Sunday Readings for the Feast of the Ascension The celebration of the Ascension used to leave me a bit flat. It was clear what Good Friday did for me. And Easter Sunday’s benefits were indisputable. But as for the Ascension,…
The Feast of the Ascension
Confession – A Cleansing of the Soul
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all iniquity….
Compassion
Tell them not to speak evil of anyone, but to be peaceful and friendly, and always to show a gentle attitude toward everyone. For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, and wrong. Titus 3: 2-3a It’s so hard to keep…
St. Felix of Cantalice, the Joyful Evangelizer
When I was a child, there were four Catholic schools in our little city of 50,000. Each covered K-12. There was the German parish, the Irish parish, the Polish parish and the non-parish-affiliated all girls school. The Felician Sisters…
The Little Saints of Fatima
On May 13th, the 100th anniversary of the first appearance of Our Lady of Fatima, Pope Francis canonized Jacinta and Francisco Marto. These siblings were two of the visionaries of that extraordinary event, along with their older cousin Lucia. With…
The Paraclete
He wore steel-rimmed glasses and had hair to the middle of his back. The fringe on his buck-skinned jacket bounced as he walked. At least that was the way I was accustomed to seeing Mike as he bopped around town. …
Provoked
It’s been a while now, actually a lot of years. I have been “casting my eyes” on the daily readings of the Church for about forty years or so. Because of that I have been encouraged to do things, empowered…
Pre-Evangelization and Liturgy. Yes.
Does it matter that liturgy is something bigger than us? Something God gives, not something we make or create? In his 2010 post-synodal apostolic exhortation, Verbum Domini, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI emphasized the relationship between human history and Christianity: “The…
Divine Providence is God Giving Anonymously
In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to ask God the Father to “give us this day our daily bread”. By “daily bread”, Jesus means the things we need each day to live. But what does it look like when…
The Ladder to Heaven
St. Maximilian Kolbe said of our Blessed Mother, “What a marvelous ladder for climbing to Him… And it is the very same whereby He came down to us!” (Roman Conferences, IV) According to the saint, she is a ladder for…