G.K. Chesterton once commented that every modern conversation begins one step too late. His assertion pertains, unfortunately, when we think of the church. Immediately we tend to think of its structure: there are the ordained, the religious, and the laity. According to this reckoning, the laity... Read more

Image: www.behold2020.com/dowry-tour Few people in today’s godless England have heard of Our Lady of Walsingham. But there was a time that she was known and revered throughout the whole of Christendom, to such a degree that she could be said to have put England on the map, at least in... Read more

VATICAN CITY — As Cardinal George Pell’s final appeal at Australia’s High Court draws closer, a special novena has been prepared that begins today. The prayer, published below, originates from Newman parish in Melbourne — the city where Cardinal Pell was tried. It asks the Lord... Read more

Most of the saints have written about the central battle of our life: desire. What we desire is crucial because in the end, we get what we want. Either we die wanting what God offers, or we die not wanting it. Either we love what and whom God loves, or we don’t. We tend to think that... Read more

Image: Joshua Sortino | Unsplash.com Lent is hurtling toward us. This realization usually raises a sense of dread. The late great Fr. Alexander Schmemann may once have described Lent as “bright sadness,” but too often it seems neither bright nor sad. Rather, it often seems grey and glum.... Read more

There’s a crisis in the Catholic Church that no one’s talking about. It’s not abuse. It’s not cover-ups. It doesn’t spring from Vatican infighting. It starts much closer to home, with the shepherds who guide the flock. Many good and godly Catholic priests are struggling with their... Read more

There’s a story that when the Statue of Liberty was being renovated and restored in the early 1980s and money was being solicited from donors across the country, an envelope showed up with two dimes in it and a note from a young boy, saying: “This is my lunch money for today, but I am... Read more

Mary has two significant appearances in the Book of Revelation. Most devout Catholics are familiar with one of them: A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars (Revelation 12:1). But there is a... Read more

In the Old Testament, one of the most profound ways God makes His presence known is through His voice. This is evident from the very beginning, in the Garden of Eden, after Adam and Eve have sinned and God is looking for them: When they heard the sound of the LORD God walking about in the... Read more

Today’s Feast of the Baptism of the Lord is a moment to reflect not only on the Lord’s Baptism but on our own. In an extended sense, when Christ is baptized, so are we, for we are members of His Body. As Christ enters the water, He makes holy the water that will baptize us. He enters the... Read more