Brad Bursa

Reflections on Brood XIV and my humanity. Around the time one of our kids turn two, I’ll start to have him or her join me for weekly lawn mowing ritual. This summer, Blaise is two. So he’s the one now perched on my lap. I realize in our sterile, sanitized suburban neighborhood, I’m sure the…

A Meditation on John 1:35–39 “It was about four in the afternoon” (Jn 1:39). This is my favorite line in all of Scripture. It is a line that tells the time. You ask: “Why? Why is it your favorite?” I was hoping you would inquire. Let’s look at the full passage: The next day John…

Why I write anyway. As a little boy, I’d wake up and slip downstairs. If I was first, I’d tiptoe across the creaky living room floor in route to the front door. From there, I could peer out the narrow glass pane and catch sight of the daily newspaper. If it was damp outside, the…

Practical Wisdom (Part IV) I struggle to pray the Liturgy of the Hours. My mind drifts and I become robotic, lifeless. Recently, I shared this with a Benedictine monk and asked for advice in response St. Benedict’s call for our minds to be in harmony with our voices as we pray the Divine Office (see…

A Brief Catechesis on CCC, §§355–384 Note: This is a slightly modified catechesis I wrote for the Stella Maris Become Catholic program. What does it mean that human beings are made in God’s “image and likeness?” We are dealing, here, with a question of anthropology. Who are we as human beings? What is a human…

No space between load and limit = no time for divine appointments. “I have no margin.” The thought flickered through my mind. Ironically, I was rushing through John Mark Comer’s The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry when I came across this passage: It’s been said that margin is “the space between our load and our limits.”…

Considerations on the Topic by Ratzinger, Pieper, Baars, and Schmemann Prefatory Note: In a previous post, I announced that I was beginning a year-long effort to articulate the gospel according to Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI. This is the third installment in that series. The Gospel supposedly brings joy, but what is joy, anyway? What does this…

A Brief Catechesis on CCC, §§232-237, 268-274 Note: This is a slightly modified catechesis I wrote for the Stella Maris Become Catholic program. “Daddy, throw this ball up to the moon.” My three-year-old daughter didn’t ask me to do this. She told me to do it. For her, at least at a certain point in…

Some Principles from Luigi Giussani on Authentic Education In his 1973 TV short “There’s No Time for Love, Charlie Brown,” Charles Schultz issued one of my favorite critiques of contemporary, utilitarian education: Linus: What’s wrong, Charlie Brown? Charlie Brown: I just got terrible news. The teacher says we’re going on a field trip to an…

Apparently, there’s no such thing as sin anymore. I needed to fact-check a couple of points in my Ignatian Examen handout. Rather than head down to my office to get my tattered and taped Louis J. Puhl, S.J. 1951 edition of The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, I thought I could do a quick Google…