Michael Leach

Michael Leach is publisher emeritus of Orbis Books. He has edited and published more than three thousand books. His authors include Nobel Prize winners, National Book Award winners, and hundreds of religion book award winners. In 2007 the Catholic Book Publishers Association honored Mike with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Dubbed "the dean of Catholic book publishing" by U.S. Catholic magazine in 2003, he has also authored or edited several books of his own, including Why Stay Catholic? which was voted the "Best Popular Presentation of the Catholic Faith" in 2012. Mike brings this background to his role as editor of NCR's Soul Seeing columns; Soul Seeing has won the first place award for "best regular spirituality column" from the Catholic Press Association for five years in a row. Michael is a frequent contributor to NCR's Soul Seeing column.

By this Author

A 15th-century French miniature depicts Jesus teaching the Our Father. (Courtesy of the New York Public Library)

Jan 09, 2018

What I am praying when I say the Lord's Prayer

Soul Seeing: The Lord's Prayer, or the Our Father, is my favorite prayer, and its familiar words have become a starting point for longer meditation.

Nov 15, 2017

Brian Doyle: Catching stories that change lives

Book Review: "I have children and a fascinating graceful mysterious wife, and sometimes we are like five fingers in a hand," Doyle wrote. "And sometimes when I write, that happens, that the page and my fingers and my dreams are all the same thing for an hour, I always emerge startled."

Oct 31, 2017

I know there will always be kindness

Soul Seeing: People will always be kind. Vickie and I can afford to eat at our diner every night, but nothing tastes as good as the kindness that carries our bag to the car or opens the door for us at Chipotle or hangs a plastic bag of just-picked tomatoes on our doorknob.