Thank God, Pope Leo is Still With Us!

After further tests, Pope Leo XIV’s doctors have determined that the cancerous tumor they found and removed from his left lung was local. The cancer has not spread, and he will require no further treatment. Thanks be to God!

I think we need his prophetic voice to help us remember God’s love, and to help guide us through these times of “epochal change” that are so difficult to understand and endure, so full of danger but also of possibility. We are living through what Luigi Giussani has called “the time of the person.” The great challenge in these days of the colossal expansion of human power is to place the human person at the center of all our efforts to organize and improve society, and to live a genuine fraternal unity that is enriched by the differences among peoples. This involves the new way of seeing reality that is engendered by our seeking and finding God as He has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ. Here it becomes clear that we belong to something greater that we could ever come up with on our own — even in our most noble and sincere ideals of “doing good.” 

The wonderful fact is that God has loved us first, and this love constitutes the dynamic existential situation in which the vocation and the drama of every human person unfold. The multitudes of people who do not yet know Jesus through the fullness of an encounter with Him in the communion of the Church are nevertheless on a human journey that leads necessarily and ultimately to Jesus (even if we Christians do not comprehend “how?” … and yet we are still called to live, everywhere, as witnesses of His love).

Here is an excerpt from the Pope’s reflection on today’s Gospel:

“‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind’ (Matthew 22:37; cf. Deut 6:5). Christ places love at the very center of our relationship with God. Indeed, it is not enough to know that God exists, that he is the only God, or that he is the Almighty. The Lord seeks a personal relationship with us: the one true God wants to become our God.

“In our encounter with him, the commandment of love is neither an obligation nor an imposition. Indeed, one cannot love ‘on command.’ Love for God is the very essence of human desire, which finds its fulfillment in communion with him. For this reason, our love can be authentic only when it is a response to his love, which always precedes us. From this arises the need for a total commitment that involves the whole person: heart, soul and mind.

“To the first commandment, the Lord adds a second: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’ (Mt 22:39). This rule of life springs from the same source; that is why Jesus says that it is similar to the first. Thanks to our close relationship with God, we are able to look at ourselves and our neighbors through the eyes of Christ, from his perspective. In this way, selfishness is overcome and even love for oneself becomes charity: our existence turns toward the other and becomes a gift for those around us.”

John Paul II: “Let Christ Speak to Man”

OCTOBER 22: SAINT JOHN PAUL II:

“So often today man does not know what is within him, in the depths of his mind and heart. So often he is uncertain about the meaning of his life on this earth. He is assailed by doubt, a doubt which turns into despair. We ask you therefore, we beg you with humility and trust, let Christ speak to man. He alone has words of life, yes, of eternal life” (October 22, 1978).

JJ’s “Abstract Autumn” for 2026

These are all rather absurd, but I am still going to post them. It’s JJ’s “Abstract Autumn” collection for 2026 (let’s call them nn. 4, 3, 2, and 1). Soon, nature’s real colors will be on full display. Until then, I shall take the liberty of presenting these imaginative creations made of old photos, digital technology, and my own idiosyncratic musings:

A “Different Measure” For Life

It hasn’t been an easy week. I have been under-the-weather more than usual these days; really, I need a different metaphor, like swinging-from-the-yo-yo-of-the-weather (with temperatures going from 80 degrees to 50 degrees to 80 degrees to 35 degrees, from shorts to sweaters, from blankets to air-conditioning to heat). But worse by far is the frozen-cold cynicism that seems to be trying to creep into my heart.

Of course, mood plays a big part. So does getting older. I see more and more the vanity and futility of so many preoccupations and expectations, not to mention all the malice, violence, and stupidity in the world and in myself: horrible wars, stupid politics, thoughtless words, futile complaints, reckless scheming, ingratitude, childishness, the paralysis of boredom. 

Sometimes when I think of my own life and the times I have lived through, it all seems so insignificant and insipid and shrunken. I cannot resolve by any of my own philosophical words the disappointments and sorrows of my own life, much less the terrible suffering that weighs down so many people in our poor world.

But we have just had three saints’ days that point to a “different measure” for life: Teresa of Avila (October 15), persistent reformer and astonishing, intimate friend of Jesus; Margaret Mary Alacoque (October 16), prophetic witness to the Sacred Heart of Jesus; and then casting back 1900 years to Ignatius of Antioch, so attentive to the early Christian communities even while focused on being conformed to Jesus by the teeth of the wild beasts who would devour him in the Roman arena.

Jesus always brings this “different measure” of God’s gaze upon our life.

The love of God is not narrow and fickle like our own ways of loving. God’s love comes through the Cross. God’s love “pours out” undaunted by the chaos of all our sins, beyond the distance we make by trying to run away, crying out to us beyond our loneliness, enduring beyond all our agony so as to remain with us, preparing us for forgiveness and unimagined change-of-heart, healing, and renewal.

Prayer is the Summit of Human Dignity

The summit of human creaturely existence is prayer. It is prayer in the most basic sense: as a plea for the Mystery to have regard for the created person, to show something to humans that will amplify their destiny, that will direct them on the road that their knowledge and love must take on this seemingly limitless journey toward the Infinite.

In itself, the plea need not be desperate, but it is ardent — full of genuine desire. It proceeds not from any essential imperfection or defect in the structure of the created person, but precisely from a personal fullness that is drawn into the ecstasy of self-giving and a more profound receptivity. It is the plea of created love for a word from Uncreated Love. It is, as St. Augustine indicates, an “emptiness” superior to any finite fullness, a longing for the Infinite that is in itself sweeter and more satisfying than the possession of all finite things. It waits upon the freedom of God. 

This waiting shapes the attitude of human beings toward life and suffuses all of their activity to the degree that they recognizes the mysterious truth that things in the world and even other created persons — with all of their charm, beauty, intricacy, and diverse riches and with all of their disappointing limits — are signs that point beyond themselves to the Infinite Beauty and Inexhaustible Fullness Who is their source. 

Thus for the mature human person, for the wise person, an attitude of prayer, of poverty of spirit, of “waiting upon the Lord” radically defines the way he or she faces the whole of life even down to its humblest details. Every reality, for created persons, awakens, sustains, and deepens their fascination and reverence for the Divine Mystery and places them before that Mystery with open hands, with readiness to receive any Divine gift. 

This is the summit of human dignity: to wait upon the Lord.

~excerpt from The Created Person and the Mystery of God (First Books, 2003) by John Janaro. Available here.

Pope Leo: “The Daily Courage of Charity”

As our beloved Holy Father Pope Leo XIV undergoes surgery today, I pray for his health and in gratitude for his continuing prophetic witness to the redeeming love of Jesus Christ and the “magnificent humanity” of every person. 

[UPDATE: The surgically removed lung "nodule" tested positive for cancer (as doctors expected in light of prior tests). This establishes the diagnosis of adenocarcinoma, but its prompt and thorough removal indicates an "excellent" prognosis for a full recovery. Plans for possible further treatment are not as yet known. Let's keep praying!]

These recent words posted below express some of the facets of Pope Leo's encouraging and much-needed message for our times (and for all times):

Fall-ISH

I guess this could be called the “Fall-ISH” time of year. Our part of Virginia is not yet “awash in color.” Yesterday was awash with rain and cooler temperatures, although the sun came out today. Of course, maple leaves tend to stay green longer than leaves from most other trees, and we have lots of them here.

We are well into the seasonal shift, which brings lovely weather but, alas, shorter days (in terms of daylight). And my bones and joints get extra “cranky” on rainy days.

Praying For the Pope's Health

At the conclusion of today’s Angelus, Pope Leo informed his Rome audience — and the world — of a health concern that recently arose during a routine “physical.” It is indeed a concern and it would be good for all of us to pray for him. At the present moment, however, it probably doesn’t represent an imminent health crisis. It’s still important for us to pray for Pope Leo to recover fully and continue to serve as the successor of Saint Peter in the Church (and for the world, which is full of so many who suffer and seek understanding).

Here are the Pope’s own words: “Dear friends, during some recent medical examinations, the doctors found a small, localized nodule in my lung. It was detected at a very early stage and is well-localized. The doctors believe that it is best to intervene, so, following their advice, I have decided to undergo surgery to remove it. The operation is already scheduled to take place in the coming days. I thank you for your spiritual closeness and entrust myself to your prayers.”

I’m praying, and I will do my best to be “spiritually close,” realizing as I do the mysterious but profoundly real, “human” connection it entails. I hope (with some reason) to be one of about eight billion people who are praying.

I was going to post a quotation from Leo’s address to a group of diplomats in Paris recently during the Pope’s remarkable and hopeful pilgrimage to France. I’m going to post it anyway:

Newman: The Path to Rome

October 9: John Henry Newman, Priest and Doctor of the Church (1801-1890).

The account of Saint John Henry Newman’s dramatic decision to enter the Roman Catholic Church in 1845 forms a great piece of nineteenth century English history. Newman himself gives much account of his great conversion story, above all in his Apologia Pro Vita Sua. The stature of the man, his monumental intellect, and his radical courage in becoming Catholic might lead us to think that he was an isolated man. In fact, Newman’s courage was supported by a group of younger friends who accompanied him into the Church.

When Newman was 15 years old he experienced a profound personal encounter with Christ that was decisive for his whole life, a conversion experience which was at the root of his lifelong adherence to Christ. He has described it as an inward gift of insight that was in a sense “solitary” – an awareness of the decisive importance of the relationship between God and his own soul. Then Newman began his long and famous journey from evangelical (Calvinist) Christianity to the Oxford Movement (which sought to rediscover and reestablish the apostolic roots of the Anglican Church) to his ultimate conviction that the Church of England had separated itself from the fullness of the Catholic Church.

Newman’s motives for conversion to the Catholic Church were clearly rooted in the depths of his own conscience, as well as in a long historic and doctrinal investigation and a difficult period of personal spiritual growth. In his struggle against doctrinal relativism in the Anglican church, he had allies and companions within the vigorous Oxford Movement, but his decision to join the Roman Catholic Church seemed almost to be a lonely leap in the dark. This was part of the special heroism of Newman’s conversion. In correspondence from the critical years 1839-1845, Newman made it clear that he felt the Church of Rome to be foreign to his sensibilities, that he saw no place for his talents within it, and that he did not “like” what he knew of its ways and manners. He was English from head to toe, and leaving the English church meant losing friends and losing an influential position at Oxford where he seemed to be doing so much good.

Still, Newman was not without the witness and companionship of others in his own conversion. When the Catholic question led him to withdraw from Anglican ministry in 1842 and retire to the village of Littlemore, he did not go alone. He gathered a small group of younger men into a kind of community of prayer and study, among whom were John Dalgairns, Richard Stanton, E. S. Bowles, and Ambrose St. John. These men were all fascinated by Catholicism, and Newman initially tried to hold them back from making a rash decision. But once Dalgairns took the step on September 27, 1845, the others followed: Newman’s beloved lifelong friend Ambrose St. John on October 2, and then Newman himself with Stanton and Bowles on October 9. All four would become Oratorian priests and would support one another over the years in opening up “the Catholic way” in England for many who would follow over the next century and a half.

For all his great probity and profound interiority, Newman could not travel the path to Rome by himself. He needed these companions, these brothers with whom he shared a common vocation, these friends to help him take the great step into the fullness of Catholic faith.

The Rosary and the "Rhythm" of Life

Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary:

"To pray the Rosary is to hand over our burdens to the merciful hearts of Christ and his Mother... The Rosary does indeed 'mark the rhythm of human life,' bringing it into harmony with the 'rhythm' of God's own life, in the joyful communion of the Holy Trinity, our life's destiny and deepest longing" (Saint John Paul II).

After 800 Years, Saint Francis Still Draws Us to Assisi

On this 800th anniversary of the death of Saint Francis, my own thoughts were drawn back 30 years, to the precious visit to Assisi that Eileen and I made during our honeymoon. Back in the summer of 1996, we spent several weeks in Italy. It was a time to celebrate our marriage, to make a pilgrimage together and to revisit together places we had lived before (individually and in different years). We also visited friends and had adventures exploring and appreciating the art, architecture, and history of that ancient Mediterranean peninsula. I kept a journal during this time, as I often did in the days when I used to travel (and I’m so grateful to have had the physical energy and capacity to explore many places in my youth). As this was our honeymoon, parts of this 1996 journal are personal, but there are also many pages of my observations and thoughts on the environments we experienced together. 

I thought I would reproduce here a few excerpts from the journal that express the powerful impression Assisi made on me. It was striking and almost tangible how the events of the life and death of Saint Francis have shaped Assisi as a place. These excerpts from my notes of 30 years ago might clarify further what I mean. Assisi has a unique quality that resonates everywhere with the extraordinary witness and conformity to Christ of Saint Francis.

“After a week and a half in Rome, we left early on this morning [July 7] for a new destination in our pilgrimage — Assisi. As the train climbed into the Umbrian hills, we immediately sensed the change in atmosphere. We were leaving the chaos, the noise, and the contradictions (as well as the spiritual and historical vastness) of Rome, and entering into a place of quiet and simplicity of focus. 

“Rome is the second greatest place of pilgrimage in all the world (second only to Jerusalem and the Holy Places), but it is also many other things: tourist center, historical, archeological, and artistic center, economic and political center, and now also — in our own time — immigration center. The proportions of Rome are everywhere huge — supernatural grandeur, human grandeur, but also “splendid vices” and — today especially — ever enlarging tunnels of physical and personal misery. 

“Assisi is something markedly different. Assisi is a place of pilgrimage... and nothing else. 

“The first thing that struck me in the train station (and that continued to strike me throughout the visit) is that everyone visits Assisi as a pilgrim. This does not mean that everyone knows why they have come here. But the whole of Assisi is centered upon one thing, and everyone comes here on account of that one thing. That ‘one thing’ is a man. One man who lived 800 years ago. One human being who fascinates everyone. 

“Indeed, every saint generates fascination; it is of the nature of a saint to fascinate (because holiness is inescapably true and good and beautiful). But Francis seems to fascinate like no one else. His life remains a kind of “icon” of Christ and an “icon” of the human vocation in its purest and most transparent form — which is simply to love, to love "without measure," to love "madly" — indeed to love without measure because the Beloved is immeasurable, to love madly because the Beloved is good and beautiful beyond every limit of human calculation.

“We went up the hill from the train station (in a bus) to the Basilica of San Francesco, where we attended the high Mass and then visited the crypt. Here there is the tomb of Saint Francis, surrounded by the tombs of his first and most beloved brothers. I was struck by the power and the palpability of the affection of this most extraordinary companionship. Above all, however, I was amazed by the pilgrims. They prayed at the tomb, kissed the ground in front of it, and pressed their heads against the grating in order to draw closer, as though they could perhaps rest their heads in the bosom of Francis. Nowhere did I see mere curiosity. Hearts were exposed here; the unfathomable human desire was wrestling its way toward the surface of those faces that crowded around Saint Francis in the tiny crypt.

“Later, we went back to the upper church in the Basilica to marvel at the magnificent frescoes of Giotto portraying the life of Saint Francis. We were helped significantly by our guide book, but I was helped most of all by Eileen's deep spiritual attunement to the work of Giotto. It was incredible to think that these were painted within living memory of Saint Francis. All of the painting in the Basilica radiates the glory of the events themselves; it emerges from an immersion into the actual experience that had been generated by the grace of the Holy Spirit around Saint Francis and his original followers. This is perhaps the secret to the transcendent humanism of Giotto's figures; this is why they are so humanly real and so iconic at the same time.

“In the afternoon we strolled all around the town. Or, rather, at times we strolled and at other times we hiked. Everywhere there were beautiful vistas, hidden strade that wound thru little nooks between the buildings, and a pervasive sense of peace. We had a few moments in Saint Clare's church, and we watched the sun set behind the hills, the capolace, and the bell towers of Assisi from the heights of the Piazza Santa Chiara.

“The next day we visited Santa Maria Degli Angeli. This grand 17th century Basilica was built to surround and enshrine the Portincina chapel. In the early 1200's, this tiny chapel was all by itself in the woods outside the city. Francis loved to come here to pray; and later he came with his first friends to live. Finally, he came here to die — another chapel in the modern basilica marks the place (which had been the infirmary of the Franciscan brotherhood) where Francis died. In the painting, his disciples are kissing the holy wounds.

“There was something about Assisi that made us feel like we could stay there for the rest of our lives.”

Grateful For My Years With “Magnificat”

I want to thank Father Philip Nolan, the current editor of Magnificat, for his kind acknowledgment for my work over the past dozen-or-so years writing my monthly column “Great Conversion Stories.” I did indeed write 153 articles, and there are probably not many people who have read them all. I plan to make the whole “collection” available in some kind of easily accessible format (like a print book and/or ebook).

Meanwhile, I shall continue to write here on this BLOG and continue to experiment with other forms of “creative content” in the measure that my health permits. I’m also hoping to give more consistent attention to my larger and ongoing research projects (East Asia Studies, Media Studies, Giussani Studies) wherein I have learned much even though I have (so far) only published a few things. 

I will communicate as much as I can regarding numerous important themes, asking the Lord to give me wisdom, strength, and opportunities according to His plan for my vocation in this life — a plan that is mysterious, full of surprises, and always GOOD.

Saint Thérèse…

Saint Michael, Defend the Ukrainian People!

Saint Michael the Archangel is the patron saint of Kyiv, Ukraine. This is a picture of his statue in Maidan Plaza. On his feast day, all those who love Ukraine should ask him to intercede with God to bring an end to the daily, brutal, relentless bombing by Russian drones and ballistic missiles of Kyiv and many other cities in Ukraine. 

Putinist Russia continues its four-and-a-half year barbaric assault on Ukraine in its effort to conquer Ukrainian territory and break the spirits and the bodies of the Ukrainian people. The terror-bombing of Kyiv has reached unprecedented levels, and no one in the city feels safe. No one knows where the next bomb will fall, resulting in immense physical and psychological suffering for the afflicted civilian population.

Putin’s war machine continues to inflict various ruthless crimes on people throughout the country who have been run over by his uncompromising “special military operation.” Most recently, Russian forces are executing a total blockade on the remaining 2000 residents in the town of Oleshky in Kherson. Denied all access to necessary resources, these people have begun to eat the grass for lack of food. This is “hunger-murder” in progress, once again, in the 21st century. Murder by starvation. Ukrainians have been subjected to this crime before. It remains an abominable crime against innocent human beings.

Saint Michael, pray for an end to this horrific invasion, for the conversion of those who perpetrate it, and for the turning of all hearts to the love of God, and toward peace, justice, healing, and constructive dialogue that respects internationally recognized boundaries and international law. Pray for the peoples of the world to recognize and appreciate one another, and to live as brothers and sisters. Pray for the afflicted Ukrainian people.

Here is the recent post from the Primate of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk:

Avril Lavigne, Where Are You?

Now turning to that other September 27th birthday, I suppose I should join the global fandom that was everywhere on my social media feeds yesterday wishing a Happy Birthday to the legendary singer-songwriter and rock star Avril Lavigne. Indeed, Happy Birthday Avril!

But I can’t help asking the question that I’m surprised no one else seems to be asking, and that is “Where are you, Avril?” It’s hard to ignore the fact that nothing has been seen or heard from her since November 2025. All of her social media accounts are still up, frozen with last year’s posts. Maybe she’s taking a break (?) — which would make me happy. Avril turned 42 yesterday, and it wouldn’t hurt her to take some time to reflect and … y’know … GROW UP a bit. And also continue to branch out artistically. Avril has shown that she has the chops to take her music in new directions, and she seems to want that creative freedom. If that accounts for her recent absence, then that’s great. But somehow it doesn’t seem that way. It’s a bit odd, in light of her recent career trajectory which seemed “full-speed-ahead” until it froze suddenly last Fall.

Oh, the celebrity life! The whole experience seems so dysfunctional … and yet I also watch the spectacle of “public people,” and have a sense of a “bond” with them that is not entirely illusory. They share themselves through their talents in our implosive “global village,” and their work enters into the experiences and memories of ordinary people. Some of them are just crazy-good at what they do, and audiovisual media bring them into our ordinary perception more and more, sometimes to our profound edification but usually with the ambivalence and confusion of the dominant secularized milieu and its increasingly shrinking and shallow sense of the dignity of the human person. 

As someone from the first generation that never knew a world without television, I know only too well this milieu and the discernment and care required to appreciate the artifices that arise within it. There is much to appreciate, much that is flawed but at least in certain respects aims for genuine goodness and creativity. But it can come at a high price, an “inhuman,” excessive price.

It makes me weep to see the real lives of celebrities horribly, suddenly, and publicly fall apart. I’m trying to understand this whole thing better, and bring it (and them) to the Lord in prayer. As I have mentioned before, I “spiritually adopt” some of these people and pray for them particularly and frequently.

With Avril, I have special reasons to be concerned, and to pray for her… a lot. And as a chronic worrier, I can’t help wondering, “What the heck is going on?”

Since her re-emergence onto the music scene in 2018 after battling Lyme Disease into remission, Avril had been quite visible releasing new music, doing collaborations, appearing at award ceremonies, popping in to the big Fashion Weeks in Paris, Milan, or New York, and posting on Instagram (or TikTok) consistently. Since 2022, she had toured over large parts of the world. After promoting her seventh album, she didn’t seem to want to slow down. In 2024, she released a “Greatest Hits” album, which only Avril Lavigne could get away with in the Age of Spotify (when we can all make our own “greatest hits playlists” for ourselves). She toured “Greatest Hits 2024” and “Greatest Hits 2025” in North America and Europe, causing a crowd-control crisis at the Glastonbury Festival in the U.K., selling out venues everywhere including Madison Square Garden, and having lots of success. Latin America and Asia were totally expecting a “Greatest Hits 2026.” But sometimes I looked at those Instagram concert videoclips and thought to myself, “Hmmm…, she looks… tired.” 

Of course, knowing Lyme Disease the way I do, I was a bit concerned. I hoped and prayed that she was taking care of herself. “Creative personalities” often don’t know how to turn down the intensity. The impulse to “overwork” comes with the experience of being an artist, along with lots of other problems of psychological balance. And there may be personal sources of stress we know nothing about.

Has Avril had a Lyme flare-up? Look, it does happen. Often we can “push” through it, if necessary. We develop a “bag of tricks” to keep going. “Taking a break” can be a very helpful trick. But for Avril, it’s been so long and so silent. No social media greeting for last Christmas, New Year’s, Valentines Day, Easter, Canada Day? She’s been pretty consistent on those things in the past. No public appearances anywhere, not even the Juno awards. No weird or goofy posts at all? Avril is a “ham,” so something’s not making sense here. 

We know she’s still alive. Apparently, she attended Taylor Swift’s big private wedding. Taylor Swift, along with basically every other woman in the past 20+ years of popular music, will cite Avril as one of her great inspirations. Also, I recently saw a picture going around that placed her at another recent celebrity party. Not sure it was even real.

But Avril has historically made a big deal about her birthday. Always shares pictures, gushes with gratitude to all the fans who post greetings, and tries out some new pose. Avril still has that unusual charisma that lets her get away with things that would seem ridiculous for other people. As of this belated date, however, there has been nothing from her on her 42nd birthday.

It’s unusual. I guess there are lots of possible explanations, including personal circumstances that are none of our business. I’m not interested in gossip. I just hope she’s okay.

The “Littlest Janaro” Turns ONE!

How lovely that Katie’s First Birthday fell on a Sunday. There was a big family turnout at our son’s house, with brunch and a cake. There were presents too, which Katie opened “with the help” of her older sisters. Her role was accomplished (more-or-less) by others, but as a baby she’s pretty used to that.

As everybody knows, first birthday parties don’t register much in the one-year-old mind. There are lots of familiar people around: sisters, parents, aunts and uncles, and both sets of grandparents. The party is really more for them. They take pictures and give lots of attention to the birthday girl, but they do that all the time anyway. Then, for a good stretch of the afternoon, the birthday girls naps. She sleeps through part of her own party.

I didn’t take cake-pictures or present-pictures; just a few double-selfies. She is growing so much. She crawls like a champion, stands often, and has begun to take steps. Katie is very curious, and we are going to have to keep an especially close eye on the lower shelves when she’s at our house (which, like nearly all the shelves in our house, are full of books). She is very cheerful (except when she’s fussing or crying) and always has a big smile for Papa. She still likes to pull the beard, and has recently discovered the joy of knocking down towers of blocks whenever Papa tries to build them.

We already have this special “history” with these kids. It is gratuitous, and it continues to grow. It is yet another sign of the gratuity of reality itself. The older I get, the more I sense that I’m surrounded everywhere by gifts that are great and radically original beyond anything I could ever make myself. They refresh and in a way clarify the promises of my own youth: a new generation is growing within history as I sense myself “growing closer” to the ultimate fulfillment for which I hope. This evokes a gratitude, a sense of peace, and a quieter determination to live as well as possible the days ahead, with all my personal limitations. The winds that have whipped up storms in my brain all my life are perhaps growing calmer and steadier. It helped too that my brother was there (“Uncle Walter”) after finishing the first round of his current therapy. He looked a little bit “better,” I thought, although I know that he also gets a “boost” from his grand-nieces.

The birthday presents were fun, but — aside from clothes — they drew more enthusiasm from Maria and Anna, who immediately started playing with the toys. Little kids are not put off by toys that are designed for a “younger age group.” They aren’t ashamed to play with stuff designed for infant-toddlers, and in fact Anna — not quite three years old — is still a toddler herself. Her birthday is coming up in November.

Under the Gaze of Jesus

“It is by accepting to live truthfully under the gaze of Jesus that we can be authentic and look honestly at our lives. They are fragile, vulnerable and destined to pass through death; yet they are also wonderful and miraculous, capable of being renewed through our relationships and of opening themselves to true love” (Pope Leo XIV).

King Papa!

There’s no need to add much in the way of explanation to this picture. When the grandchildren are around, Nana and Papa have a rollicking good time. Maria is now five years old and she is very bright. She’s also creative, imaginative, funny, and sometimes even goofy. And so she has crowned me “King Papa” with the cloth crown they all play with, which doesn’t fit me very well. I’m always ready to be silly with the grandkids, although Maria is also in the early stages of being capable of more reflective conversations too. I’m looking forward to those days in the future (God willing). In any case, it is good to be part of their growing-up. When they go home, of course, we’re pretty tired. It’s a “happy” tired. I’m happy to be “King Papa”!

...and Don’t Worry!

Happy Feast of Saint (Padre) Pio.

I’ll never win any graphics awards, but I decided anyway to work up something “visual” for this day. These brief words are full of significance, especially for someone who is prone to discouragement and who worries too much.

It is a grace to remember that Jesus is here, whatever difficulties the moment may bring; and to remember that His merciful love is infinitely greater than all my problems and perplexities and forgetfulness and failures; and to remember that I belong to Him, that He embraces me in my poor crazy life.

Almost Autumn... Already?

A few images of late September, as the autumn months approach. 

When I Sit and When I Stand….

“O Lord, you have probed me and you know me;

    you know when I sit and when I stand;

    you understand my thoughts from afar.

My journeys and my rest you scrutinize,

    with all my ways you are familiar.”

~Psalm 139:1-3

These verses speak of the God who creates the whole universe, who transcends all things, and who is “nearer to me than I am to myself.” The Infinite. The Mystery. The “still, small voice” that whispers in the depths of every human soul the ineffable promise that sustains our seeking and awakens our conscience. The only One who corresponds to the “forever” that moves us to even begin to desire anything.

For most of history, for the vast majority of the human race, the Mystery seems obscured beyond all thought and all manner of searching. Still, everyone searches….

When the followers of Confucius asked him about what happens when we die, he responded with a brilliant and provocative question: “How can we understand death when we don’t understand life?” Or, in Classical Chinese: 焉知死 (A.I. can find the text for me, and provide links to various attempts to explain it, but it can’t answer the question; it can’t even explain what Confucius really meant by asking it).

The Lord knows “when I sit and when I stand.” The Lord knows how much my “sitting” and “standing” are taken up with trying to learn the deep currents of a great and ancient civilization that remains grounded upon this question, and whose peoples cannot avoid this question no matter how hard they try.

The Lord knows every one of these persons, and loves each of them with an everlasting love. The Heart of Jesus Christ knows and loves each of them on the Cross. This I know by the gift of faith, and by the gratuitous and overflowing love of God. I certainly don’t deserve to know anything (and can barely remember what is given to me every day).

In these times, the love of Christ compels us to bear witness to Him, which entails also the task of listening, learning, and engaging in dialogue with all of humanity. Faith opens us up to every human person and to all of history, calling us to share in the inexhaustible mystery of the concreteness and the ardor of Christ’s love. The study of history and the dialogue between civilizations don’t yield “easy answers,” but they are sustained by great wonder and great hope.

“The Wood of the Cross”

September 14th: Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.

So Many September Changes, Especially in 2026

The "change of seasons" is in the air. For me this time is still touched with melancholy, as school seasons begin to move forward (which is still a big change of routine for my wife and my colleagues and friends). The sense of being "alone" at this time — even if I don't think about it — seems to weigh down my bones. Teaching is at the heart of my vocation. I am moved to try to communicate the truth I am learning, and to “walk together” with others in the search for wisdom and understanding about reality as a whole, human history, and the circumstances that are unfolding before us today. I have always regarded this “professorial” task as the basic mode of my service to the “common good” of my community, my nation, and this world which more than ever requires us to recognize our shared humanity and engage global problems with collaboration and solidarity.

But I am long retired from classroom teaching (for health reasons), and I am finding it increasingly difficult to use the means of communication that remain accessible to me in my present circumstances. I have in recent years been given a measure of strength that allowed me to publish a book over a decade ago and write a monthly column in Magnificat for the last thirteen years. Now I find this relative strength diminishing more rapidly as I grow older and communications media — along with the society as a whole — become increasingly superficial, over-saturated, and chaotic.

With this month’s Magnificat article, I am — regrettably — bringing my long series of “Great Conversion Stories” to an end (I don’t know whether the magazine will continue with the same theme under another author, or introduce another series). I do intend to bring together in an accessible form the entire collection of these stories (over 300 pages). This will be “my next book,” and I hope to bring out longer reflections on some of the remarkable persons I have written about with such brevity in my column.

But that depends on how much my health permits me to continue researching and writing. I know that increasing limitations on “natural” human capabilities open up wider possibilities for “spiritual” action in solidarity with persons (and peoples) whose sufferings I continue to study in my East Asia Project. I still hope to communicate more on these important themes insofar as it is possible. I hope that I shall continue to learn and ask questions for many years yet. But Jesus knows the path along which He wants to draw me to Himself.

The “issues” I noted recently that were holding up my brother’s treatment (and, probably, other issues that we don’t know about) have led to an impasse on the possibility of him benefitting from a new cancer protocol. Therefore, he will begin a more “conventional” course of chemotherapy on September 14th. It’s a mild form of the treatment that doctors hope will slow down the growth of the cancer. This is all that can be hoped for, and we don’t know how long he will remain among us in this present life. This is hard for him and for everyone; we are being led along many new and unfamiliar roads. Everyone please keep praying for him, and for those around him. God’s will be done.

If statistics mean anything, the accessibility of this Blog has cratered since it got cut off from the old domain address. I guess I will have to rebuild an active “following” all over again. I don’t know how those things are done. I know the blog has been helpful to more than a few people through the years. I hope and pray we stay connected or re-connect. The current blog address is < johnjanaro[dot]blogspot[dot]com >.

September brings changes… it would be nice if the weather would change, but so far it remains hot and humid! But the change in weather will come.

Happy Birthday, Mother Mary!

Happy Birthday, Blessed Mother Mary! The Mother of God our Savior and Redeemer was once herself a baby in the arms of her mother Saint Anne. This is the human reality of our faith in a particularly tender and beautiful realization. Mary, the woman who brings Jesus to us, is so lovable in her own history which is entirely shaped for Him. She is the first light after a long night of human misery and longing for the truth of life. She lives “already” the mystery of His grace, the mystery of our salvation that encompasses her whole history and, through her obedience, breaks into our history and changes it by changing us.

Dear Mother Mary, Refuge of Sinners, I am so grateful to you for everything!

To celebrate this feast day, Pope Leo XIV once again visited the Basilica of Our Lady of Good Counsel in Genazzano (about an hour east of Rome), which is cared for by his own beloved Augustinian brothers. Here are a few excerpts from his homily (emphasis mine):

“I am joyfully here again, to celebrate with you the Vigil of the Nativity of the Most Holy Virgin and to entrust to the Child Mary whatever is still being born in this poor yet magnificent humanity: fragile as a sprout, but a sign of God's faithfulness. Yes, Mary is the dawn of a different day, of our world finally freed from evil….

“Dear brothers and sisters, we feel dizzy before this Mystery: it is impossible to get used to it! We celebrate the birth of a child called to become the Mother of her Creator, the Mother of God who saves. And yet, she is born simply a child, like the daughters and granddaughters we hold in our arms. Today we have for her noble and lofty titles, of Lady and Queen, but God's way has been and remains simpler and more silent, yet no less powerful and transformative. It is the way of Jesus himself, ‘the firstborn among many brethren’ (Romans 8:29). Well, like Mary, we too are ‘predestined to be conformed to the image of the Son’ (ibid.): by grace, certainly, but desiring and preferring his path — his choices, his journey — to other ways. In Jesus Christ, God has chosen the humblest historical conditions and the humblest of creatures to manifest the uniqueness of his Kingdom, in which arrogance has no place and omnipotence is creation, service, and care for life.

“Today, in the Collect, turning to little Mary, we asked that ‘the celebration of her birth may increase our peace.’… We want to imagine peace — to broaden the boundaries of understanding and paint it in our souls — to recognize that it already exists, to welcome it and serve it. It is the gift of God, the breath of the Risen One, the work of the Holy Spirit. Let us allow peace to grow within us. It will sprout in the world. And the Mother of Good Counsel will accompany us in this mission.”

Malcolm Muggeridge Encounters “Something Beautiful for God”

In these September days — as we celebrate the holy life and incredibly profound vocation of Saint Teresa of Calcutta — it is worthwhile to recall the remarkable story of her good friend Malcolm Muggeridge (1903-1990), a well-known British writer and radio and television journalist whose life was deeply involved with some of the most dramatic events of the twentieth century.

He was baptized Anglican as an infant, but his childhood was shaped by the optimistic socialism of his father. Malcolm grew up thinking that an earthly “utopia” might be built by social engineering, but this idea never satisfied entirely the vast and seemingly contradictory longings of his heart. From an early age, Jesus attracted him with the promise of Eternity. From Scripture, literature, and friendship with some devout Anglicans, he learned the ways of prayer, and would never entirely forget them. At the same time, his heart was pulled by pride, worldly ambitions, and selfish desires. His vivid consciousness of his own inner incoherence frustrated and afflicted him for many years.

As a young adult, Malcolm was an ardent admirer of the Bolshevik Revolution and the international Communist movement as it emerged in the 1920s. He became a journalist and, in 1931, a Moscow correspondent for a British newspaper. There, Malcolm’s socialist dream shattered against the hard reality of Stalin’s brutal reign of terror. Without authorization, he traveled to Ukraine and saw the horror and devastation of a politically engineered famine that killed millions of Ukrainians. He also came to a crowded Ukrainian church in Kyiv on a Sunday — crowded with hungry desperate people singing the Liturgy, begging for the mercy of a God who had suffered on the Cross. In this church, Malcolm began to realize that suffering (only made horribly worse by Communism, and in one way or another tragically unavoidable for all of us) didn’t have to be the ultimate frustration of human existence. Malcolm caught a glimpse of the God he had not entirely stopped seeking: the God who had come to dwell with us and to take our sufferings upon Himself. In that Ukrainian church, he sensed the closeness of Christ and His love to these suffering people who were beyond all earthly hopes.

Still, Malcolm wrestled for decades with his fickle, divided heart. He also became famous in postwar Britain as an editor and writer, television personality, and pioneering international documentary maker. This work would bring him to Calcutta, India, in 1966, to make a documentary about a Catholic nun who had founded a religious order dedicated to serving “the poorest of the poor.” In some ways, Malcolm Muggeridge “introduced” Mother Teresa to the affluent Western world through this landmark documentary, Something Beautiful for God.

He also came to know Mother Teresa as a concrete witness to Christ and a friend who cared about him. She amazed him as someone who was eminently practical, who lived “in the world,” but who did not depend on human powers or human success. Instead, she saw and loved Christ in everyone, especially the poorest people, the street-dwellers of Calcutta, the abandoned sick and dying, those she found who had no other hope. Malcolm recognized in Mother Teresa a sign of the love of God that alone could give meaning to the whole of human existence, the love that transforms even suffering and death. He knew that human projects and political powers were too small (and too tainted) to produce a joy that was eternal. But in Mother Teresa’s witness Malcolm saw living faith in the Incarnation, in the God who chose to humble Himself out of love.

Around this time, Malcolm publicly professed adherence for Christianity, and worked more openly with Christian themes in the remaining years of his life. He still felt intellectually alienated from the Catholic Church by some negative aspects of the Church’s historical profile and often flawed leaders. But through the encouragement and prayers of Mother Teresa and many others, he was slowly falling in love with the Church. This love finally prevailed, and he was received into the Catholic Church in 1982.

Mother Teresa's "Outstanding Charity"

Collect Prayer for the Memorial of Saint (Mother) Teresa of Calcutta, who died on September 5, 1997:

God, who called the virgin 

Saint Teresa

to respond to the love of your Son thirsting on the Cross 

with outstanding charity to the poorest of the poor, 

grant us, we beseech you, 

by her intercession, 

to minister to Christ in our suffering brothers and sisters.

Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

God, for ever and ever.

Amen.

Sunset in September 2026

I’m always doing sunsets with my “digital, photo-based art” because I always take my walks in late afternoon or early evening (so that’s when the original pictures get taken). I’ve had a rough summer, but I have not ceased to be the “three-legged adventurer,” although my walks have become a bit shorter with the heat and humidity. Anyway, in my part of the Shenandoah Valley, we’re up on a hill, facing West, looking at the Massanutten ridge (where I used to love to hike when I was younger, and where I probably picked up lots of ticks without caring, back in the late 1980s and 90s). 

But even from the valley here, this ridge dominates the edge of the horizon and provides us with beautiful sunsets all through the year. I don’t have to walk very far from my house to see them. I still take many photos of the sunset. Sometimes I try to (digitally) “sculpt” them into images that are little more “evocative.” My digital art is an ongoing “adventure” of its own, a long experiment in media I will probably never master, but I might be able to place a small part on the ever-expanding canvases of “the New Art,” searching for genuine human insight, creativity, and technique by using digital tools on photographs. I suppose the much promoted and much feared elements of “AI” can be useful (I’m not sure I know how to distinguish them from tools I’ve used for many years — everything these days, it seems, claims to be AI). 

Some of these tools I can recognize because they seem to “think they know better than me” about the effects they create. So I wrestle with trying to “correct them” to give me what I want in the picture. My experience is AI tools (like, for example, “magic erasor”) is that they create a whole bunch of new problems for an artist who tries to use them as tools for his own creativity rather than as “shortcuts” for turning ideas into “visuals” for some practical communicative process or just for “fun.” Of course, all these digital techniques keep changing, and becoming “more powerful — sometimes in strange and chaotic ways.

The sunset also changes, but it follows the same reliable path, year after year. In a few weeks, it will be the Autumn Equinox.

Who Thinks of "Praying for Water"?

The Pope's Prayer Intention for the month of September 2026 is a simple one, but it is something that we in the rich nations of the world rarely think about, even though we bear great responsibility for many of the problems related to this fundamental human resource. 

We Christians say we want to "do the will of Christ" but when we are asked to have even a prayerful awareness of God's creation and the physical needs of billions of our brothers and sisters, some of us are tempted to think, "this is just ecological politics." No! The Gospel renews our whole humanity, and in Christ we begin to see everything in this world in a new way, and through the grace of the Holy Spirit we rediscover our vocation to be stewards of the created world, to be grateful for all of God's gifts - which are given to everyone and therefore must be shared with every person. 

The Pope's intention is no "Vatican foray" into the brutal game of power politics with all its ambitions, intrigue, and vanity. Rather, it proclaims our Gospel vocation to participate in the justice and mercy of Christ's redeeming love for the whole person and all of creation. The transforming love of the Heart of Jesus "already" penetrates the reality of the here-and-now, because every moment of time and space finds its true meaning in Him, and in the light of His promise to "make all things new."

Watch The Pope's Video every month. I find these YouTube videos useful for fostering a more conscious solidarity with Pope Leo in my daily prayer "for the intentions of our Holy Father recommended for this month." Open this link to see and hear his meditation for September: PopeVideo

Pope's Prayer Intention: "For the Care of Water"

Lord of Life,
You have given us the gift of water,
source of fruitfulness, freshness, and hope.
It quenches thirst, nourishes the earth, and heals wounds. 

We thank You,
because it is also a symbol of your grace and love
that renews us through Baptism. 

Today we ask You to teach us to safeguard it
with gratitude, justice, and responsibility.
Forgive us for turning it into a commodity,
forgetting that it is a universal gift,
a right without borders, meant for all your children. 

We see with pain so many brothers and sisters
who lack clean water,
who walk for miles to find it,
who become ill due to its scarcity. 

May your Spirit make us pilgrims of the essential,
able to live with simplicity,
denouncing waste and pollution,
defending the right of every brother and sister
to drink without fear and without inequality. 

May our care for water
be a sign of love for the Creator
and a commitment to the lives of the poor,
educating new generations to value
and protect the Earth’s resources. 

Amen.