Ash Wednesday is always a sobering experience. The solemn words, Remember you are dust and to dust you will return, vividly reminds us of our mortality. It is also a simple reminder that we all owe God a death, thanks to the loss of Eden. In...
“Pray as much as you can for the dying. By your entreaties, obtain for them trust in My mercy, because they have most need of trust, and have it the least. Be assured that the grace of eternal salvation for certain souls in their final moments...
In a recent Sunday Gospel reading, Jesus reminded us that the gate into heaven is a narrow one. (Luke 13) The reading made me uncomfortable. The Church tells us that sin requires an element of knowing that we are doing it. The Gospels this summer...
Many years ago, a young Monsignor was laying on his hospital gurney, only partly sedated, when his mentor, the former Archbishop of St. Louis, approached him on the way to the operating room. He devoutly said: Richard, let us pray to St. Joseph for...
Each Good Friday, we Christians ask ourselves: How would we have behaved? Would we have been among the faithful women remaining as Jesus breathed his last? Or would we, like many of Jesus’ closest friends, have fled the scene? While none of us know...
“Praised may You be, my Lord, through our Sister, Bodily Death, from whom no living man can escape.” These inspiring lyrics may be found in the famous Canticle of the Sun composed by St. Francis of Assissi (+1226). Those who have lived or stayed for...
One of the principal reasons Christians are not more effective in evangelizing the world is because we have not fully assimilated the reality of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus rose from the dead, conquering sin and death. Death...
When I lived in New York, about halfway between my home and my work there is a beautiful stretch of road called State Route 293. It is not very long, but it gently rises, falls and bends through the hills and lakes in the back training areas of the...
