Cloud of Witnesses
There is a line in the 2nd reading from Hebrews that struck me, and it is the following: “Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that...
Tagged: saints
True Masculinity: The Saints
Note: This is the third article in a three-part series on masculinity. It is perhaps strange that a woman authored these articles, although there is certainly no dearth of men writing and speaking about femininity, so perhaps it is not so strange after all. Sometimes someone with an outside perspective can...
Polish Family Beatified en Masse
Today in a small village in Poland Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, beatified an entire family. Józef and Wiktoria Ulma and their children, massacred by the Nazis on March 24, 1944—the day...
The Glory of Being a Sinner!
It is well known that Pope Benedict XVI loved music, and that Mozart was his favorite composer. He was also an accomplished pianist and there is no doubt that he was familiar with Mozart’s piano sonatas. There is a saying...
Spreading God’s Love with Francis of Assisi
Francis of Assisi died seven hundred and ninety-six years ago yesterday (his feast day is observed the day after his death) in his hometown of long-term malaria that he probably contracted in the Holy Land or Egypt. The visit to...
The Saints of Summer
When I was a child, and my parents and grandparents would teach me lessons about our faith and our Saints, I always pictured the Heavenly “offices” of our saints as bustling places, with requests flooding in and prayers on our...
Spousal Abuse and the Stories of the Saints
I love the saints, and always have; I remember pulling out my copy of the old Fr. Lovasik 1950s-era Picture Book of Saints (you know the one) and reading the stories straight through, rapt with attention to the diverse names,...
Fr. Grande, Abp. Romero, and Friendships Across Ideologies
Rutilio Grande, SJ, who is being beatified today along with Franciscan Fr. Cosme Spessotto, 70-year-old sacristan Manuel Solórzano, and teenager Nelson Rutilio Lemus, the latter two of whom were murdered alongside him, is best known as a personal friend of...
Pope Francis reminds us that we are called to be saints
Today, November 1, is the Solemnity of All Saints, and, as in past years, Pope Francis gave a special noon Angelus address to mark the feast. Today, as he does most years, he spoke about the Beatitudes (Mt 5:1-12), the...
St. Maximilian Kolbe: Imperfect Martyr
Today, August 14th, brings us the feast day of St. Maximilian Kolbe, one of the two “martyrs of Auschwitz” along with St. Edith Stein. Kolbe was a Polish Franciscan who was interned in the infamous death camp for publishing anti-Nazi...
Declare Saint Irenaeus a Doctor of The Church
When we list the most important theologians in the history of Christianity, many names quickly come to mind, including Jerome, Augustine, Anselm of Canterbury, Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventure, Robert Bellarmine. Each of these figures has been rightly declared to be Doctors...
Divine Mercy: The way of freedom
This is a reflection on the readings of April 11, 2021, the Second Sunday of Easter, the Sunday of Divine Mercy Who are the freest people in the world? If you are an American, your first thought might be that...
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