To the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost-blind you draw large startling figures.
~Flannery O’Connor.
November is the month of All Souls. It is a yearly reminder of our obligation to pray for the souls who, as our doctrine teaches, are in a process of post-death purification. The souls in Purgatory have repented of their sins but haven’t yet atoned for them, and that is where we come in. As [...]
Our Lady is the great lover of the Guardian Angels whose feast day we celebrate on October 2nd every year. She loves them because they are the angels closest to the human race. All angels touch human existence in some way, but the Guardian Angels are assigned to protect our souls, which are the special [...]
In September we celebrate Our Lady’s birthday. Don’t all good children remember their mother on her birthday? This special celebration in the Church’s calendar points out a fundamental element of Christianity: our hope for eternal salvation. The Blessed Virgin gave birth to the Savior, but Mary’s birth itself was the flowering of divine hope [...]
Famed Holocaust survivor Elie Weisel once quoted a saying from an ancient rabbinical text: the angels weep whenever a soul is condemned to Hell. Our Lord seemed to echo that angelic emotion with His agonized sweat in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night before He died. If the angels lament the loss of one [...]
It was a bit shocking to read recently about the Detroit priest who discovered, three years after ordination, that he had never been validly baptized. The invalid baptism meant he was not a priest. As Fr. Matthew Hood was reviewing a video of his own baptism 30 years earlier, he heard with his own ears [...]
Matter and form are to the sacraments what money and a purchase agreement (contract) are to buying a house. These two elements (money/contract) are the minimum conditions for a legal act and allow the transfer of a thing from one owner to another. Sacraments work in a similar way. Matter (material or tangible element) [...]
St. Dominic’s feast on August 8th is a yearly reminder of importance of the Holy Rosary to the spiritual lives of many Catholics. It is perhaps the Church’s greatest devotion and force of prayer after the Sacraments themselves. The Rosary is Mary’s way of drawing us into the mysteries of Christ and His redemptive acts. [...]
St. Joseph is the friend and ally of all believers: he is the patriarch of God’s holy people, the saint of workers, and the patron of the Universal Church. We owe much to his constant patronage. Only in heaven will we really see how fully the silent saint has interceded for our welfare. Above all, [...]
Our Lady Before the Tomb Oh, my Son! My Son! Jesus, my Son! “Why have you abandoned me?” My soul is forlorn, once widowed, twice bereaved, alone among many. The world is bereft of all comfort. The rock that covers your place of rest, Jesus, my Son! Is harder than the hardest diamond, stronger than [...]
Temptations from the devil are instruments in God’s hands to strengthen the spiritual dimension of the human person, namely, the human mind and will. The sacred humanity of Jesus Christ had to submit to temptation because He chose to experience everything human. Our Lady was united to Him spiritually during His temptations and stands by [...]
If you’re not tempted to violate your core values from time to time, you’re not growing in the most important dimension of your being: your spirit. Actually, we need temptation for spiritual growth. That is its purpose, and that is why God allows us to be tempted. Biblical Precedent If you don’t believe me, just [...]
The parents of Jesus must have felt some apprehension when they brought the Christ Child to present Him to the Lord in the Temple (a feast day we celebrate on February 2nd). Would He be accepted or rejected? Yet, in that moment of clarity and grace, the parents of the Messiah were released from anxiety [...]