Category: 2015 April

Stability in a World of Change

Christ is risen! Alleluia! Easter is the greatest celebration in our liturgical calendar. The first Easter was the day when the Lord rose triumphantly from the grave. It was the day when hope was restored, faith was renewed, and charity prevailed. The tomb was empty, and death lost her age-old...

Unlocking Cages

Daffodils are emerging, blossoms are appearing on trees, and I’m due for my first bike ride of the year. It’s spring, a time of release—from the cold ground, from secret places in branches, from the dusty garage. It is also, of course, the season we celebrate Easter, when Jesus rose...

Vigils: A Timeless Way to Experience God

Vigils: A Timeless Way to Experience God

Christians keep vigils. They give us an important way to live our faith daily. They allows us to reshape time, put down the clock and encounter God. To keep vigil means that we have a purpose for watching and waiting. To be vigilant requires a level of endurance and patience. It invites us into...

Mary, While Sinless, Was Like Us

Believe it or not, before Vatican II, it was generally believed that the Mother of God was not only exempt from original sin but also from the pangs of childbirth, fatigue, doubt, temptation, ignorance, and death. These human experiences, it was reasoned, were a consequence of sin, and Mary was...

The Spiritual and Mystical Experience

Veneration of the icon means focusing our attention on a specific element, such as Mary’s face or her right hand, which points to the image of the Child—any aspect that communicates an exchange of energy, a divine presence. The icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help presents no written words...

April 2015: The Mail

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...

April 2015

The Cloud of Unknowing Fr. Dennis J. Billy, CSsR Liguori Publications $19.99 Few would dispute that our active lives can intrude upon our ability to focus when we pray. It seems twas ever thus. Seven hundred years ago, The Cloud of Unknowing was written in Middle English, a work of...

Celebrating the Fifty Days of Easter

Lent appears to never end. But Easter seems gone in a snap. Some years I blink and wonder if I missed it. But in actuality, while the plastic bunnies and egg-laden trees disappear by Monday afternoon, to Christians, Easter is a fifty-day season! Think about it. On Good Friday we...

On Loss, Love, Hope

A story of how one couple follows the example of our risen Lord, even when their pain seems unimaginable. It was the phone call every parent dreads. In the early-evening hours on the last day of 2014, the police called a close friend of mine with tragic news. A driver...

April 2015

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...

Nature’s Reminders

Lilies are the perfect flowers for Easter. Since the 1920s, when they were first introduced in the United States, they have become a symbol of Easter. For many, their strong fragrance and striking appearance are synonymous with the celebration of the resurrection of our Lord. But did you know that...

What Kind of Christian Are You?

In my freshman year of high school, I attended a talk hosted by an evangelical youth group. The topic was about “almost-ers”—people who weren’t quite good enough to get into heaven and who would therefore burn in hell forever. I was fourteen! It terrified me! Who is ever good enough?...