Christmas carols abound at this time of year. Joy to the World; Silent Night; O Come, All Ye Faithful; Hark the Herald Angels Sing; The First Noel; We Three Kings. Add to these popular Christmas songs like The Christmas Song, White Christmas, I’ll Be Home for Christmas, All I Want for Christmas Is...
The Advent and Christmas seasons are emotionally impactful for me, even more than Lent and Easter. How can this be? Lent prepares us for Christ’s Passion and on Easter we celebrate his Resurrection. It is when we celebrate how he conquered sin and death, redeemed creation, and proved his divinity. Christ’s Passion and...
“Most people are good,” I reassured my three-year-old son who was convinced that a stranger was about to harm me. Over the past few weeks, the toll that the pandemic has taken on his social-emotional development is becoming more apparent: since we taught him to keep away from people for most of his...
Author’s note: Just a reminder that as I stated in Part 1, my investigation into the Islamic heritage of the area where I live in southeast Spain is a personal journey by a non-expert. I was bemused by one Twitter commenter who paraded his expertise in order to say, “The history is more...
A reflection on the readings for the Fourth Sunday of Advent — December 19, 2021 (Click here for audio) The Beacons of Light initiative here in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati has been a needed but complex and challenging process. Speaking personally, being right in the midst of this process as a parish priest, its...
In case you missed it, a new document issued by Archbishop Arthur Roche, the Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (CDW), was released Saturday, answering some dubia regarding Traditionis Custodes, Pope Francis’s July document restricting the use of the older form of the Roman Rite according...
Even Mary’s faith is a “journeying” faith, a faith that is repeatedly shrouded in darkness and has to mature by persevering through the darkness. Mary does not understand Jesus’s saying, but she keeps it in her heart and allows it to gradually come to maturity there. (scroll down for answer)
“World Gone Bonkers” In 2020 I wrote a series of articles looking at Marian apocalypticism and some of the forms it takes today in the Church. Here, I am offering a new addition to this series by examining a figure who acts as an accessible social-media gateway to conspiracist apocalypticism: Father Mark Goring....
Today (December 17) is Pope Francis’s 85th birthday, and yesterday we received the gift of the transcript of his December 4 discussion with the Jesuit community in Greece. It has become customary for Pope Francis to meet privately with the local Jesuit community wherever he travels, and the transcripts of the conversation are...
Editor’s note: This is the seventh article in “Combat For Contemplative Life,” a series about the responses — inside and outside the cloister — to Pope Francis’s reforms for women religious in contemplative communities. Part one, by Mike Lewis, “A Praying Heart: How Pope Francis intends to save the cloistered life,” provides an...
A recent article of mine generated quite a bit of controversy. Many of the most vocal critics seem to have missed the point of the article altogether, and as a result accused me of advocating for individual creativity in the liturgy. In this essay, I want to respond to some of the more...
When I first read Summorum Pontificum in 2007, I remember thinking ‘This is not going to end well.’ Before I go on, I must explain that years ago I was a priest of the Society of Saint Pius X, until I left the Society in 1999 and was subsequently laicized at my own...
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