer know where his passion ends and ours begins. Continue reading

Desert Fathers 10

4 March 2025 Peace
After a brief period of enjoying a sense of peace, the rumbling within begins. We realise what masses of noisy junk we carry, what unresolved tensions born of anger, jealousy, desire, anxiety, greed, all those movements of the heart the Fathers referred to as ‘passions’. Continue reading

Desert Fathers 9

25 February 2025 Singing with the Angels
Let us beware of coveting our neighbour’s call. Let us instead wholeheartedly consider, embrace, and be faithful to our own. Continue reading

Conversation with Roberto de la Iglesia Pérez

25 February 2025
Within the mystery of the Church, we dare to believe that a Christian life truly given may, by God’ s providence, be an effective balm on the wounds of the poor of our world, who are given us to carry and nurture. Continue reading

Conversation with Monica Mondo

18 February 2025 Soul TV2000
In the Book of Daniel, the prophet is referred to as vir desideriorum, a man of desires. This image has always represented the archetype of the monk; it is not less the archetype of the apostles, and of every Christian. Continue reading

Desert Fathers 8

18 February 2025 What Defines a Christian
The Fathers never forgot that the finality of human life is participation in God’s loving nature. That is why their words, even when they are stern, are light, and full of light. Continue reading

Desert Fathers 7

11 February 2025 Take Up Your Cross
The test of Christian authenticity is always relational. Rid yourself of the habit of judging others, therefore, for who are you to know what moves them or the change of which they are capable? Continue reading

Conversation with Alessandro Sortino

6 February 2025
Don Luigi Giussani, a priest of Milan, was one of the twentieth century's great teachers and preachers of Catholic faith, ever clear in his allegiance to the Church, ever committed to making Catholic doctrine comprehensible, applying it with originality and passion to the predicaments, hopes, and anxieties of our times. Continue reading

Desert Fathers 6

4 February 2025 Pursuit of Perfection
The Fathers would all have felt deeply offended, had it been suggested to them that they were saying something original. Their concern was to point towards Christ, to be roadsigns, which, when we travel, we acknowledge gratefully but then pass beyond, our eyes set on our destination. Continue reading

Desert Fathers 5

28 January 2025 Q&A
Grace builds on nature, and God knows who you are, and also knows what will serve your flourishing and will enable you to render the most effective service. So, pray, listen, watch, and follow. Continue reading

Desert Fathers 4

21 January 2025 Antony - a Strength to Others
Temptations have their usefulness; in them the gold of authenticity is purified. Only, we must consent to the melting-off of dross. Continue reading

Desert Fathers 3

15 January 2025 Become Who You Are
In St Antony the life of God was palpably present. This presence revealed man in his natural state, which we are all called to reach. Continue reading