Lent

Welcome to Lent. Desert and dry, mean and gritty, Lent is the realm of sacrifice and privation. In my mind’s eye, Lent has always engendered a misplaced Advent image: the wild-eyed, locust-eating John the Baptist hectoring civilized society to “Make straight the way of the Lord!” Lent... Read more

So much has happened in our country lately that has been quite disorienting. Notably, New York legislated the country’s most aggressive abortion bill that viciously attacks the unborn. Internet assumptions, uncharity, and scapegoating characterized the incident between the Covington Catholic... Read more

Today the Church celebrates the feast day of Sts. Perpetua and Felicity. These valiant young women were martyred in the year 203 by the Emperor Severus in Carthage. St. Perpetua was the daughter of a pagan father and a Christian mother. She chose the path of her mother and converted to... Read more

As a boy, I remember wondering why so many people liked to rush to Church to get ashes smudged on their foreheads. Frankly, I had some revulsion at the idea. I didn’t like it at all and would secretly rub them off when no one was looking. Today, though I’ll admit I still don’t like it too... Read more

What would happen if you lived the next forty days intensely for Christ?Lent is an important time and planning it out well is worth a shot. Look back at the last forty days of your life. You can whip out your phone and check out your calendar, or you can take a few moments to think back and... Read more

Denver, Colo., Dec 28, 2018 / 11:01 am (CNA).- Every time Christians recite the Apostles’ Creed, they affirm their belief in what will happen to them after death: “'I believe in the resurrection of the body and life everlasting.” The belief in the resurrection of one’s physical body... Read more

As eighteenth century English writer Samuel Johnson might have put it, “Nothing concentrates the mind like knowing that I am dust, and to dust I shall return.” And nothing is a more bracing reminder of that reality than the imposition of ashes on Ash Wednesday. Placed on the forehead in the... Read more

Now we turn to some of the lessons Christ poured out for us while He drained that cup of suffering for our sakes. St. Augustine brilliantly observed: “The tree upon which were fixed the members of Him dying was even the chair of the Master teaching.” St. Thomas Aquinas admirably provides... Read more

It’s Lent and suddenly the fast food chains in America are fishing for the Catholic customer. The convenience food giants learned long ago that on Fridays during Lent Catholics are not buying hamburgers, hot dogs, pork sausages, pastrami, pepperoni, and baloney, barbecue, chops, subs, ribs,... Read more

Everyone waits for something. Maybe it’s a job or a promotion. Maybe you’re waiting to meet the right man or woman. Maybe you’re waiting for God to reveal some clear direction or vocation in your life. Or maybe you wait for something more urgent: You need healing from cancer, or from... Read more