Ancient Greek wisdom to help with the difficulties of life...
John Cuddeback
Discouragement, or at least its temptation, regularly accompanies intentional living. Even if we do not formulate it explicitly we find ourselves feeling “why do the good things I want have to be so difficult?”It is a consolation to know this is not unique to our time. “Fine things are really hard to achieve,” says Plato’s Socrates in the Republic. In fact, he is reflecting on something much akin to our situation, namely, how someone with a ‘philosophic nature’ tends to fair in the world. The image he uses resonates:

Is single parenthood the problem? If so, should the government try to fix it? [Note: The Atlantic paywall]...

“Night shall be thrice night over you”: The Church’s revolutions...

Pope’s Follow-up to ‘Laudato Si,’ Document on the Environment, to Be Released Oct. 4; Name Will Be ‘Laudate Deum’...
Hannah Brockhaus
Pope Francis’ new document on the environment, to be released Oct. 4, will be called Laudate Deum. The pope shared the name of his latest apostolic exhortation during a meeting with Latin American university rectors on Sept. 21, though the speech was only made public by Vatican News in Spanish on Monday afternoon. According to Vatican News, while speaking about the environment and the “culture of abandonment,” Pope Francis revealed that his new document on the topic will be titled Laudate Deum, which means “Praise God” in Latin.

Unbelief in our culture is more serious than most people imagine...
Msgr. Charles Pope
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!...
John Grondelski
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.

Pope Makes ‘Church of St. Mary of the Isle’ on UK’s Isle of Man First Co-Cathedral in British History...

“Verdigris” is the color of oxidation, impermanence, and the Statue of Liberty...

This angel-botherer knows: If you call angels, they will come!...
Elizabeth Scalia
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...
Amy Welborn
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...
Carrie Gress
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...

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!...

Is it safe to reuse plastic takeout containers? And what about putting them in the dishwasher or the microwave? The answer is...

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