On rare occasions, faith can be ignited by an extraordinary event and lead to unimaginable places. In the beginning of his book, The Waters of Siloe, Thomas Merton relates this story: It is late at night. Most of the Paris cafes have closed their...
Carolyn Humphreys, O.C.D.S.
Fr Joseph EsperRecent Essays
Jennifer Borek
Fr Dino Vanin
Michael Baglino
Reflections- From Our Archives
St Josaphat, Pray for Us
On Friday, November 12th, we celebrated the feast of St Josaphat. This saint represents the eastern lung united with the Church of Rome. John Kuncevic was born around 1580 in Vladimir, which is a village of the...
Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap
Saintly Wisdom
Their feast days follow each other. On October 4 we celebrate the feast of St Francis whereas on October 5, the very subsequent day, we jubilantly celebrate the liturgical feast of St Faustina. What do these two great...
Deacon Steve Greco
An Experience of God’s Forgiveness
The day of September 15, 2019 will be a day that I will never surely forget throughout my priestly and consecrated life. Today, I would dare say that it was a day so special precisely because it was completely soaked in...
Courageous Discipleship
Under the reign of Queen Elizabeth I—known to history as “Elizabeth the Great”—Catholics in England were in grave danger. Even though young Elizabeth had solemnly promised her dying older sister, Queen Mary I, that upon...
John Cussen
Vincent Ryan RuggieroThe Saints and the Spiritual Works of Mercy
As the corporal works of mercy help our neighbor in the needs of his body, the spiritual works of mercy aid our neighbor with the needs of the soul. As life on this Earth is passing and eternity forever, you can guess...
Paul SuskiTrusting Jesus
Siena is a small town in Italy, and St. Catherine of Siena, who lived in the 14th century, had, even as a child, a profound love for Jesus and an intense yearning to be spiritually united with Him, a desire she...
Tom Borek
Blessed Jerzy Popielousko: Pray for Us
On Tuesday October 19, the Church celebrated the feast of the great Polish priest and martyr, Blessed Jerzy Popielousko. Personally I had the grace of visiting and spending time in the church and apartment he lived in...
God Wants to Welcome Us to Heaven
In 1925, a 65-year-old man collapsed and died outside a Catholic church in Dublin, Ireland. Having on him only a prayer book and a rosary, no one knew who he was until his sister came and identified him. It was...
All Essays
Living in God’s Truth
If we were moral detectives, examining a murder case and trying to figure out what made it possible for someone to kill a fellow human being, we’d discover that the first step is always lying. A murderer must lie to...
Reciprocating God’s Love
On this 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, the template of God’s Word deals with the very common heartbreak of unreciprocated love. As we can clearly see from the first reading (Is. 5:1-7) and the gospel passage (Mt 21:33...
Jesus Knows the Real Condition of Our Mind, Heart, and Conduct
With The Parable of the Two Sons (Matthew 21:28-32), Jesus reveals the Father’s frustration and disappointment with the lack of reliability of some of his children whom he invites to work with him for the betterment of...
You Are Not Your Own
For a couple of weeks now, our Gospel readings (Mt 18:21-35, Mt 20:1-16) have kept us close to Peter: his confession of faith, his stumbling, and his call to be the rock. Peter naturally draws our attention because he...
Deacon Gregory Webster
True Courage
Archbishop Fulton Sheen was very inspired by the following story. When the communists took over China, they imprisoned a priest in his rectory near his church. After they locked him up, the communists went into the...
God is Making Us an Offer We Cannot Refuse
Walking through the woods in late April, with my eyes strained to spot spring mushrooms, I was stunned by the shy yet imposing beauty of tiny yellow violets. Aren’t violets supposed to be blue? Those little...
Things Are Never Quite As They Seem
In 1896 a German immigrant to the United States, a man named Emmanuel Ninnger, paid for his purchases in a grocery store with a $20 bill. The sales clerk counted out the change, but after the customer left, noticed some...
Br Matthew Marie, OSBSharing the Lord’s Love and Peace
During World War II, a few months after the Germans had invaded and conquered France, a French priest was saying daily Mass in the little village to which he was assigned. Coming out of the sacristy, he noticed the...
James S. Anderson
