Spirituality

Finally, a woman! Have you noticed that most of our saints with funny names are men? It’s not my fault. There just aren’t that many women on the Eastern calendar. In June alone the ratio of females to males is 3:22. It’s really nobody’s…

When my wife and I moved to the Bay Area from southern California, we were stressed. I was starting a brand new job, our first child was less than 18 months old and not sleeping at all, and we were staying at my wife’s parents’ home while…

One evening I called down the basement stairs for my eighth grader to come up for dinner. He had gone down to run on our treadmill, but when I opened the door, I didn’t hear the familiar whirring noise, so I went to investigate.  I found…

There’s nothing more consoling than to find refreshment in the arms of our heavenly mother, Mary. When we doubt or feel abandoned by God, turning to Mary under specific titles dispenses particular graces to our wounded and weary hearts. She…

It’s 3:56 a.m. as Fr. Glenn O’Connor weaves his SUV through the darkened streets of Indianapolis. On most Sundays Fr. Glenn tends to his 1,400 families as pastor of St. Susanna Parish in nearby Plainfield, Indiana, but on this day, the…

Do we really get Mary? We know God made her perfectly sinless. She needed to be perfect, because Jesus would take his human nature from her. That’s why she was humble, meek, and so, so good. And that’s where we get stuck. Everybody focuses…

“Miss LaTassa, during recess today I’d like you to stay in the classroom and work on our May altar.” It was the spring of 1973, and I was delighted to have been selected by Sr. Gemma to assemble the May altar for grade 4-1. Altar-building…

St. Anselm (circa 1033–1109) was a Benedictine monk, archbishop, abbot, philosopher, and theologian. Pope Clement XI named St. Anselm a doctor of the church in 1720. Be inspired by these short reflections from this great saint. St. Anselm,…

Those disciples — they’re so slow to catch on to what the Risen Jesus is saying. Time after time, their faith is shaken. Their certainty fades. They second-guess themselves. Even when Jesus appears before their very eyes, they are confused…

Thomas did something we would all like to do. It would be so much easier to believe if we could touch and see the wounds of Christ. Yet, the wounds of Christ are present every day in many different ways. I can still touch them; perhaps I…