Fr. Samuel Keyes

April 5, 2026 Many parents of young children get tired of hearing “they grow up so fast,” or worse, “treasure every moment,” those sentimental comments from well-meaning folks piling fuel onto the fires of parental anxiety. I know I hated hearing those things in the early years of our family. Maybe I’m just not a very nice person. But this sentimentality has a certain truthfulness that takes on a harder edge as we all get older, which is less about savoring the moment — something almost...

April 3, 2026 In one section of C.S. Lewis’ wonderful little book, The Screwtape Letters, the demonic mentor provides ample suggestions for how to distract the “patient” in prayer. On the one hand, a good tempter might push the patient towards a sort of abstract prayerful attitude in which bodily posture matters not; this is very effective because it “bears a superficial resemblance to the prayer of silence as practiced by those who are very far advanced in the Enemy's service,” so “clever...

April 2, 2026 The burning bush at Mount Sinai is unlikely to be on the mind for most this Holy Thursday, but it lurks in the background. The most direct narrative connection comes from our first reading, the institution of the Passover, intended in the Church’s wisdom to parallel the institution of the Eucharist as a new and more perfect Passover. The Passover is the culmination of that relationship with Moses begun on Sinai, and which eventually returns to Sinai for the giving of the Law. In...