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I received a peculiar gift at a recent parish visit. It’s a statue of St. Joseph, asleep. Joseph is curled up with his head on his traveling bag. His eyes are closed. He’s peaceful and still. I was told the image depicts Joseph dreaming. That could be. Angels appeared to...
COVID-19 has upended our grieving and mourning rituals, but as parishes begin to reopen, there are actions Catholics can take to enable those who have lost loved ones to mourn in a safe place.
In recent articles I wrote about the Litany of Our Lady of Loreto. In this litany we address many titles of prayer to Our Lady, one of which is “Ark of the Covenant.” As we know from Exodus 25:10, God requested Moses to build an ark and sanctuary where he...
Liguorian published an article on voting in September titled “The Faithful Vote: Taking a well-informed con-science to the polls.” In the past couple of months, this article generated more letters, emails, and voicemails than all our content from the past two years combined—the equivalent of about 120 columns and eighty...
After Mass, a parishioner approached me. Her words reached me well before she did. “Father, this time around the question isn’t which candidate to vote for, it’s, ‘Should I vote or not?’” I wondered how many people are mulling over the same thought. This presidential election year, it’s no surprise...
At the heart of most stress-filled experiences is a premature or, at the very least, a half-baked yes. We can all relate to finding ourselves in a situation where, once fully immersed, we question how or why we got there. Recall the times you’ve agreed to do something and later...
America’s first Army chaplains supported soldiers during the American Revolution. They provided religious and pastoral care for the living and the dead, administered rites, and sometimes carried arms to join their congregations into battle. Chaplains have been by the sides of US soldiers and sailors ever since, in peace and...
When our Blessed Mother appeared before three shepherd children in Fátima, Portugal, in 1917, Mary said: “Pray the rosary every day.” We cannot emphasize enough the importance of prayer. Without prayer, we cut ourselves off from our Lord’s amazing graces. God’s love is essential, especially in great difficulty. Consider Fátima’s...
Perhaps it is the presence of Valentine’s Day: February is widely recognized as the month in which people fall in love. (I know this was true for my late husband and me!) Love has many lessons. Some can only be learned in retrospect. I wrote this reflection for a beautiful...
Our new parish priest was lean but muscular, with silver hair juxtaposed against a leathery, sun-tanned face. Perched on the steps of the church rectory, his dark-as-polished-pinewood eyes squinted into the July sun as he watched me, Minuto, a lad of fifteen, pinch-faced and wiry, with strands of pitch-black hair...
The company that manages our electrical service called our parish one day. The agent said the company would do a free energy audit. The audit would produce a report detailing the ways we could save energy and lower our bill. The company also offered us energy-saving light bulbs, free. We’ve...
Alcoholism may be one of humanity’s oldest addictions. Wine and other intoxicating beverages—along with their potential to cause problems—have been with us since the development of agriculture. In the Book of Genesis, Noah—a good farmer—planted a vineyard. And, after harvesting grapes, he promptly “drank some of the wine, became drunk,...
In the tradition of the Church, we have many forms of liturgical prayers that honor Mary. Litanies, among the oldest forms of prayer, incorporate petitions and titles for God or a saint. In the Roman Catholic tradition, the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary is the most well-known of this...
Have you ever been in a relationship—professional, personal, or familial—in which you felt as if you couldn’t do anything right? When faced with overbearing personalities who tend to critique/criticize every minute detail of my actions, I become hypersensitive. Nerves take over. Common sense flies out the window. I become so...
Though we’ve experienced much uncertainty recently—particularly in relation to the spread of the Coronavirus—when it comes to our faith, there is always one certainty. We can always come together in prayer. Prayer is possible so often…as we walk, as we shop, as we wash our hands, and even as we...
There’s an incomprehensible quality to empathy that only the soul can grasp. It carries us to a place where we forget ourselves and take up the cross of another to shoulder their burden of suffering for a while. In that holy realm where we embody another’s grief, those afflictions are...
People tend to take things for granted. Americans in particular exhibit an orientation to life that can become so ingrained that it provides the lens through which we understand ourselves and evaluate others. If we fail to widen our focus, we risk becoming ethnocentric, a trait that can be positive...
The highest form of charity is that shown to those unable to reciprocate and perhaps even to thank us in return.—Pope Francis Long before immigrants, refugees, and migrants became the subjects of modern-day hot-button political debates, the Catholic Church addressed the question of whether people have the right to emigrate...
A ton of turmoil abounds around the globe. From navigating the uncharted waters of the coronavirus that causes the disease COVID-19, to the economic and social hardships the threat of the virus has wrought, to the numerous other challenges people face, many find it difficult, if not impossible, to attain...
June 27 is a special day during which we can especially celebrate a great source of consolation for so many. The annual feast of Our Mother of Perpetual Help enables us to reflect on our veneration of our beloved icon. On this feast day, let us express our gratitude to...