In late November, we celebrated the great feast of St Catherine of Alexandria. Whenever we think of her we cannot not mention her outstanding courage and resolve to follow Christ until the end. It was not a joke that an eighteen year old woman...
There are many examples of saints we honor today who in their youth lived worldly, unedifying lives. While heading in one direction, something in their lives led to their conversion, so that they turned things around and began living for God. We...
The recent liturgical memorial of St Clare was a great blessing for me. Besides the holy life this great follower of St Francis’ ideal lived, an ideal which still inspires and appeals to us today after eight centuries, this liturgical memorial was...
What makes a great priest? On May 18th, when the Congregation of Marians of the Immaculate Conception celebrate the birthday and liturgical memorial of its founder, Saint Stanislaus Papczynski, it is a good time to reflect on this. John Papczynski...
Several years ago, after an evening Mass on All Saints Day, I made a suggestion to the celebrant that he might consider using the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York as an analog to the canonization of saints. Just like professional...
The liturgical feast of Saint Thomas Aquinas celebrates one of the greatest doctors the Church has ever had. Thomas is also called Doctor Eucharisticus since he has written so well on the mystery of the Eucharist. For Aquinas the sacrament of the...
There seems to be great confusion about the Catholic view of womanhood in our culture. The loudest voices in our society say that women, especially within the Catholic Church, are oppressed. They supposedly have no voice in the Church, have their...
On another day, in the bookish context of superstar Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez and of his writings, I might speak to you about the Chilean/Argentine near-teen, near-saint, near-martyr whose feast day we celebrate on...