By Barbara Falconer Newhall Yes. That’s me with the Pope. OK, he’s cardboard. But I’m real. The cardboard Pope and I were
My Rocky Spiritual Journey
You don't have to be a big believer to find something interesting to read here . . . You'll find excerpts from the spiritual journeys of people I've met on the religion beat as well as reports of my own fraught encounters with religion and spirituality . . . as well as updates on my book, "Wrestling with God: Stories of Doubt and Faith," from Patheos Press.
Book Openers: Why Are All Those Catholics – So Darned Catholic?
What is at the heart of Catholicism? What makes all those Catholics so tenaciously Catholic? The Rev. Robert Barron would say – the Incarnation. Read more.
The Hagia Sophia: Where Christianity and Islam Coexist — and Clash
As an American Christian, I’d never known how it feels to have my faith’s most cherished symbols obliterated by a colonizing force. Until I entered the Hagia Sophia. Read more.
The Trouble With Daffodils — and My Writing
The trouble with daffodils is they have no subtext. They are all cheer and sparkle and optimism. They are avatars of perky. They get on my nerves. Read more.
Beauty Is in the Eye of the Beholder – But What If There’s No Beholder?
A flowering tree grows hidden in the canyon below our house. If no one sees it bloom, is it beautiful? Without a beholder, can there be beauty? Read more.
A Case of the Human Condition: The Center of the Universe? It’s a Little Beach in Michigan, of Course
If I were drawing a map of the world, its center would be the little beach in Michigan where the Bass Lake outlet flows into the great, blue Lake Michigan. Read more.
A Case of the Human Condition: Build a Wind Farm — Wreck Lake Michigan
I saw the map and burst into tears. It broke my heart. Windmills, a hundred square miles of them, are being proposed for Lake Michigan – a couple miles off shore. In the lake. Beautiful, serene, life-giving Lake Michigan. Read more.