For many of us, COVID-life halted many of our social interactions with one another. We found ourselves missing our communities. For the inmates at the local prison where I serve —alongside other monastic priests and our Brother Zachary, who coordinates the Catholic ministry—life was just
St. John Eudes was among the many promoters of devotion to the Sacred Heart over the centuries. He was a 17th-century priest in France who was deeply impacted by St. Francis de Sales. Here is one of St. John Eudes’ prayers that he used to
“There was a time when I said: ‘Next year I will finally have it together,’ or ‘When I grow more mature these moments of inner darkness will go,’ or ‘Age will diminish my emotional needs.’ But now I know that my sorrows are mine and
I still remember how it felt when I first saw it. The year was 1984, and the Olympics were held in Los Angeles. Families around the globe gathered around their glowing televisions as stories of striving and victory flooded into their living rooms. I was
The Sacrament of the Eucharist has two sides: it is both a sacrifice and a sacrament. Inasmuch as biological life is nothing but a reflection, a dim echo, and a shadow of the divine life, one can find analogies in the natural order for the beauties of the
Have you ever thought of your family life as a liturgy? The liturgy of domestic church life. Does that seem odd? It shouldn’t. The word “liturgy” describes the specific “work” the Church does to heal the damage sin creates in our relationships with God and
In 2019, a gunman opened fire in a Walmart store in El Paso, killing twenty-three people. The local parish priest was a man who had been ordained barely two months before. A year before that, a priest from a large rural diocese who had been
Weekly Sunday Mass participation is now under 25% among U.S. Catholics, irrespective of fallout from the COVID-19 restrictions. For American adults in general, religious membership has fallen under 50% for the first time in more than 80 years. And among younger adults, “nones” have increased markedly, including because of growing
Dear Father Joe: I have a friend who has listened to some podcasts and read some websites that are quite angry about how the Church has changed in the past few decades. She says everything was much more reverent before the 1960s and that we
It has become increasingly common today for the lay faithful (and, to a lesser extent, deacons and priests) to openly and publicly criticize bishops, the Apostolic See and even the pope himself. This criticism usually takes place on the internet, and some, having become especially proficient
