We've been Spreading the Good News for more than 100 Years.
The Covid-19 virus has demonstrated an ability to transcend man-made boundaries and barriers that exist in our fragile global community. It reminds us of humanity’s interconnection; even at the same time we’re practicing “social distancing.” Prayer—especially during this Lenten season—also helps keep us interconnected through challenging times. The Redemptorists and...
A Model Evangelist, a Life of Struggle These encouraging words from a man with a complicated story can inspire and guide us if we let them. Saint Clement Hofbauer spoke them more than 200 years ago, and the truth in them is as fresh today as they were then. How...
Editors Note: Each year, the Catholic Press Association puts out a call for entries of books, newspapers, magazines, and other publications to its Catholic Press Awards program. The awards honor the accomplishments of Catholic journalists and publishers and affirm their commitment to spreading the Good News. For Liguori, they affirm...
Liguori Publications is the proud publisher of award-winning Catholic books and Liguorian magazine. 2016 Association of Catholic Publishers (ACP) Excellence in Publishing Awards Finalists Liguori Inspirational Books Family, the Church, and the Real World, a Redemptorist Pastoral Publication The Catholic Drinkie’s Guide to Homebrewed Evangelism by Sarah Vabulas Liguori Children’s...
An Interview With Father Henri Nouwen By: ALICIA VON STAMWITZ Liguorian, October 1992 Henri Nouwen is a Dutch priest who has lived in North America since 1971. He is an internationally acclaimed speaker, and spiritual writer with over thirty published books, including The Wounded Healer, Genesee Diary, and, most recently,...
Editor Elizabeth Herzing interviews Fr. Greg Wiest, CSsR, a retreat leader at the Redemptorist Renewal Center in Tucson, AZ on the history of Desert Mothers and Fathers and how the concept of desert spirituality can enhance our spiritual growth.Q Give a brief history of “desert spirituality.” Q Give a brief...
By: Kathleen Fischer November 1999 One of the most remarkable changes in our society is that we are living much longer than earlier generations. In 1900, life expectancy at birth was less than 50 years, but a girl born today can expect to live to age 79, and a boy...
By Lisa Grey As a child, I loved playing “mommy” to my dolls. I couldn’t wait to grow up and have my own children. Years later, my dreams of being a mom became tarnished. It happened when I realized that I found my eldest stepchild to be, well, challenging to...
Written by Virgil Tipton I don’t remember the name of the book, but an image from it seared itself into my memory sometime in my childhood. The book was a children’s Bible, and the illustration documents the moment when an angel boots Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden....
Written by Jeanne Conte The brightness of Norway’s people glows at the Arctic Circle, where Catholicism grows. How does the light of God shine in the northernmost Catholic Church in the world, St. Michael Catholic Church, which rises high within the Arctic Circle of Norway? It shines brightly indeed, this...
Written by Timothy Matovina Many parishes and dioceses tend to focus on the challenges presented by the growing Hispanic presence. This is not surprising; a previous influx of Catholic newcomers to the United States was met with a similar attitude. Yet in the 2002 document Encuentro and Mission: A Renewed...
Written by William Rabior, ACSW September 2013 Teresa harbors a grudge against a physician in her small town. For many years he treated Teresa’s father for high blood pressure. When her dad died suddenly of a stroke, Teresa accused the doctor of not monitoring his blood pressure closely enough. Her...
Written by Editor 1913-2013 In honor of our first centennial, we want to honor our readers—our Liguorian family. You’re the reason we publish this magazine, and you’re uppermost in our minds as we plan each issue and develop each article. We want to say thank you for 100 years of...
Written by Timothy Matovina Muchas parroquias y diócesis tienden a centrarse en el desafío que representa la creciente presencia hispana. No es de sorprenderse; previamente una oleada de católicos que llegaban a Estados Unidos fue recibida con igual actitud. Sin embargo, ya en el 2002 el documento Encuentro y misión:...
Written by Editor The February 2014 issue of Liguorian focuses on spiritual nourishment. Often we feel as if we simply don’t have the time to nourish ourselves spiritually. But there is a way: In Moments With God, Jacquelyn Graham suggests we turn waiting into praying: “Sometimes waiting is a mere...
The Bittersweet Joy of Forgiveness By: Patrick Kaler, CSsR April 1977 A Priest looks at the new confession. Most people thinking of the long confessional line, would date this as pre-Vatican II. And ever since that time many pastors have been asking: “What caused that line of penitents to...
Three Myths About Aging By: Sister Mary Kirene Glavich, SND July 1981 I contend that we have been brainwashed into seeing old age as a disease rather than the last and most beautiful phase of human life, which God intended it to be—the golden age. Old age can be a...
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...
A Modern Look at Mary’s Role in the Church
May-June 2013
On this day, O beautiful Mother,
On this day we bring thee our love.
Near thee, Madonna, fondly we hover,
Trusting thy gentle care to prove.
For Catholics of a certain generation, these words represent the best of childhood memories: May crowning, rosary processions, girls in white dresses, and petals strewn as far as the eye could see. For others, it represents the worst of sugary-sweet hymnody: a devotional life divorced from the liturgy of the Church and traditional forms of Marian devotion void of ecumenical sensibility.
For me, it represents neither. My memories are drawn not to elementary school, but to a local nursing home—Bishop Drumm Retirement Center. I remember going there as a kid to take my grandma to Mass and always seeing Sr. Edith, as old as any of the residents, still pounding away at the organ as best as she could. Her repertoire was limited by age and arthritis, so you could almost bet that at least once each week you’d get a rousing rendition of “On This Day.” It didn’t matter whether it was Tuesday of the fourth week of the year or the second Saturday of Easter. I wasn’t even aware that it was a May-crowning hymn until I entered the novitiate for the Dominicans; then again, before that time I’m not sure I understood exactly what May crowning was.