On March 13, 2015, His Holiness Pope Francis announced that on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary—December 8, 2015—the Universal Church would enter an Extraordinary Holy Year of Mercy. Why did his Holiness cho … [Read more...]
Promoting Devotion to Wisconsin’s Approved Marian Apparition among Catechists
May 12, 2015 by Rev. Edward Lee Looney, STB, MDiv
Parish religious education programs will soon be gearing up for another year of instructing children in their religion. Parents have registered their children; curriculums and lesson plans are being drafted, and catechists are being … [Read more...]
Mary, Daughter of Zion
January 12, 2015 by Fr. James Swetnam, SJ
In the ancient Near East, a woman, often evoked as a virgin, was frequently used to symbolize a city or a country. For example, at Isaiah 47:1, the city of Babylon is called a “virgin daughter”: “Step down! Sit in the dust, virgin daughter o … [Read more...]
Guadalupe and God’s Word
A Biblical-Theological Interpretation of Her Apparition
December 15, 2014 by Paulino Forte
When Miguel Sánchez published Imagen de la Virgen María in 1648, he did more than document the first apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the New World. Scholars agree that his account became a lens through which clergy and faithful i … [Read more...]
A Silence about Mary
December 15, 2014 by Fr. Charles Kestermeier, SJ
Mary is very central to the Gospel’s infancy narratives, but after Cana she almost disappears: we see her in the “Who are my mother and my brothers and my sisters?” passage, at the foot of the cross, and as being present at the Pentecost eve … [Read more...]
True, Virginal Wife of Joseph
October 29, 2014 by Jonathan Fleischmann
Recently, a holy, married couple made the following claim regarding the central place of sexual intercourse in sacramental marriage, expressed as a personal insight, gained over the course of more than 50 years of sacramental … [Read more...]
The Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary: Detecting a Pattern of Internal Consistency
May 24, 2014 by Jayson M. Brunelle, MEd, CAGS
Against the background of the words, Ave Maria, the principal events of the life of Jesus Christ pass before the eyes of the soul. They take shape in the complete series of the joyful, sorrowful, and glorious mysteries, and they put us in … [Read more...]
The Virgin Birth, Perpetual Virginity, and NFP
May 23, 2014 by Deacon W. Patrick Cunningham
...we need to look back at the reign of Joseph’s direct ancestor, the great King David ... (which) will help us understand that Mary was ... the lifelong Spouse of the Holy Spirit, and that Joseph was her protector, but not her sexual p … [Read more...]
To Jesus, Through Mary, in the Spirit of St. Joseph: The Wheat, the Rose, and the Lily
October 24, 2013 by Jayson M. Brunelle, MEd, CAGS
St. Louis de Montfort and St. Maximillian Kolbe . . . have consistently taught that the most appropriate response on our part to Mary's role as spiritual mother is filial entrustment, or “total consecration” to her. This perfect devotion of … [Read more...]
Imagination, Prayer, and the Spousal Gift
October 22, 2013 by Deacon James Keating
In and through Christ’s Spirit, St. Joseph stands ready to assist any priest in going to Mary, thus concretizing the priest’s own spousal identity. In this essay, I will explore the identity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in her powerful rol … [Read more...]
The Interior Life
April 17, 2012 by Fr. Kenneth Baker, SJ
The interior life for a Catholic means finding God in all things, leading to a life of contemplation in action. Faith in Jesus Christ has consequences. A devout Catholic, who takes his faith seriously, will live in way that is in … [Read more...]
Mary, Mother of Mercy. Christ the Power of Merciful Love
March 21, 2012 by Fr. James McTavish
Merciful love is a strong love, is capable of withstanding the cross, both difficulties and challenges. Where does the title, “Mary, Mother of Mercy,” come from? We have many popular prayers that speak of Mary as Mother of Mercy. For exam … [Read more...]
St. Thérèse’s Teacher: Our Lady of the Little Way
St. Thérèse believed that the Blessed Mother was the living embodiment of “The Little Way.”
October 1, 2011 by Fr. John Saward
In July 1937, forty years after St. Thérèse’s death, Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, later Pope Pius XII, came to Lisieux to give a first blessing to the basilica then being constructed in honour of the Little Flower. He had a meeting in the Carm … [Read more...]
The Catholic Holocaust of Nagasaki—“Why, Lord?”
The witness of the Catholics of Nagasaki shows God’s providence in the darkest of times.
August 1, 2010 by Br. Anthony Josemaria
On August 9, 1945, God’s inscrutable providence allowed an atomic bomb named “Fat Man” to be dropped from a B-29 into the heavily populated city of Nagasaki. The epicenter of the blast was the Urakami district, the heart and soul of Catho … [Read more...]
Heaven is not an abstraction
The realism or concreteness of Catholicism is startling to minds conditioned only by abstractions or by materialism alone.
June 1, 2009 by Fr. James V. Schall, SJ
“Today’s feast (Assumption) impels us to lift our gaze to Heaven; not the heaven consisting of abstract ideas or even an imaginary heaven created by art, but the Heaven of true reality which is God himself.” —Benedict XVI, Homily, Feast of … [Read more...]
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