Hail, Full of Grace, the Lord is with you, spoke the angel. Our Lady gives her consent, and the Word is made flesh in her. She is preserved from the stain of sin because Jesus was to take His human nature from her. She is the “first fruit” of His redemptive act. ...
Calling on all the shrines of Our Lady of Fatima around the world, Father Andrzej Draws, rector of the Sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Fatima in Krisovychi (western Ukraine), encouraged prayer on March 13, 2022 for the conversion of Russia.[i] In solidarity...
On March 2, 2022, Ash Wednesday, the Catholic Church enters the Season of Lent. Lent is a time of prayer and penance in preparation for the great feast of Easter, but it is also like a medicine for each one of us to help restore us to health and to rectify areas of...
Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins...
Emmanuel, God-with-us, by wedding the divine nature to a human nature, is born in time. A baby is born to die; the king will reign from the cross; the Savior destroys death by dying on the cross. His conception and birth herald the dawning of our redemption. His...
In this time with so many difficult things happening, the pandemic, financial instability, political conflict, and wars, many people are asking if these are the end times. In many ways, there will be conflict and peace will not be finally established until the coming...
What is common about the saints in heaven and the souls in purgatory? They will share the heavenly homeland. Yes, while the saints live seeing God face to face, those in purgatory (the Church Suffering) are destined for this glory and blessedness. Those in...
"Give me a free hand;" this is the reported response that Jesus gave to Saint Margaret Mary when she asked, "What must I do?"[i] This is how saints are made. For it is of His fullness, we have received grace upon grace.[ii] For each of us there are but two options...
In September, the Church celebrates tremendous feast days. We turn our attention to the Triumph of the Cross and Our Lady of Sorrows. St. Bernard writes beautifully of the power of the contemplation of the wounds of the Lord; it is through these wounds and the...
Mother Catherine McAuley understood the need for kindness particularly in the care of the sick and the poor. She reminded her Sisters that “there are things which the poor prize more highly than gold, though they cost the donor nothing; among these are the kind word,...