As we enter Holy Week today, my mind is drawn to the Shroud of Turin. I find the Shroud to be absolutely fascinating! It’s not that I’ve gone looking for anything I could get my hands on related to this great relic, but whenever I see something new about it, Read more…
Even as we enter a penitential season, I’d like to reflect on penance in a festive season. This topic does have an application to Lent. Every Sunday celebrates the Resurrection, but Sundays still remain part of the Lenten season. Today is the First Sunday of Lent, for instance, not a Read more…
The Prophet Malachi foretold that Elijah, the great prophet who did not die, would come again before the “Day of the Lord” appeared: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to Read more…
On the surface, Advent and Lent are liturgical seasons expressed by the color violet, which prepare for a major feast. It is common to hear one explanation of the difference, that only Lent (and not Advent) is a penitential season, although Advent clearly arose as a kind of pre-Christmas Lent, Read more…
Good Friday through the Second Sunday of Easter is the time of mercy, the time when Jesus redeemed us from sin and established new life in his Resurrection. This is why it is the time Jesus asked us to pray a novena invoking his Divine Mercy for the Church and Read more…
A few years ago I read to my kids the first few volumes of the The Green Ember series, written by S.D. Smith, and immediately I was struck by one of its central themes: betrayal. It stood out pretty starkly for a kid’s book. The rabbit kingdom, Natalia, collapsed and Read more…
Lenten penance pertains to more than simply fasting from food and drink. It also entails curtailing the “delight of the eye” and pleasing sounds, which gratify our senses. Mortification means dying to ourselves and devoting more time to prayer and penance. This effort could be undone by continued immersion in Read more…
Lent originated from the intense preparation of catechumens on the days preceding the Easter Vigil, as they prepared to receive Baptism: They who are to be baptized shall fast on Friday, and on Saturday the bishop shall assemble them and command them to kneel in prayer. And laying his hand upon Read more…
Joseph — son of David, husband of Mary, the humble builder, and adoptive father of the Messiah — stands as one of the greatest saints in the life of the Church. Throughout history, we, as members of God’s family, have realized more and more the crucial role that Joseph plays Read more…
Through our baptism, we are born again into the Body of Christ, members of Jesus’s one mystical body. This makes us not only one with Christ and recipients of his own Spirit; it also places us in relation to his Mother, who becomes our spiritual mother, and his adopted father, Read more…