Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of our Lenten journey, when we enter into the solemn season of Lent and arm ourselves with the transformative practices of fasting, prayer and almsgiving in order to be one with our Lord Jesus in...
Today’s General Audience address by Pope Francis brought tears to my eyes. It was the second installment of his Catechesis on Old Age. The title of this week’s teaching was “Longevity: symbol and opportunity,” and he spoke about why he...
Excerpt from Hope from the Ashes by Paul E. Jarzembowski (Paulist Press, 2022) The stories of many active churchgoers on Ash Wednesday are surprisingly similar. Each of us could probably recount our own stories of Ash Wednesdays past. After months...
Super Bowl LVI is over, leaving some ecstatic and others crushed. Soon it will be time for March Madness – a thrilling twenty-one-day extravaganza of exceptional sportsmanship. Perhaps not as extravagant or thrilling, but Lent 2022 is also on the...
I have a confession to make. I am, by training, a liturgist. As such, I cringe at the well-known joke—“What’s the difference between a liturgist and a terrorist? You can negotiate with terrorists.”—both because there is a grain of truth...
Lent is a transition, a journey of return and repentance. But it is not the final destination. Traditionally, as the ashes are placed on our heads, we are told, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”...
Dad had always wished to be buried in his ancestral grave. His great-grandparents and his parents are buried there. When he passed away in January 2019, he was buried in the parish cemetery for many reasons. The graves at the...
“Behold the desert, place of life not of death, because to converse with the Lord in silence restores life to us.” Pope Francis, Ash Wednesday General Audience (Source: Zenit) In his weekly audience for Ash Wednesday this year, Pope Francis returned...
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