What is this strange fascination with ashes? By day’s end, in this Church of the Holy Innocents three blocks north of Macy’s in Midtown Manhattan, priests will have imposed ashes on the foreheads of thousands […]
Some things are just too good to let go of, so we prolong them. That’s the intuition that the Church concretizes in her observance of octaves—eight-day-long celebrations—a liturgical inheritance from our elder brethren in faith […]
Popes are wont to commemorate the anniversaries of significant documents with documents of their own. Quadragesimo Anno by Pope Pius XI honored the ground-breaking social encyclical of Pope Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum. St. John Paul […]
Today the Church honors the memory of St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, born in Trier in 340 A.D. He was yet a catechumen, in 374, when he was nominated Bishop by popular acclamation, and so […]
“There you go again!” Remember that winning line from presidential candidate Ronald Reagan to President Jimmy Carter in October 1980? It was a riposte to Carter’s constant rehashing of pet topics. That retort came to […]
Word on the ground, in the trenches, is that the bishops’ “Eucharistic Revival” is stalled in neutral – largely, I believe, because nothing practical has surfaced to address the deplorable lack of Eucharistic faith. Repeating […]
Not a few of you – like myself – grew up in a Church and society of great security, a security that was shattered by the revolutionary spirit of the 1960s. That rebellious spirit also […]
Today the Church honors the memory of Francesco Forgione, born on 25 May 1887, better known as Padre Pio. He was recognized as an extraordinary confessor, reader of souls, and worker of miracles. Like many […]
Today the Church celebrates the feast of St. Matthew, author of the First Gospel. In the New Testament, he has two names, Levi and Matthew. It was not uncommon for Jews of the first century […]
The Church throughout the world celebrates the Triumph of the Cross on September 14, and the Roman Rite fittingly follows that up the very next day with its commemoration of Our Lady of Sorrows. Popular […]
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