“Play” in the spiritual life makes me think of people dressed as clowns at Mass, or hand motions for grade school songs being imposed upon high schoolers, or the sort of unbearably sanguine exuberance that clashes with a sometimes sorrowful reality. I can think of all sorts of shallow and …

The Archdiocese of Cincinnati, along with Catholics around the world, will observe Ash Wednesday, on February 26, 2020. Ash Wednesday begins the season of Lent in the Catholic Church in preparation for Easter (that will fall on April 12 this year). Ash Wednesday is an obligatory day of fasting (one …