I begin with an admission that may surprise some readers. When I was discerning my vocation, Franciscanism never appealed to me. I never quite got it. To my young clerical imagination, Saint Francis of Assisi was a kind of “hippie saint,” al … [Read more...]
Rebuilding the Church, Within the Church
An Editorial on Pope Leo XIV’s Declaration of the Year of Saint Francis (2026)
The Shaping of a Priest
50 Years of Seminary Formation and Ecclesial Identity
October 27, 2025 by Rev. John P. Cush, STD
As a Catholic priest ordained in 1998, and as a professor of Dogmatic Theology and seminary director of admissions and recruitment (as well as having served as academic dean and assistant vice-rector in another seminary), I have had the … [Read more...]
The Discipleship Stage of Priestly Formation: A Thomistic and Pastoral Vision
June 27, 2025 by Rev. John P. Cush, STD
The priestly vocation is a gift from Christ to His Church, a sacred calling that demands careful discernment, formation, and accompaniment. The Church’s contemporary vision for priestly formation has been significantly renewed through the 2 … [Read more...]
The Restoration of the Permanent Diaconate After the Second Vatican Council
Significance and Implementation in the United States
April 30, 2025 by Rev. John P. Cush, STD
The Second Vatican Council marked a pivotal moment in the life of the Catholic Church, not only for its aggiornamento, but also for its ressourcement — the return to the sources of Scripture and the early Church. One fruit of this t … [Read more...]
Celebrating 125 Years of Homiletic & Pastoral Review
December 30, 2024 by Rev. John P. Cush, STD
“We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” So writes T.S. Eliot in his “Little Gidding” in his Four Quartets (1941). The same can be said … [Read more...]
Ecclesiology After the NEC with Bishop Barron as Our Guide
August 23, 2024 by Rev. John P. Cush, STD
I was not blessed to personally attend the National Eucharistic Congress this past July. However, I know several bishops, priests, religious sisters, and seminarians, both religious and diocesan seminarians, who had attended, and all of … [Read more...]
Guilt and the Eucharist
February 23, 2024 by Rev. John P. Cush, STD
The words of the centurion, words that we say again and again at every celebration of Holy Mass, are among the truest words that we can ever utter: “Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul s … [Read more...]
Mary, Our Mother of Mercy
October 27, 2023 by Rev. John P. Cush, STD
My mother died in July 2020. I was blessed to be home from my then-assignment in Rome for the event; as it happened, I was the only one there with her. In a manner that was like a reverse Pieta, she died in my arms, breathing her last … [Read more...]
The Theology and Heart of Benedict XVI
January 27, 2023 by Rev. John P. Cush, STD
Adapted from Theology as Prayer: A Primer for the Diocesan Priest, by Rev. John P. Cush and Msgr. Walter R. Oxley (Omaha, NE: Institute for Priestly Formation, 2022). I remember meeting Cardinal Ratzinger on the street when I was a … [Read more...]
HPR Ressourcement
December 22, 2022 by Rev. John P. Cush, STD
Monsignor William Brady, a professor of dogmatic theology at Saint Joseph’s Seminary and College in Dunwoodie, New York, was asked in 1900 by the founder of Homiletic and Pastoral Review (then titled The Homiletic Monthly & Catechist) t … [Read more...]
The New Staff of HPR
August 30, 2022 by HPRweb.com
Taking effect September 1, 2022, a new team will assume leadership of Homiletic & Pastoral Review. HPR welcomes Rev. John P. Cush, STD, as Editor-in-Chief, with Sister Mary Micaela Hoffman, RSM, S.S.L., as Associate Editor. At the same … [Read more...]
Super-essential Work amid COVID-19
April 4, 2020 by David Vincent Meconi
Has anyone else been a bit taken aback in realizing that you are not an “essential worker”? Of course, we Jesuits are supposed to pray for, and in fact are all in dire need of, humility. So perhaps this should be the Lenten lesson my bro … [Read more...]
A Sacerdotal Summer
September 11, 2019 by David Vincent Meconi
St. Ignatius of Loyola likened the “enemy of our human nature” to a cunning military strategist who sussed out each of our weakest defenses and thereby knew exactly where to strike. A war for souls is truly on, both on the individual as wel … [Read more...]
Letter of His Holiness Pope Francis to Priests
September 11, 2019 by Pope Francis
Letter of His Holiness Pope Francis to Priests on the 160th Anniversary of the Death of the Holy Curé of Ars, St. John Vianney To my Brother Priests Dear Brothers, A hundred and sixty years have passed since the death of the holy … [Read more...]
The Tender Heart
April 22, 2019 by David Vincent Meconi
Where in any classical literature do men rejoice over wounds? In the ancients, injuries and lacerations bring about sorrow, if not revenge. But in the Gospel reading for Divine Mercy Sunday (Jn 20:19–31), we see a new understanding of v … [Read more...]
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