denahunt

About Dena Hunt

Dena Hunt's first novel, Treason (Sophia Institute Press), won the IPPY Gold Medal. Her second, The Lion’s Heart (Full Quiver Press), won the Catholic Arts and Letters Achievement award. Jazz & Other Stories, her third book, has just been published by Wiseblood Books. She is the book review editor of St. Austin Review.

“Judge Not”

2023-11-30T04:18:07-06:00

“Judge Not… …lest ye be judged.” This Biblical admonition is similar to the universal Christian condemnation of gossip. Both can be confusing. If there’s a Christmas parade downtown next Tuesday, should I not tell my neighbor? Would that be gossip? If Betty has been hospitalized with pneumonia, should I not tell our mutual friend Kathryn? If [...]

“Judge Not”2023-11-30T04:18:07-06:00

Faith in a Farewell

2023-07-31T19:21:38-05:00

Last week my cousin was dying. She had advanced cancer. She had asked friends and family not to call or send text messages because she was unable to respond. Telling her that no response was necessary, I sent her a photo every day of some of the devotional pictures of Christ she had seen here in [...]

Faith in a Farewell2023-07-31T19:21:38-05:00

Partings

2023-06-13T18:38:17-05:00

Yesterday I finally discarded my back issues of StAR. It wasn’t easy. For one thing, I had saved issues going back—I think the earliest was 2006—and believe me, in more ways than one, StAR is not a lightweight publication. I had thought about it for quite a while, but as it often happens, the actual deed [...]

Partings2023-06-13T18:38:17-05:00

Tongues

2023-05-30T19:38:54-05:00

The word has multiple meanings—in anatomy, geophysics—as well as figurative and literal meanings in literature. One meaning is speech—a “golden tongue,” a “diabolical tongue.” And it means language identity, as in the Greek tongue, the English tongue. And in The Acts of the Apostles: Tongues as of fire, “as of” signifying like, what we call a simile, a comparison—tongues (languages) like fire. Today [...]

Tongues2023-05-30T19:38:54-05:00

Intellectual Tidiness

2023-05-18T16:53:06-05:00

Earlier this week I was in a small group from my church in a discussion of the Ascension. The focus of the meeting was a podcast in which someone said that the meaning of this great event was that for the first time humanity had “access” to God; also for the first time humanity and divinity [...]

Intellectual Tidiness2023-05-18T16:53:06-05:00

Parables and Paradigms

2023-04-25T00:40:00-05:00

Parable: There was a dining table where two men sat facing each other. One of them was eating his dinner. The other man watched with hunger in his eyes. The first man finished his dinner and looked at the second man’s hunger and said, “I don’t understand your problem—I’m not hungry.”   Paradigms: The first man [...]

Parables and Paradigms2023-04-25T00:40:00-05:00

Addiction

2023-02-19T02:34:48-06:00

Most apparently non-addicted people define addiction in some way they can intellectually handle, and then file and dismiss it, bringing it out only to express pity or contempt for some apparently addicted person. Disgust covers the faces of those who must drive through homeless encampments, where sidewalks are littered by hypodermic needles. Shock or sorrow covers [...]

Addiction2023-02-19T02:34:48-06:00

Listening with Your Eyes

2022-12-14T17:03:52-06:00

I am in a text group (if there’s such a term) with some distant relatives. There are five of us, none of us is younger than 74 or 75, and the eldest is 85. At 80, I think I’m in the middle. We are scattered from Florida to Georgia to Tennessee to Pennsylvania—and sometimes South Carolina [...]

Listening with Your Eyes2022-12-14T17:03:52-06:00

On Some Sundays

2022-11-03T01:17:13-05:00

On some Sundays, I sit at Mass and look around at all the people whom I’ve seen for years, most of whom I know only by sight and not by name. I’ve watched them grow up. Some of them were once children here, annoying people by making noise or by running up and down the side [...]

On Some Sundays2022-11-03T01:17:13-05:00

Reality is Multiple

2022-08-03T17:12:55-05:00

Back in the 1980s, I was living in New Orleans in one side of a double shotgun on Dante Street. The other side was occupied by Don, a psychiatrist who played lovely classical piano when he was depressed. Don and I went out a few times, but nothing serious ever happened between us, not even a [...]

Reality is Multiple2022-08-03T17:12:55-05:00
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