“Hola!” my newly minted eight-year-old daughter greets every passerby on the streets of Mexico City.
Tag: Guest Column
St. Joseph, pray for us
St. Joseph is a model of true masculinity in a time when true masculinity is under attack, misunderstood, and poorly modeled by many men in our culture.
Seniors: Share life experiences with young
My fondest memories of summer are the times spent with my favorite aunt at her cottage nestled in the Adirondack Mountains.
As a middle school teacher, she had a gift for relating to kids in a way very different from parents, like a wise friend or a trusted confidante.
Lent: Joyful season that brings delight to the soul
There is a famous quote from St. John Chrysostom that draws attention to the supreme purpose of Lent; namely, the celebration of the Resurrection of Christ.
Priestly formation and dealing with scandal
What is the Church doing to deal with the scandal of priests and bishops acting against their promise of celibacy and those that have covered up the scandalous actions of those involved?
Let’s encourage the elders in our Church
Last summer, I participated in the Convocation of Catholic Leaders in Orlando, Fla. The purpose of this large, unprecedented encounter between U.S. bishops and laity was to study what Pope Francis has termed the “new peripheries” and to form missionary disciples.
Our Lady of Guadalupe points us all to her Son
Why is Our Lady of Guadalupe important? We have all seen her image — not only in churches, but on car windows, tattoos, flags, or at our favorite Mexican restaurant.
How Catholics join together as a community of faith
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This is the first of a two-part series on how Catholics join together as a community of faith as expressed in the Church’s law on parishes (part one) and sacred places (part two).
Man is a religious being. Man is a social being. These two fundamental truths of human nature spring from our having been created with an immaterial soul capable of knowing and loving.
As such, we have an innate desire to use these faculties to be in communion with God and with those around us. This aspect of humanity is expressed beautifully in the account of creation in Genesis 2, in which Adam and Eve are established in a state of perfect harmony with God and with each other.
One result of mankind’s dual religious and social nature is the desire to come together in order to worship, a ritual expressed in every civilization in human history. We naturally join with those around us to pray and worship God, and what’s more, we often set aside some space dedicated to this purpose of communal prayer.
In this two-part article I will examine the way in which we, as Catholics, join together as a community of faith as expressed in the Church’s law on parishes (part one) and sacred places (part two).
Encouraging a culture of vocations
“We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven while we were with him on the holy mountain” (2 Pt. 1:16-19).
This is my prayer for each of you who are reading this article and especially for each of the seminarians for the Diocese of Madison.
How beautiful it is when we hear the voice of God speak to us personally and we respond by following him, like SS. Peter, James, and John at the Transfiguration.
A stewardship story
He looked very young. I guess he had to be about nine years old. But, to look at him you’d say he was more like six or seven.
He stood in the sacristy dressed in his white cassock, looking more like he was waiting to be led to the gallows rather then serve at Mass.