Here is The Victim Who Vanished in Word

A short time ago, in the Maryland countryside, a priest the humble folk say bears a resemblance to Maximilian Kolbe turned on the ignition of his old silver pick-up and eased out of the parking lot of his St. Michael’s parish. He shifted i … [Read more...]

Lent: In Search Of the One and the Real

Lent, the great and holy fast, comes upon us again. It is a season of promise and peril. Promise, because we are invited to anticipate in ourselves the paschal mystery, whereby human nature is healed and elevated. Peril, because we risk … [Read more...]

Coming Home for Easter: The Challenge and a Method

Steven Spielberg’s 1982 motion picture classic E. T. — The Extraterrestrial captured the hearts and minds of moviegoers around the world, with its combination of comedy, drama, and tragedy. The plot of the film described E.T.’s quest to “go … [Read more...]

Deferring Absolution in Clerical Abuse Cases

Deferring absolution is the key moment of decision on several key moral issues like contraception and relations with legal but not legitimate spouses, so it ends up being somewhat controversial. However, regarding clerical abuse, I think … [Read more...]

The Confessional Prudence of St. Alphonsus Liguori, Doctor and Patron of Confessors

During my priestly training, I had the privilege of studying moral theology at a university governed by the sons of St. Alphonsus, and in this environment, I grew to know and to love this saint, a doctor of the Church and patron of … [Read more...]

The Heart of a Priest

St. John Vianney

Father Patrice Chocholski is the successor of St. John Vianney as the pastor of the Parish of St. Sixtus in Ars, France. In July of 2018, Fr. Patrice brought the relic of the heart of St. John Vianney to the United States on a pilgrimage … [Read more...]

An Anthropological Reflection on the Church’s Sexual Scandal

Assuaging God for the Rape of Abel 

The kind of penitence that must take place to move the Church away from the precipice of destruction is the kind that comes from a much deeper well of ancient understandings of man who is flesh and spirit. We must mine the deeper … [Read more...]

An Advent Examination

Advent is not a season of penance, but of preparation. Advent prepares us for the two comings of Christ, that is, the Incarnation and the Eschaton. However, amid the garlands and the gifts, we all know how easy it is to become wrapped up in … [Read more...]

The Necessity of Confession and Its Seal

Any Catholic reading the report of Australia’s Royal Commission of Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse must be appalled by the multiple instances of child abuse in ecclesial institutions perpetrated by priests, religious, and l … [Read more...]

Renewal and the Penitential Life

Wherever we may look for solutions to the present tension and confusion, we must realize that the solution will begin with the Eucharist, return to the Eucharist, and be formed by the Eucharist. Whatever secular processes may be deemed … [Read more...]

The Power in a Penance

About six or seven years ago, I participated in the sacrament of reconciliation. (By the way, that was not my last time.) At the heart of my confession was the fact that I had recently been responding to my wife with “irritation” or “an … [Read more...]

The Rule of the Secular Franciscan Order: A Short Meditation on the Call to Penance

Today there is a new international discussion about Secular Franciscan identity, and the future direction of the Order. The General Chapter of 2014 asked for a “period of serious reflection, involving all members of the Order,” on the fut … [Read more...]

The Curse of Crying and the Gift of Tears in The Confessions

Tears manifest the reality of the finitude of man. Tears are most often an expression of being overwhelmed by passion. They can be consented to, embraced, wallowed in, squelched, or avoided. Tears are a silent confession of man’s own r … [Read more...]

Taking Up the Cross Daily by Praying with Our Senses

On the Role of Mortification in the Christian Life

The term “mortification” has become increasingly less common in contemporary discussions of the spiritual life. One might say it is now nearly absent from such discussions. We hear about someone being “mortified” when they are humiliated, or … [Read more...]

The Church’s Year of Grace: History, Traditions, Beauty

Christian discipleship is fundamentally a dynamic movement from self to the beauty of Christ. In the absence of this dynamic movement, faith remains woefully incomplete. ...The essential characteristic of beauty then is to be transported … [Read more...]