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3 weeks ago | 
ncronline.org | Mickey McGrath |Michael Sean Winters |Efran Menny
Members of the Mixed African Choir of St. Augustine-Our Lady of Victory Parish in the Bronx, N.Y., sing during the annual Black History Month Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York Feb. 5, 2017. (CNS/Gregory A. Shemitz) Last summer, I was invited by the director of the Texas Southern University's Catholic Newman Center to experience a concert of the Psalms with a gospel influence. They sang plenty of songs I had heard at Mass over the years, but their renditions were soul-stirring.
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3 weeks ago | 
ncronline.org | Christopher White |Mickey McGrath |Michael Sean Winters
In 1990, as Argentina's Jesuits were divided over the church's role in the country's politics and society, frustration with the future Pope Francis' leadership style resulted in his two-year exile in Cordoba. Then-Fr. Jorge Mario Bergoglio used his solitary time in a Jesuit residence to pray, write and read — including a five-volume series on the history of the papacy. Francis later would describe his "dark night of the soul" as a "time of purification" for his inner life.
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3 weeks ago | 
ncronline.org | Mickey McGrath |Michael Sean Winters
Br. Mickey McGrath shares sketches and stories from trips to Guatemala and Kenya, where he met people who have benefited from the programs and ministries of Catholic Relief Services. Francesca, drawn here in her home in Kenya, prays Psalm 121 every morning. (Mickey McGrath) In 2017 I was invited on a sketching tour of Guatemala with a small group of Americans to observe some of the educational services operated by Catholic Relief Services, or CRS.
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Nov 3, 2024 | 
catholicstarherald.org | Mickey McGrath
Two weeks ago, after months of wondering about the possibility and anxiously anticipating the moment, I was at long last permitted a 45-minute opportunity to sketch at the Synod in Rome.
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Sep 12, 2024 | 
catholicstarherald.org | Mickey McGrath
I love sketching from choir lofts, and over the years, I have climbed up more than a few narrow staircases to do so. Because I have been blessed to have two Camden parishes to call home, I have observed many special Masses – both at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, where I have lived for 15 years, and at Sacred Heart Church, where I have worked in my studio.
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Aug 16, 2024 | 
ncronline.org | Mickey McGrath |Michael Sean Winters
Some of my favorite saints in heaven, as well as here on earth, were what Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance would call "childless cat ladies." In my mind and experience, some of the strongest, bravest, most talented and intelligent — and let's not forget overlooked, patronized and defamed — people in church history were women who were childless, unmarried and closely connected to cats.
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Aug 16, 2024 | 
ncronline.org | Michael Sean Winters |Mickey McGrath
Following are NCR reader responses to recent news articles, opinion columns and theological essays with letters that have been edited for length and clarity. Clergy: don't accept Busch's callAs Tom Roberts documents, Tim Busch has a track record of corrupting clergymen with flattery, wine and piles of money — with strings attached (ncronline.org, Aug. 13, 2024). His devotion to the Catholic faith as he understands it seems sincere.
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Aug 16, 2024 | 
ncronline.org | Michael Sean Winters |Mickey McGrath
A screenshot shows George Weigel's recently published essay at National Catholic Register, in which he calls for a "repurposing" of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. (NCR screenshot) George Weigel, keeper of the flame for St. Pope John Paul II, was once an exemplar of a neoconservative approach to religion and politics that many of us thought was misguided or wrong, but which at least engaged in serious discussion about serious issues.
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May 10, 2024 | 
ncronline.org | Mickey McGrath |Valentine Benjamin
I was blessed in 2017 with a life-changing opportunity to travel to Guatemala with Catholic Relief Services and do nothing but sketch. I was only there for one week with a handful of other American observers, but what a life changing week it was.
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Jan 6, 2024 | 
ncronline.org | Mickey McGrath
"Airports become giant monastic cells where I can read, draw and mind my own business: the business of lectio divina and visio divina rolled into one happy hour of prayerful present moment bliss," writes Oblate of St. Francis de Sales Br. Mickey McGrath. Here is a detail of one of his sketches. (Mickey McGrath) As someone who travels often for work, I spend a lot of time in airports waiting for early morning flights.
