Caption: Images and facts of Jim Quillen displayed at Alcatraz. “Before man are life and death, good and evil" (Sirach 15:17). These words reminded me of the “artwork” displayed at Alcatraz. The artwork displayed towards the end of the prison tour is not exactly in the style of the great Renaissance or Baroque period. Rather, it is the artwork of God in the life of prisoner Jim Quillen. The display at Alcatraz explains that, due to his difficult childhood, Jim Quillen became a “habitual...

Icon of Bishop Lambert created by Cecilia Lawrence for LHC-LA. Our congregation, the Lovers of the Holy Cross of Los Angeles, commissioned Cecilia Lawrence to create an icon of our founder, Bishop Pierre Lambert de la Motte, a 17th-century French Bishop.  To break with the patronage system, which had bound missionaries to a particular country, the Holy See sent him as the first Apostolic Vicar to the Far East to evangelize.  The crucifix, which he holds in one hand, and the bishop’s staff in...

The second reading for the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time , 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 , reminds me of a reflection given by Erin Obrien on The Chair of Hope . I came across the chair and her reflection as I strolled through the Spanish Village Art Center at San Diego’s Balboa Park. In her reflection, she explains that the “battered chair was abandoned”. After seeing it for some days, she decided “to pour love and attention into the chair.” As I read her words, I thought about how God sees us in...