Recent Stories
JAMES BEHRENS: Enjoy the little things in life because they are the most important
Miles after miles of highways zig-zag, crisscross, twist and overlap all across our country. I suppose that someone has figured out a rough estimate of how many miles they all add up to.. Along all those miles are billboards that advertise everything from restaurants to funeral homes. The letters
JAMES BEHRENS: Everything finds its meaning in the cross
The basement of our retreat house has been unused for many years. I venture down there every now and then.. There are many remnants of the days when that area saw more use. There is a washing machine and a dryer. There are shelves on which are arrayed pipes, plumbing
JAMES BEHRENS: Neighborhood shopping district offered an idyllic setting for childhood
The place was called Watchung Plaza. It was a cluster of stores not far from the street where I used to live. We were kids and used to hang there a lot in our high school days.
JAMES BEHRENS: God created us to love from our weakness and unfinished hearts, lives
The writing of papers in graduate school did not come easily to me. In fact, those first forays into graduate level writing were torture.I struggled with trying to put on paper an intelligent and flowing pattern of words that made sense out of piles of primary and secondary source materials. I wanted the footnotes and quotes to fit into the text as neatly and beautifully as pearls in oysters.
JAMES BEHRENS: Peace will come, it is the hope of God's promise
"Helluva Town," published by Powerhouse Books, New York, is a collection of black and white photographs taken by Vivian Cherry in the 1940s and '50s. All of the pictures were taken in New York City.
JAMES BEHRENS: We all know the allure of the resistance to God
A friend of mine wrote to me recently; the letter arrived a few days ago. She writes of many things, among them the family gathering at Christmas, sending Christmas cards, a novel she has finished writing.
JAMES BEHRENS: On New Year's Eve, our hearts brim with goodness, hope for the future
New Year's Eves are always quiet here at the monastery. I do not know of any monks who stay up through midnight. If there are, they welcome the New Year unnoticed.. Most of us are long asleep by the time the New Year rolls into town.
JAMES BEHRENS: The love, goodness of people shine like a light on a dark road
The Hanley family lived in Jersey City. I met them only once, while taking a parish census.. I was young then, in my mid-20s. The parish was very large -- thousands of family. I was not yet ordained a priest and part of my duties was going from house
JAMES BEHRENS: God shines through the lull of our lives in poetry, song, Christmas magic
Many of us have difficulty when it comes to expressing what we feel. We seem to do fine when it comes to talking about everyday things like the weather, or sports -- the kind of discourse that is just enough to get us through a day or under an umbrella.
JAMES BEHRENS: Advent offers an array of scriptural stories that reveal the scope of human desire
The wish for something or someone begins as soon as we enter this life and does not cease until the moment we breathe our last breath. It is desire. It burns within us all of our lives and, who knows, it may well enflame the ethereal stuff of our spirits