“Night shall be thrice night over you”: The Church’s revolutions...
Pumpkin spice birthday, and a ‘Pachamama moment’...
First, let’s start with some good news. Last week, we reported to you that a priest in Nigeria, Fr. Marcellinus Obioma Okide, was kidnapped as he traveled home to his parish last Sunday afternoon. Fr. Okide is one of dozens of priests who’ve been abducted in Nigeria in recent months — and commercial kidnapping is on the rise in his diocese. Well, the priest was released Thursday evening, after his diocese paid an unspecified ransom for his return...
This Button Is the Most Underrated Button on Your Microwave...
How to find serenity through the will of God...
Over the past few years, some Catholic publishers have reintroduced classic spiritual writings to a new generation. That is a tremendous gift. Today, when so many of us Catholics seem inordinately focused on temporal affairs like politics, there is a need to refocus on the Last Things — and this can be well accomplished through spiritual reading. Dan Burke’s Finding Peace in the Storm is a welcome addition to this category. His book not only polishes an old gem by St. Alphonsus Liguori...
A ‘very human life’ is the hallmark of Gwyneth Thompson-Briggs’ sacred art...
German Bishops Engage in Tug-of-War Over Blessing Same-Sex Unions...
Getting better, the Rupnik implication, and something in the air...
The Vatican announced yesterday that two bishops from mainland China will be attending next month’s synod on synodality. Bishop Anthony Yao Shun and Bishop Joseph Yang Yongqiang were listed as papal nominees on an updated list of synod delegates published Sept. 21, and the Holy See confirmed, drawn from a list of Communist Party-approved possible attendees. The temptation here is to view the bishops as likely shills for the CCP and in the pocket of Beijing...
55 of the Best Fall Towns in the U.S. for Foliage...
The Blessed Ulma Family and our Catholic moment...
It’s a rare occasion when the word “unprecedented” can be used for a Church whose history extends over two millennia. Yet something unprecedented happened in the Polish village of Markowa on September 10, when an entire family, including their unborn child, was beatified. It seems not quite right to refer to the new blesseds by the traditional formula, “Blessed Józef and Wiktoria Ulma and Companions,” the “companions” in question being the Ulmas’ six living children and their unborn child. Let’s instead think about the Blessed Ulma Family and what they might mean for us.
The abolition of man continues apace, and the human body is now its clear target...
Bishops helping Congress: The one thing needful?
I was glad to see that the President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops included the need to reduce “unsustainable deficits” in his offer to help congressional leaders avert a government shutdown. Phil Lawler had emphasized this very problem last Thursday in The debt limit as a moral test, though he also noticed that limiting governmental debt has seldom been an episcopal priority. Nonetheless, one wonders why the Conference should have a specific political agenda at all, or why it should offer its own political brilliance to avert a government shutdown...
Unbelief in our culture is more serious than most people imagine...
We live in times when many people make light of the fact that others do not believe in God. Many have relegated faith to a purely personal and largely irrelevant aspect of one’s life. This attitude even exists among many Catholics who, though believers themselves, don’t seem to be overly concerned that many others do not believe. The assessment of others seems to be a rather vague evaluation of whether they are “nice” or not. Once most people, Catholics included, decide that a person is “nice,” little else seems to matter.
Sts. Cosmas and Damian, Pray For Us!...
They’ve become an optional memorial in the current Roman Calendar, displaced from their traditional feast day on Sept. 27 because the Church decided that St. Vincent de Paul is more significant to Catholics of our times. But Sts. Cosmas and Damian are always mentioned in the First Eucharistic Prayer and, since the Roman Canon was the Eucharistic Prayer for centuries, the fact these two brothers are included every time it is prayed suggests we learn something about them.
“Verdigris” is the color of oxidation, impermanence, and the Statue of Liberty...
This angel-botherer knows: If you call angels, they will come!...
Parents are all too familiar with the sort of anxiety that can subconsciously nag at you all day long, before really kicking in at night. While we’re up and about and keeping busy, it’s possible to shush the parental panic that ever resides just below our breastbones — that is implanted within us at our children’s births. It begins as a seed that we water and over-water with our worst fears and deepest imaginings of all the ways they are vulnerable, all the ways kids can be hurt either physically or emotionally or in the psyche...
The problem with long Masses? It’s not the reverence — it’s the ego...
The Mass I normally attend – Novus Ordo, but with lots of Latin, chant and 10-12 minute homilies – is never less than 75 minutes long, is packed, noisy with kids (“the baby choir” as one celebrant memorably and cheerfully described it) and almost everyone stays to the very end of the last verse of the final hymn, of which we do, yes, sing all the verses, sorry, Cardinal – “God forbid we would leave before all five verses of the closing hymn are sung...”
Feminism: America’s Best Frienemy...
For decades, Roe v. Wade stood as the legal Goliath against which pro-lifers battled. Few of us believed that we would see the end of its grip on America. And then it was overturned. We rejoiced and still rejoice at the end of Roe’s legal stranglehold on our great country. But its removal has uncovered something not everyone anticipated. The cultural underbelly of our nation has been revealed, and it isn’t pretty.
Controversial Mercy in the Vineyard...
The landowner in Jesus’ parable recruits workers throughout the day. He goes to the marketplace at dawn, at nine, at noon, at three, and at five, hiring laborers each time and sending them to work in his vineyard. At the end of the day, he pays his longest laborers one silver denarius coin (the wage to which they had previously agreed), but he surprisingly also pays even his briefest employees the same amount. When some grumble at this, the boss replies...
How an extraordinary healing led to the creation of The National Centre for Padre Pio...
Brain scans of coffee drinkers show its effects go beyond caffeine...
Tyler Bishop Joseph Strickland: ‘No Communication From Rome’ Yet Following Apostolic Visitation...
This Sunday, No Matter How You Hyphenate ‘Catholic’, Jesus Says: Get to Work!...
UK police apologize to Catholic woman six months after arrest for silent prayer...
Happy Tolkien Week — and Happy Hobbit Day!...
Get this entire Catholic website as an instant digital download...The full contents of the New Advent website are available as a digital download. It includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more and it's only $19.99...
CATHOLIC LINKS
Adoration: Adoration DirectoryAudio: Lighthouse
Bibles: Douay - Knox - NAB - RSVCE
Blogs: Blog Directory
Bulletins: Seek and Find
Calendars: Calendar - Easter Table
Catechisms: Baltimore Catechism - Catechism of the Catholic Church
Events: Catholic Event Finder
Forums: Catholics Answers
Novenas: Pray More Novenas
HHS Mandate: Becket Fund
Jobs: Jobs for Catholics
Latin: Ecclesiastical Latin Resources
Latin Mass: TLM Altar Server Tutorial - TLM Mass Directory
Mass Times #1: MassTimes
Mass Times #2: Catholic Mass Time
Movie Reviews: USCCB Movie Reviews
Panoramas: St. John Lateran - Sistine Chapel
Readings: Today's Readings (USCCB)
Retreats: U.S. Retreats and Retreat Centers
OTHER LINKS
Cameras: EarthCam (Live) - Aerial PanoramasComics: Calvin and Hobbes - C&H Search Engine - Dilbert - Peanuts
Customer Service: GetHuman
Find Things: Mailboxes (USA) - Payphones - Phone Numbers
Money: Missing Money
Privacy: Do Not Call
Reading Lists: USLHE - Marines
Scanners: Air Traffic Control - Radio Reference - Broadcastify
Shopping (Local): Yard Sales
Tracking: Airplanes - ISS - Satellites - Ships #1 - Ships #2
Travel (Flying): Turbulence - VFR Maps - SeatGuru - FlightAware
Travel (Hotels): Bed Bug Registry
Weather: ECMRF (Europe) - NCAR/RAP - Wind Map - National Weather Service (USA)