Unknown Martyr Each night, she scrubs tile floors after waiting tables all day: her hands and knees raw, exhaustion bringing her one day closer to death. Her only thought, a son and daughter— how to keep them fed with a roof over head, how to survive another month, how to pray in the midst of […]
Meditation and Questions for Reflection or Group Discussion Mass Readings: 1st Reading: Ecclesiastes 1:2; 2:21-23 2nd Reading: Colossians 3:1-5,9-11 Responsorial: Psalm 90:3-6,12-14,17 Gospel: Luke 12:13-21 Seeing Our Lord in All Things Christ is all and in all. (Colossians 3:11) This concept of Christ being “in all” is a central aspect of Jesuit spirituality. The founder […]
I’m going to call the latest documentary on John Paul II an “almost perfect documentary.” The title is: Liberating a Continent: John Paul II and the Fall of Communism. Why is it almost perfect? Because it’s Rolls Royce super-classy in every way. The production values are off the chain, the august interviewees always on point, […]
By M. Z. de la Morena NEW YORK—Just a few years ago, if anyone had told Miguel that he would be speaking to Pope Francis in front of thousands of young people in Poland—telling the story of how he overcame his addiction to drugs—he would never have believed them. But that is exactly what Miguel […]
When the United States Supreme Court handed down its pro-abortion ruling on June 27 of this year, pro-death groups across the land celebrated. The Court basically struck down two provisions in a Texas law because, in its words, the pro-life restrictions created an “undue burden on abortion access.” Thus the macabre champagne toasts and the […]
When Pope Francis spoke to the UN last September he warned about what he called “ideological colonization.” By that he meant the attempt to import or impose a vision of human sexuality at odds with traditional peoples. The African Bishops have repeatedly warned about how traditional way of life is under pressure from ideological colonization. […]
on st. henry walpole’s martyrdom beauty in itself is a useless thing like the lilies of a summer’s field or the light of a winter’s moon useless, too, was your priesthood toward the salvation of even one english soul yet such beauty was not lost after the seeds of your severed body were buried for […]
“Scientists are slowly waking up to an inconvenient truth – the universe looks suspiciously like a fix. The issue concerns the very laws of nature themselves. For 40 years, physicists and cosmologists have been quietly collecting examples of all too convenient “coincidences” and special features in the underlying laws of the universe that seem to […]
We have all heard it, yet most of us would not be able to name it. The term polyphony (from the Greek for “many sounds”) is used to describe music that employs simultaneous yet independent melodies. This can occur in secular or spiritual songs, and the spiritual realm includes both sacred music (typically using a […]
With a juicy, promising title and a screen populated with adorable, fuzzy furballs of varied shapes and sizes, the animated smash hit: The Secret Life of Pets is a fun Summer escapade for all ages. The different personalities of species and dog breeds are, well, typecast. The goofy guinea pig, the self-involved cat, the excitable […]
A new report demonstrates to policy makers which countries are best at helping traditional families and which are failing. The UN acknowledges the traditional family structure of a married mother and father raising their children as the “natural and fundamental group unit of society.” A growing body of social science research affirms that individuals thrive […]
Meditation and Questions for Reflection or Group Discussion Mass Readings: 1st Reading: Genesis 18:20-32 2nd Reading: Colossians 2:12-14 Responsorial: Psalm 138:1-3,6-8 Gospel: Luke 11:1-13 Deepening Our Relationship with Our Heavenly Father through Prayer He will get up to give him whatever he needs. (Luke 11:8) Imagine the situation: you are traveling through ancient Palestine and […]
A Bard’s Prayer “As an author and artists who greatly appreciates the Celtic Bardic tradition, I felt inspired to write this prayer for those who seek to enlighten through their art.“ Let me catch the flame Golden, glittering, glaring So my fingers may glow as I hold the pen Let me taste the wine Sweet, […]
Empty You eat from my table, And leave me nothing. Then you lay upon my form This weighty cauldron, Dank and empty. It presses mightily, Withholding air that gives rhyme and reason to life Destroying my frame. I show you the door But you raise your brow and smirk Then folding your arms, you lean […]
One of my favorite saints, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, The Little Flower, often wrote of appearing before God with empty hands, both from the standpoint of having used all of the graces and opportunities to do good works but, also, perhaps, as an expression of intrinsic humility in that we can never fully do enough […]
Our relationship with our biological parents influences our happiness long after we’ve flown the nest. So says a new study showing how those raised by same-sex parents experience significantly more depression, obesity, and other problems in young adulthood than their peers. In the first study to examine children raised by same-sex parents into early adulthood, […]
Meditation and Questions for Reflection or Group Discussion Mass Readings: 1st Reading: Genesis 18:1-10 2nd Reading: Colossians 1:24-28 Responsorial: Psalm 15:2-5 Gospel: Luke 10:38-42 What Does it Mean to Have “Christ in You, the Hope for Glory” Christ in you, the hope for glory. (Colossians 1:27) There are three ways to look at these words: […]
If you were ever in search of a film to spur your church community into pro-life action, a new film called Voiceless may be just the ticket. “Voiceless is a call to the church,” said Jason Jones, co-executive producer of the film. “Now more than ever as we see no relief from our judiciary or […]
By Maria Lozano NEW YORK—Venezuela was once the country of dreams—but those dreams have turned into nightmares. Such is the sad verdict of one of the country’s bishops. Case in point, Bishop Jaime Villarroel of the Diocese of Carúpano, told international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need: Most of the young people in […]
So a radical feminist and two childless women walk into a courtroom. How do you expect them to rule on abortion or contraception? Their lives as they know them, depend on both. In Whole Woman’s Health vs. Hellerstedt, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a Texas law regulating abortion clinics as if they were any ordinary […]
Beaded Waves The sand waits for the waves to come home. But they cannot stay. The horizon calls them back to the edge of the world closest to heaven but first they must do the work God asks and exchange brine for the healing balm they carry in each beaded roll. Philip C. Kolin
Have you ever been so heartbroken and your hopes so shattered that you could scarcely consider what your future holds or whether you even had a future? That is what it must have been like for the disciples the day after Jesus was crucified. They had placed their faith in him and dared to hope […]
At what point can we say that a life no longer matters? Is it at the point when medical expenses become too costly or burdensome for relatives? Is it at the point when someone feels they have outlived their usefulness, or are just not able to do the things they love to do anymore? For […]
