Every once in a while — a little more often than that lately perhaps — I get into conversations with people about peace. Pax Christi, you know. It can seem a foreign thing, with all our noise and anxieties, all our concerns and responsibilities, so many burdens weighing on us. But when we know we are walking with Christ, when we know we have a Savior, when we know He never leaves us alone, when we remember that He bore... Read more
If you find yourself restless and distracted, advice from a Carmelite, Sr. Ruth Burrows, via the indispensable Magnificat: I do not think readers would want to be bored to tears by an account of what goes on in my head during prayer! Distractions are my unfailing companions at prayer; but I have learned that prayer doesn’t go on in the head, in the brain-box, but in that secret heart that is choosing to pray and to remain in prayer no... Read more
It is true. “Love, real love, divine, unconditional love, actually happens in human lives.” I know this is true, in part, because I had a teacher when I was an undergraduate at the Catholic University of America who radiated it. He was Fr. Kurt Pritzl, who taught philosophy, generosity, faith, and love. He taught fortitude. Fr. Pritzl, a Dominican priest from Wisconsin, died of cancer in 2011 and I’ve never seen the crypt church at Mary’s shrine by Catholic U... Read more
The March for Life isn’t just a political protest but a marathon! Literally. My friends at Life Runners take that seriously and are holding the Inaugural Nellie Gray 5K Run/Walk with Kids 1K Fun Run Saturday morning in Washington, after the March today. Jeff Grabosky is co-director of the event and author of Running with God Across America, about his run across the continential United States and what he learned from it. He talks about the book, prayer, and marathons... Read more
I’ve had the late Bernard Nathanson on my mind all day. Perhaps because I started my day at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, where his funeral Mass was held. In his book, The Hand of God, about his conversion from a leading practitioner of abortion — a founder of NARAL — he wrote: As I look back across the twenty-five years separating me from that revolting extravaganza playing itself out on the bodies of pregnant women and their slaughtered babies, I am... Read more
Specifically the first part of a nine day novena marking the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade? To ease the pain of this grave reality? Today we are drawn out of ourselves to pray for the mother who remembers her child in a culture that tries to pretend there never was anything but a choice. From the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ website: Intercession: For the mother who awakens each morning with the memory of abortion fresh in her mind:... Read more
Don’t you love the passage from Hebrews that happened to be the first reading at Masses on Thursday this week? “The Holy Spirit says.” The Spirit speaks to us. Today. Are we listening? The Spirit says: “Harden not your hearts.” Do not have an evil and unfaithful heart. Do not forsake the living God. And then there is this: Encourage yourselves daily while it is still today, Let’s do this! Let’s encourage one another daily — and let us let... Read more
“It is not enough by far to have taken radical initial steps of conversion and to be a reasonably observant and faithful Christian. At the center of our being we must remain poor and free and available to God, rather than barricade ourselves through habit to the approaches of God’s ever-surprising grace.” That, as I may have mentioned, comes from a reflection in Magnificat, that daily devotional this week. Sounds right. So how do we do it? Randy Hain has... Read more
The reflection in Magnificat today, that beautiful daily devotional, is on discipleship and discipline and it is what we need to drink in, by Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis: It is not enough by far to have taken radical initial steps of conversion and to be a reasonably observant and faithful Christian. At the center of our being we must remain poor and free and available to God, rather than barricade ourselves through habit to the approaches of God’s ever-surprising grace. The passion... Read more
Get yourself up early if you’re in the Manhattan area for Mass and a prayer procession on the morning of the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Read more
Kathryn Lopez
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