Susie Lloyd

Now I am going to tell you about something that until I did this article I knew next to nothing about — Advent fasting customs of the Eastern Rite. All I knew is that the period of Advent starts way sooner than Advent in the West. Instead…

When you read about the Eastern Rite saints who lived under Roman persecution, you might wonder if they were really as heroic as their biographers say they were. It was so long ago. Maybe people are exaggerating. Then you look at their…

One of my fondest memories of the last few years of my maternal grandmother’s life involves sacred art and our shared Catholic faith.  Three years before she died, the Cincinnati Museum Center in 2004 hosted a special traveling exhibit…

You’d be hard-pressed to find a more energetic culture warrior than Teresa Tomeo. The familiar long-time host of Ave Maria Radio’s Catholic Connection, she is also the host of EWTN’s The Catholic View for Women, the author of multiple…

Who was the gray-haired little lady tidying up the sanctuary before the 6 o’clock evening Mass? She puttered noiselessly in and out, setting up this, removing that, sometimes smiling a little to herself. She disappeared during Mass, but at…

St. Callinicus (feast day July 29) may be the perfect saint for our times, even though he lived in Asia Minor and died in the year 250. You see, he was born into a Christian home at a time when most of his neighbors were pagan. Imagine an…

The feast of All Saints is exactly the same in the East as it is in the West; it’s just on the other side of the year. It always falls on the Sunday following Pentecost, which this year is June 16. On this day, the Eastern Church…

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…

St. Malachi (Mal-a-kai) is a member of the minor prophets club of the Old Testament. Placed alongside Obadiah and Habakkuk, his name seems quite normal. Before I get started, this Malachi is not to be confused with the 12th century Irish…