To the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost-blind you draw large startling figures.
~Flannery O’Connor.
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 [...]
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 [...]
“God will never forgive me for what I’ve done.” This is often the desolate, hopeless cry of a woman who made a decision to abort her child. The people and circumstances that led to that decision years earlier matter little to her when she thinks about the event now. Even if she was coerced into [...]