Spiritual Experience & Disciplines

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As we go through the Book of the Prophet Isaiah at Mass this week, we read of Israel’s painful purifications as well as the subsequent punishment of the surrounding nations. God permitted the nations to persecute Israelin order that she be purified, but the iniquity and sin of the nations... Read more

  On a sunny Saturday in July 1968, a man and a woman stood together on a reviewing stand looking out on Chicago’s Soldier Field. Before them were 1,000 athletes playing hockey, swimming laps and running track. The athletes hailed from 26 U.S. states and Canada. All were... Read more

At Mass this past Sunday, as the lector read the Prayers of the Faithful, I was stunned to hear a familiar name in the intentions. It took me a moment to register the shock as I realized that we had just prayed for the soul of an elderly gentleman I knew. Until that moment, I’d had no idea... Read more

The host was lifted high in young hands, and I suddenly realized: some grains of wheat, originally unremarkable, had now become Christ’s Body. They had been “chosen,” so to speak. Chosen, too, was the priest, ordained just twenty-four hours earlier for the Dominican Order, now to... Read more

Zagreb, Croatia, Jul 11, 2018 / 02:34 pm (CNA).- On Sunday, Croatia’s soccer team will play France in the championship game of the 2018 World Cup, after running victoriously through a string of soccer powerhouses in the tournament. Here’s one reason Catholics in the US might be rooting... Read more

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican has released a document that establishes norms and principles for women who dedicate their lives as consecrated virgins and their place in the life of the church. Presenting the new document at the Vatican press office July 4, Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz,... Read more

“Now, the sacrifice is unsurpassable. Now, it’s a re-presentation of that sacrifice.” As he says these words about the “climactic moment” of the Mass, he gestures to the crucified Christ behind him: the definitive sacrifice; the Lamb of God; the high priest who entered once for... Read more

There is no admonition that we meet with so often in the spiritual life as the words “Pray and work!” How many times have we been told to unite our work with prayer, to raise it up and sanctify it by prayer? Such frequent reminders flow from the real need and difficulty of safeguarding... Read more

My private Oratory features an assortment of Holy Icons and small pewter statues, an old standing crucifix and a second-class relic of my dear patron, St. Philip Neri. It also contains a stone I’d dug up while gardening, a perfect oval shape that I like to keep around because it reminds me... Read more