Homily for the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God—January 1, 2018 Readings: http://usccb.org/bible/readings/010118.cfm Nm 6:22-27; Ps 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8; Gal 4:4-7; Lk 2:16-21. Mary kept all these things, reflecting on … [Read more...]
Archives for 2017
The True Christmas Exchange
Christ’s Striving to Take Flesh Anew
December 30, 2017 by David Vincent Meconi
Christmas did not happen only in Bethlehem some 2000 years ago. The coming of Christ is not simply an historical event recorded deep in our human history. If it were, you and I would be historians but not Christians. The days of preparation … [Read more...]
Conformed to a Vulnerable Savior
A Christmas Reflection for Priests
December 30, 2017 by Rev. Thomas V. Berg, PhD
Msgr. Stephen Rossetti’s 2011 study, Why Priests Are Happy,[1. Stephen J. Rossetti, Why Priests are Happy: A Study of the Psychological and Spiritual Health of Priests (Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press, 2011).] gave the lie to any number of p … [Read more...]
Receiving the Gift
A Way of Life Open to Reality
December 30, 2017 by Thomas Gourlay
(This essay was previously presented at the National Billings Ovulation Method Teachers' Weekend.)[1. Presented at the National Billings Ovulation Method Teachers' Weekend. Perth, Western Australia. May 6, 2017.] If the Christmas Season … [Read more...]
Is a Sense of Humor Necessary for Salvation?
December 30, 2017 by Rev. Basil Cole, OP
Everyone needs to develop a certain flexibility in life or one simply becomes a grump, unable to be a healthy and realistic optimist in the face of trials and difficulties, failures and other mishaps of life. The flexible person first knows … [Read more...]
Recovering Our Bearings
The Role of the Common Life in the Rebuilding of Priestly Fraternity
December 30, 2017 by Fr. John Nepil
Many priests consume themselves in work, but become alone and lose their bearings. It is thus all the more important that the unity of the presbyterate is lived and experienced. Support everything which strengthens priests to encounter and … [Read more...]
You Shall Rejoice In Your Festival
December 30, 2017 by Fr. Tim McCauley
Why do we need a command to rejoice in our religious festivals? Simply look out at the sea of faces in the average congregation on a Sunday morning. God instructed the people through Moses, regarding the three major Jewish festivals of … [Read more...]
The Human Jesus
December 30, 2017 by Fr. John Zupez, SJ
(First published in "Spirituality," July/August 2013. Dublin: Dominican Publications.) Since the Second Vatican Council, Catholics have come to a better appreciation of the full humanity of Jesus, which was always a part of Church dogma. … [Read more...]
Proselytism, Evangelization, and “Ecumenism of Return”
December 12, 2017 by Eduardo Echeverria
In a 2016 interview that was arranged by Fr. Antonio Spadaro, S.J., the editor of La Civiltà Cattolica, prior to the trip to Sweden for an ecumenical gathering anticipating the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, Pope Francis expressed … [Read more...]
The Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Second Vatican Council
December 12, 2017 by Fr. Donncha O hAodha
The most mature and complete fruit of the conciliar teaching.[1. St John Paul II, Homily, 8 December 1992.] 1. The Council and the Catechism This past October (Oct 11, 2017) marked the 25th anniversary of promulgation of the … [Read more...]
My Side of the Confessional
A Scrupulous Penitent’s Plea to Confessors
December 12, 2017 by Monica Lyons Montanaro
For months, I had been mustering the courage to go to confession. I had faced the terror of Hell to marshal my sins. I had waited in the empty church for half an hour, palms in a cold sweat, rehearsing my lines. It had been three months and … [Read more...]
Is There Really Any Hope for a Return to the Traditional Latin Mass?
Interview with Dr. Peter Kwasniewski
December 12, 2017 by Roseanne T. Sullivan
In the essays by Dr. Peter Kwasniewski, collected in Noble Beauty, Transcendent Holiness: Why the Modern Age Needs the Mass of Ages, Dr. Kwasniewski writes as an unabashed adherent for the traditional Latin Mass. He is positive not only … [Read more...]
The Significance of the Eucharist in the Apparitions at Fatima
December 12, 2017 by Dr. Richard Nicholas
Introduction. One hundred years ago in May of 1917, Our Lady began a series of apparitions to three Portuguese children named Lucia Santos, Francisco Marto, and Jacinta Marto in the village of Fatima. In the very first apparition, Mary … [Read more...]
Total Consecration to the Virgin Mary
December 12, 2017 by Jonathan Fleischmann
Introduction When we think of Jesus Christ, what do we think of first? Do we think of an ideal of unselfishness: “Do to others as you would have them do to you” (Luke 6:31)? Do we think of an institution divinely inspired: “You are Peter, a … [Read more...]
Questions Answered
December 12, 2017 by Fr. Brian Mullady, OP
Question: Please explain why “even attachment to venial sin” prevents one from obtaining a plenary indulgence. It seems no one can receive one as we all are attached to, and even commit, venial sins. Answer: The answers to this question a … [Read more...]
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