Shrove Tuesday
On a day popularly known as Pancake Tuesday, it’s safe to assume what will be on the menu in many Catholic houses across the country today. The Tuesday preceding the beginning of Lent is known by many names, all reflecting…
Category Christian Living
Cultivate Your Prayer Life This Lent!
It’s hard to take time out for Lent these days. We’re surrounded by constant distractions: getting the kids out the door for school, fielding calls and emails at work, finding time to get the laundry done and take the dog…
Your Faith Has Made You Well
Sickness can turn our lives upside down, whether we are the ones who are ill or whether we are offering support and solace to a suffering loved one. Serious illness is not only frustrating but also frightening, because it is…
Prepare for Lent!
One of the great benefits of working for a publisher is getting a first look at many remarkable books well before they go to press. This year, I am particularly impressed by many of the titles we recently released just…
Conversion: A Lifelong Process
The work of Carvaggio, the master Renaissance artist, proves a picture really is worth a thousand words. His powerful painting, Conversion on the Way to Damascus, has forever cemented in popular culture that notion that St. Paul was riding a…
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
“That they may all be one.” To Christians around the world, this prayer of Jesus (John 17.21) is something of a mantra at this time of year. From Saturday, Jan. 18, to Sunday, Jan. 26, our churches will echo with…
Christmas and the Spirit of Joy
The Christmas season is all about joy. This is not what we might think: true joy is not synonymous with laughter or merry-making, though these might be expressions of it. True joy is something much deeper — and much rarer.…
Sacrosanctum Concilium: 50 Years Later
Of all the documents of the Second Vatican Council, the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, led to some of the most significant and visible reforms of the Church’s life. While many of those changes are easily identifiable, such as…
Media and the New Evangelization
One of the first apostles called by Jesus to follow him was Andrew, brother of Simon. Jesus said to them both, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” (Matthew 4.19) Simon, of course, became Peter, the first…
Elderly: Society’s Greatest Treasures
The Holy Father, himself a senior – and so am I, although I’m more than a decade younger than Pope Francis – recently called on the faithful “to care for grandparents, for without them there is no future.” His homily…