Catholic. Pastoral. Trusted.
May-June 2013 A faded sign in the window of a small storefront church near my home declares, “We offer a hand-up, not a hand-out!” A Salvation Army social-service center offers food vouchers; a stone’s throw away, the Catholic Worker offers a free clinic. Churches and church organizations have been in the...
The board of directors of Liguori Publications has unanimously elected a multimedia journalist as publisher (CEO) and a businessman and priest as president. Virgil Tipton of Richmond Heights, MO, is the new publisher and the Rev. Donald Willard, CSsR., of Whittier, CA, is the new president. The two succeed the Rev. Mathew Kessler, CSsR., who served as both president and publisher for six years. The change is effective July 1, 2013.
"Fr. Mat has served with great distinction and has positioned Liguori Publications well to adapt to the future of publishing," said the Rev. Matt Allman, CSsR, chairman of the board of directors. "We have confidence that Virgil and Fr. Don will expand on that legacy."
A conceited rookie pitcher walked five men in his first game. The manager promptly removed him from the mound. The rookie slammed his glove on the ground and yelled, “I can’t believe he took me out—I had a no-hitter going!” A little boy asked, “Grandma, do you know how...
Hope and Help for Living with Illness Karen Zielinski, OSF | Foreword by Richard Rohr Franciscan Media $12.99 As we age, we must be prepared to face new health issues—either our own or those of loved ones—more and more often. Medications, treatments, and paperwork become stressful burdens, relationships often become...
Getting the Marriage Conversation Right A Guide for Effective Dialogue William B. May Emmaus Road Publishing $5.95 The current drive to redefine marriage lends a sense of urgency to this easy-to-read guide for answering questions and explaining what is at stake for the future of marriage and the rights of...
April 2013 "Good morale, economic stability, and the American dream have a hefty price tag." Opening Day is April 1! In Cincinnati, a hot dog at the ballpark is $1, while in Tampa Bay it’s more than $5. A ballpark beer Arizona is $4; at a Phillies game, it’s a...
April 2013 "Doing one thing every day may not change the world, but will change us." On Easter Sunday, anything seems possible. The triumph of life over death and heaven over hell seems to resound throughout a world poised on the cusp of spring. But it’s hard to hold on...
March 2013 In the absence of clarity, the only way to hold the course is to stay in touch with the One who sees the big picture. Prayer is the foundation of a lived faith. Sometimes I think past generations had an easier time following God. The Israelites had the...
March 2013 In 100 years, the world will be different, but people will still try to make sense of it. What will be around to guide them? Who will be there to walk with them? A century ago, a group of Redemptorists teaching in a Wisconsin major seminary decided to...
October 2012 This October, the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council provides an opportune moment to look back and see what the council had to say about Mary. The council didn’t produce a document solely about the Mother of God; however, it did speak about Mary’s...
We’re constantly amazed at what science tells us about the world. From the complexity of galaxies and solar systems to the intricacies of atomic particles, science explores the what and how of the universe. However, it humbly backs away from the questions of who the intelligence behind creation is and...
December 2012 I often wonder what Jesus was like in person. The Gospels, compiled decades after his death and resurrection from oral traditions filtered through hundreds of retellings, only give us a sketchy (and often—let’s face it—pretty dry) picture. We can guess with what awe the people who witnessed his miracles...
Silly me, I thought I was going to have to cook right after my first child was born. I didn’t know about the Postpartum Food Network. You know, the parade of adorers bringing buckets of pasta and trays of brownies—meals dripping with caloric goodness accompanied by miniature outfits in baby...
In November, the Church focuses on the “life to come” aspect of Christianity. Days that commemorate the communion of saints and the faithful departed launch us into the month. The feast of Christ the King, which proclaims that the redemptive work of God is destined to embrace the life of...
Promises Made, Promises Delivered When we try to reflect on the Second Vatican Council’s (1962–1965) “promises” to the Church, we cannot help but think of the famous definition that one of the most important theologians of the council, French Dominican Yves Congar (1904–1995) gave to the council’s Pastoral Constitution on the Church...
From the day the priest poured water over our babies’ heads and anointed them with chrism, my husband and I knew it was our responsibility to train them in the practice of the faith. The rite of baptism told us so. But it didn’t seem like big a deal. What’s...
Raising a family is hard work. Millions of small decisions make up the balancing act required to create a healthy home life for children. My hat’s off to the women and men who commit their lives to their families. They should take comfort in the Gospel’s reminders that even Jesus grew to maturity in the midst of the messiness of a home.
On a recent visit to my mother, I noticed a prayer posted on her refrigerator door: “Patient Trust,”* written by the French Jesuit philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. I stopped to read it closely, especially these stanzas:
Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are, quite naturally, impatient in everything
to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something
unknown, something new.
I don’t know about you, but I find my nightly TV-viewing options rather uninspiring. It seems basic cable offers little more than crude sitcoms, so-called reality TV, and gruesome crime dramas. If an alien race tapped into our video streams to find out what sort of people inhabit Earth, they’d turn...
I turned 50 in May. When my physician informed me that I should steel myself for a gauntlet of medical tests, I added my voice to the chorus of people in and out of the health care industry asking, when does the testing get to be too much? When a...
Many years ago my family and I visited the beautiful Basilica of Our Lady of Avioth in France, just across the border from Belgium. This medieval church is believed to house a miraculous statue of Mary. The church is unusually large for the small village in which it dwells, but...