Jim Mayzik SJ Blog

Santa's Delusion

The story of a rodent's unrelenting quest for happiness and fulfillment.

This is the story of a man named Bobby, who works at the Con Ed plant over on 14th Street.  It's a story especially for this week of Thanksgiving, but it goes way beyond the holiday.

One man's search for joy has culminated in a constant experience of rhythm in the world around him.

Over the river, and through the wood,
to Grandfather's house we go;
the horse knows the way to carry the sleigh
through the white and drifted snow...

It was a lovely Saturday, and I was walking north along the East River towards the UN, past the Water Club and Bellvue and NYU hospitals and the helicopters landing beside the FDR Drive. 

Where else would you want to live?

By purest chance I was out on our street when the kindergarten bus rumbled past going slow and I looked up just as all seven kids on my side of the bus looked at me and I grinned and they lit up and all this crap about God being dead and where is God and who owns God and who...

“I’m not looking forward to getting back tonight,” Fr Austin said to me yesterday morning.  He was celebrating a wedding in Connecticut yesterday afternoon . “Not looking forward to coming back to Epiphany?” I said. 

One minute I’m meandering down
a country road on a magnificent fall day,
lost in thought, radio playing,
and the next minute I feel my wheels...

In the comments section of a YouTube video called "Can video games be a spiritual experience, user 00WARTHERAPY00 told this story.

A couple of years ago I was seated at a table in a diner with some friends, and a couple of nuns walked in and they were seated a few tables away.   It was like going back in time: they were dressed in full habit, their hair completely covered with the wimple and veil, yards and layers of black and white material covering every piece of skin but for their faces. 

Tuesday, November 7, 2017, is election day across America. Because of our places along the spectrum of American voters, Catholics again have a pivotal role to play in these elections. How should we vote?

There is so much to feel guilty about nowadays, when you think about it. Sure, we all care about the environment, but honestly, don't you just want to toss all the junk in the same waste bin, sometimes? What if there was a simple service that got your back covered, on a monthly direct debit plan?

Asks a moppet of perhaps eight years old, in a class hat was supposed to be religious but which soared much deeper than traditional caper and frippery. I know what I am supposed to say, being the teacher, I am supposed to use words like god and heaven and Peace and light. But I find that I cannot just bloviate...

I have been waiting, impatiently, for Fall to arrive. This hot, humid weather of the last month has been annoying. The New York Times recently suggested that maybe we need a fifth season, not autumn, but something called "hotumn".

William Cromartie is a BART station agent who finds meaning through the simple act of greeting commuters.

the worst celebrities often support the most noble causes...

Some of my colleagues hope that many of those young people who have been raised Catholic but have fallen away from the church will return when it is time to get married. I am not so sure. According to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, in 1990 there were 10 million people who referred to themselves as “former Catholics.” Last year, that number was more than 30 million. As for returning when it is time to get married? Well, those numbers do not look great either. There were 326,079 weddings in the church in 1990. In 2016, the number fell to just 145,916.

Some years ago I was living in Florence Italy, running a study-abroad program for Georgetown University, and a wealthy Italian trustee of the program handed me a a round piece of crude metal.  “I thought you might be interested in seeing this,” he said.