Last week, I posted about the upcoming “Abide in Me & I in You” free online mini-retreat, led by Sr. Kathryn James Hermes, F.S.P. on SmartCatholics. The retreat is happening this Saturday, April 23, at 3pm Eastern. In case you’re still on the fence about joining in, I thought it would be helpful...
This article is dedicated to Paul Fahey who by a post published on SmartCatholics galvanized some volatile thoughts to come together and form an article. Thank you, Paul! I enjoy reading articles about science–when they are written in a way that I can understand. I remember being fascinated back in the 70s when...
Synodality is simple. There is nothing confusing about it. Sometimes it can take a complicated intellectual journey to understand a simple concept, however. God Himself is so simple that we, in our complexity, cannot fully grasp Him. The same is true of what comes from God, such as peace, joy, and love. They...
Let’s be honest: your soul in its natural state is subject to self-doubt, guilt and shame, unruly passions, murderous and perverse thoughts, obsessions, compulsions, and despair. Of course, many people live their lives distracted by daily trivial business and never consider the eternal fate of their souls, or anyone else’s. But not you....
Recently, two prominent churchmen called for a change in the Church’s teachings on sexuality. Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich of Luxembourg said in an interview with a German Catholic news agency that the Church’s teachings on homosexuality were no longer correct and should be “fundamentally revised.” Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg took a similar line....
When I was a young teenager, I spent a lot of time riding around the neighborhood on my bike or walking in the fields while asking that age-old question: “What do I want to do with my life?” As for many young people, my search for a direction or purpose in my life...
The Holy Week liturgies are always grueling ones for an elderly pontiff. This has been more apparent than ever this year with Pope Francis, whose ongoing mobility issues slowed him down during the recent trip to Malta as well as this week. The weight of the ongoing war in Ukraine as well as...
A scripture reflection for Easter Sunday, April 17, 2022 It was January 11, 2019. I had been back home only for two days, but that was the day I lost my beloved father. Dad was buried in the local parish cemetery. In Kerala, one of the 29 States in India, Catholic cemeteries as...
For unto this are you called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving you an example that you should follow his steps. Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. Who, when he was reviled, did not revile: when he suffered, he threatened not: but delivered himself to him that...
Greetings from Florence, Italy, where my family is spending the Triduum following a visit to Rome. As I mentioned before, the highlight of the trip was my family meeting Pope Francis following his General Audience on Wednesday, April 6. We also attended the Palm Sunday Mass in a packed St. Peter’s Square, where...
When I was in high school, I spent a horrible week consumed by doubt that God is a good God. A trusted community member abused a child of a family that I cared about and this abuse caused deep and reverberating wounds. In the wake of this abuse, I could not understand how...
For the first time since 2019, Pope Francis’s schedule on Holy Thursday looked much like it did before the pandemic. He began the day with a Chrism Mass celebrated with some 1,800 Roman priests and many other bishops, cardinals, and lay faithful filling St. Peter’s Basilica. His day ended with the Mass of...
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