Catholic. Pastoral. Trusted.
Decorative signage with single words like “Kitchen” displayed in the same room that obviously functions as the one it identifies seems redundant to me. I also find those sugar-coated inspirational signs to be equally self-evident: “Laugh Out Loud!” (Thank you for that message. I’ll try not to bust a gut...
In 1860, Grace Bedell wrote to Abraham Lincoln after seeing a portrait of the clean-shaven presidential nominee, encouraging him to grow a beard. “All the ladies like whiskers,” the eleven-year-old from New York informed him, “and they would tease their husbands to vote for you and then you would be...
“You’ve been living in Texas for years now, and you still haven’t been to the rodeo?” asked Raquel incredulously. “Not exactly,” I protested years ago to my San Antonian friend, hoping my spiritual retreat at a Texas dude ranch would qualify as my cultural initiation to the Lone Star State....
Through the years, some colleagues of mine who were ordained as priests left the active ministry to get married. When they told me their decision, I was sorry to see so many capable priests and close friends leave. I surmised that good priests likely would make good husbands as well. ...
His hospital room was sterile in appearance, antiseptic in smell, and clinical in sound, like all the rest. The white eraser board displayed the date and the day of the week, the nurse’s first name, and a contorted smiley face. The volume from the wall-mounted TV drowned out the rhythmic...
Gobsmacked! Flabbergasted! Thunderstruck! Words seem inadequate to describe the likely reaction of the apostles and Mary when they “began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim” while praying in the Upper Room on Pentecost (Acts 2:4). Similarly, when devout Jews from many nations gathered in...
Let Easter be the day you break open a new way to see the Real Presence of Christ. Many Easters ago, my family drove to the city where I ministered to attend Mass and allow us to spend the holiday together. To spare my mom from preparing a big meal...
Let’s talk candidly about overworked clergy. Such a conversation automatically excludes low-energy, lethargic priests—the ones who are usually unavailable for extra tasks. Let us consider for example, pastors with few, if any, associate priests or deacons to share the taxing workload. Or pastors without a fluent Spanish-speaking minister when the...
A- mid the hustle and bustle of Christmastime, count your blessings. Through random acts of Christian kindness, give back to your family and community your counsel and compassion, your time and talent, your word and witness. ♠ Be attentive to the sounds of the holy season: a child’s laughter,...
In Never Hug a Nun, novelist Kevin Killeen describes the weekly Catholic newspaper as an “important source of religious news and ads for honest tree trimmers.” Set in 1966, a scene from the book details a suburban housewife reclining on a sofa and reaching for the diocesan newspaper atop a...
Age is relative. When primary school students were asked, “What’s a good age for marriage?” one respondent thought fifty was the right age to tie the knot because people had eliminated all the “excitements” from their system by then. Another student evidently felt it took far longer to get rid...
The year: 1974. The fad du jour: streaking. The spectacle: A streaker unabashedly darts across the stage at the forty-sixth annual Academy Awards (the Oscars). What could be more obscene than a guy baring what quick-thinking host David Niven immediately called “his shortcomings” on worldwide television? Flash-forward almost fifty years...
Saint Alphonsus Liguori—a prolific author of 111 spiritual works—called his writing the “apostolate of the pen,” and he wanted his fellow Redemptorists to engage in this ministry as well. Thus, Liguori Publications is foremost a ministry of the Redemptorists in the spirit of our founder. Our company also is a...
The good news is the worldwide Catholic Church gained sixteen million new members in 2020, says the latest data from the Vatican’s Central Office of Church Statistics. At 1.36 billion, Catholics comprise just under 18 percent of the earth’s population. The vast majority of the millions of new Catholics are...
Especially during the penitential season of Lent, we’re called to examine our lives in the sacrament of penance. This leads us to be in greater conformity with our faith and to better imitate our Lord. To that end, we may not only want to confess how often we’ve lied to...
In the Victorian era, a widowed bride wore a small vial around her neck—known as a tear catcher—to collect her tears, which she tenderly poured atop the gravesite of her husband on the first anniversary of his death. Despite this poignant grieving ritual—possibly romanticized—the story is told of pallbearers carrying...
Imagine receiving a traffic ticket in the mail for a violation you didn’t commit! That’s what happened to a relative of mine after an overnight hotel stay for a work-related seminar. When the valet at the hotel’s parking garage appropriated her vehicle at 4 am, he unwittingly sped through a...
Writings of long ago make clear why forever friends are so invaluable. After the death of my father, I returned to the city of my youth to sort through accumulated belongings in our old family home. To my surprise, I discovered my high school journal, written when I was between...
At an art museum, three patrons gathered in front of a painting of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, executed by an anonymous artist. The first said, “Notice the great attention to detail in the vegetation. The artist must have been a botanist.” The second countered, “Observe how...
There once was a poor, elderly man who lost his only horse shortly before harvest. His friends commiserated with him about his misfortune, but the old man quietly countered, “How do you know this is misfortune?” Later, the old man’s steed came home, accompanied by a pack of wild horses,...