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Spirituality
The spiritual veteran
There are two kinds of “veterans.” There is the traditional veteran who confronts fear with selfless abandon, facing a known enemy and fighting for others. And then there is the spiritual veteran who clings to faith, facing an unseen enemy…
Be inspired by St. Joseph
May 1 is the Optional Memorial of St. Joseph the Worker. Take some time to read these reflections about St. Joseph from Pope Francis. I ask for you the grace to be ever closer to your children, allow them to grow, but be close, close! They…
St. Lazarus: The Lord is wonderful in his saints
Most feast days of the saints celebrate the day the saint died, went to heaven, and stayed put. Lazarus Saturday celebrates the opposite. It is the day Our Lord summoned his friend back to this life, despite four days and several spools of…
Snatch faith from the fire: St. Jude’s Notre Dame Lesson
Holy Week and the Notre Dame Cathedral fire teach the same lesson: Tragedy exists to teach us faith and heroism. It’s right there in Sacred Scripture, in the letter of St. Jude. First, though: A lot of people have shared a lot of lessons…
The invitation
We collapsed into chairs at the kitchen table with tall glasses of ice water. Unwinding after a long, brisk walk around the park, we chatted casually, two college roommates catching up on life. Soon our light discussion turned more serious.…
Public penance: History offers examples when those in power repented
These days we are used to our confessions being entirely private matters between only ourselves and our priests. Any penance we perform we usually keep to ourselves. Seldom do we directly tell others about the sins we needed to have…
St. Joseph and C.S. Lewis
Can anyone imagine what was going through the mind of St. Joseph as he discovered the responsibilities he had? Coming to realize that his wife was pregnant with the Son of God, he would be responsible for safeguarding, supporting, and…
‘He was freely inviting my heart to follow him’
My path of discerning a religious vocation was a journey from an intellectual knowledge of God to a unique and personal relationship with him. God planted many of the seeds of my vocation through FOCUS, the Fellowship of Catholic University…
February: St. Zacchaeus — Salvation has come to this house
St. Zacchaeus has one of the greatest conversion stories of all time, so much so that the Eastern Church gives him his own Sunday. Falling this year on Feb. 3, it is the first harbinger of a new pascal cycle. Remember how I told you last…
Sts. Cyril and Methodius evangelized Eastern Europe
While we might associate Feb. 14 with St. Valentine, in the Roman calendar it is also the feast day of two of the most important men in the history of Eastern Europe. Sts. Cyril (826–869) and Methodius (815–885), recognized by St. John…
