Catholic. Pastoral. Trusted.
Thanks to one statement in Fr. Dennis J. Billy’s article (March 2015), I can admit during the time that I was a nonpracticing Catholic, my experience of “foretasting of heaven” started. My first “intense experience of the divine” was in 2002, when I was driven to my heavenly home by...
I always enjoy reading Fr. Bruce Lewandowski’s “Plain Talk” column in Liguorian. His contribution in the December 2014 issue [on how Jesus teaches that we can be salvation for each other] was exceptionally thought-provoking. I am sharing it with my Bible study and St. Theresa Guild at church. Both groups...
Think About These… In the midst of darkness, Jesus is still the light. You don’t need collateral to borrow trouble. God gives us a face but we must choose the expression. Don’t worry about tomorrow. You did that yesterday.” Sign in a Pennsylvania cemetery: “Persons are prohibited from picking flowers except...
A Parish Hospitality Check List Published September 2010 Written by Sister Brenda Hermann, MSVT and Monsignor James Gaston For Christians, hospitality is empowered by the Holy Spirit. It is understood to be the desire to welcome others, to share one’s concern, time, love, personal space and resources with another without...
Fifty years ago, on November 21, 1964, the Second Vatican Council issued a decree that began with the words highlighted on the next page. Unitatis Redintegratio (“the restoration of unity” or the Decree on Ecumenism) was not the first document issued by the Church calling for unity among Christians, but...
Heavenly rank My father was stationed at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, NY, when I was a young girl. Every “Army brat” who lived on the post was very aware of the acronym R.H.I.P., which means, “Rank has its privileges.” My mother taught a religion class at the Catholic...
This letter was prompted by Fr. Philip Dabney’s September 2013 column: My story begins in November 1942. The war had started a year before. Ralph, my boyfriend at that time, had been inducted into the Army. He was gone for thirty-eight months, thirty-f ive of which were spent in the...
Editor’s note: Readers submitted the following content. Points to Ponder When I was young, it would be so quiet in church that you could hear a sin drop! A young boy was scolded by his mother for having his fingers in the butter—“Jimmy! What did I say I’d do...
A painter always had plenty of work because he thinned his paint with water, so he was always the lowest bidder on jobs. One day a church invited bids for the exterior of the church to be repainted. Again, he was the low bidder and won the job. As he...
Is the Best Yet to Come? The British psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott had a wish: “May I be alive when I die!” We could do worse than making his desire our own as we move into our later years. I use it as an antidote to the temptation that asks, “Why...
Kathy is a wife, the mother of three boys, and a full-time nurse. She and her husband lead a full life. Much of their time is filled with evening practices and weekend games related to the boys’ sports activities. The couple dreams of taking a family vacation. Like many people,...
Easter lives with us as the core event of Christianity—the event that continues to give us direction more than 2,000 years after Jesus’ resurrection. We still look at the empty tomb and search for a reason his body wasn’t there. God’s plan extended beyond Jesus and through the disciples and...
Educating the Underserved Q) What is the mission of the Cristo Rey Network and what benefits are evident from the organization? A) The Cristo Rey Network empowers thousands of students from underserved lower-income communities to develop their minds and hearts to become lifelong contributors to society. By providing students an...