I went to Mass Sunday morning at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on the campus of the University of Notre Dame. The Gospel and homily were appropriately about sacramental cleansing. Appropriate, always. And maybe especially when we are being called in a whole new way to be apostles in the United States. Are we who we say we are? Will we fight for the right to be? Or has something else become our religion? Right before Mass ended, Fr.... Read more
Telling a story of a miracle close to home, Matthew Hanley writes: May those suffering in body, mind and spirit not lose hope: Our Loving Mother wants us to turn to her – and to give her Son to those whose hearts are open to receive Him. Aside from the graces she dispenses in abundance, there are, according to St. Catherine Labouré, even more graces we don’t access because we neglect to ask for them. Read more
I’m in South Bend and had dinner with some old and new friends, some beautiful people committed to discerning God’s will in their lives. Immediately after we said grace, one among us simply repeated the beginning of today’s second reading, from St. Paul: “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.” Thanks be to God for the opportunity, each and every one, each and ever moment of fellowship and sustenance. Be with... Read more
Is there a hymn that knocks you back into focus? “O God, Beyond All Praising,” perhaps? O God beyond all praising, we worship you today and sing the love amazing that songs cannot repay; for we can only wonder at every gift you send, at blessings without number and mercies without end: we lift our hearts before you and wait upon your word, we honor and adore you, our great and mighty Lord. The flower of earthly splendor in... Read more
From a student at the Dominican House of Studies today: man is made for something beyond himself, for something beyond this world. In his book, The Sources of Christian Ethics, Fr. Servais Pinckaers, O.P., emphasizes something that we tend to forget, namely, that the aim of Christian ethics is beatitude, which is nothing less than the vision of God. Pinckaers calls this realization of man’s final end a “wisdom received from without.” Clearly, a Christian’s life, thought, and deeds are not... Read more
O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer You my prayers, works, joys and suffering of this day in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world. I offer them for all the intentions of Your Sacred Heart: the salvation of souls, reparation for sins, the reunion of all Christians. I offer them for the intentions of Your Bishops and all Apostles of Prayer and in particular for those recommended by our Holy Father this... Read more
That phrase from Leseur — how foreign does that seem most days? What could we desire less? The late Fr. John Hardon, who promoted devotion to the Sacred Heart, reminds us: God became man out of love for the sinful human race. He became a mortal man to die to prove how much He loves us. He assumed a human will that He might freely suffer. Do all humans suffer? Yes. Do all humans suffer willingly? No. The essence of love is... Read more
I’ve been known to ask that question occasionally. Sometimes the meditations there … well, they knock them out of the park … (to continue to use a way overused phrase) there. Can it be a coincidence that I find myself in a corner of the world where it would be only natural to share such a thing? The author, Elisabeth Leseur, married laywoman who died in 1914, and has a cause for canonization open. And a word that jumps out... Read more
Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper died in a plane crash — “the day the music died.” And so, as it happened, the first thing I heard this morning was Don McLean singing “This will be the day that I die” from “American Pie.” So far, so good. But it’s worth a prayer still (and every night and morning and times in between when sending e-mails while crossing streets): Good Lord, Give me the grace so to spend my... Read more
Kathryn Lopez
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