2016-09-30T15:55:00-05:00

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 3:55 pm   By

On the afternoon of November 22, 1963, the Boston Symphony Orchestra was scheduled to perform in concert. But then word arrived that President John F. Kennedy had been killed.  Conductor Erich Leinsdorf quickly changed the program:  Instead of their planned concert, he distributed sheet music for the Funeral March from Beethoven’s third symphony, explaining to his musicians that they would be playing this instead of the piece which had been scheduled. And then the conductor stood on the stage and... Read more

2016-09-30T15:55:00-05:00

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 3:55 pm   By

John F. Kennedy was America’s first Catholic president. So when he was shot in Dallas on that terrible day, fifty years ago, they called for a priest to come and administer the last rites of the Church in the emergency room at Parkland Memorial Hospital. The priest who responded was a Vincentian priest, Father Oscar L. Huber, who served at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in the Oak Lawn community of Dallas.  Father Huber later described in an interview what he... Read more

2016-09-30T15:55:00-05:00

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 3:55 pm   By

On November 21, Pope Francis visited the cell in a Camaldolese monastery in Rome where American recluse and mystic Sister Nazarena of Jesus had lived for 45 years, until her death in 1990.  The Holy Father was visiting the Sant’Antonio Abate Monastery at the foot of Rome’s Aventine Hill, to mark the Day for the Contemplative Life, one of the final events in the Year of Faith. During a private meeting with the nuns in their Chapter Room, Pope Francis was presented... Read more

2016-09-30T15:55:00-05:00

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 3:55 pm   By

Watch live!  Win prizes! It is my sincere pleasure this evening to offer you a chance to win some really cool stuff!  I have two giveaway packets for “The Sound of Music” that include a poster, T-shirt and CD featuring songs from the musical, including a few from Carrie Underwood. Two lucky readers will win these “The Sound of Music” giveaway packets on December 5. Winners will be selected from those who comment on this post between now and December... Read more

2016-09-30T15:55:00-05:00

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 3:55 pm   By

Fifty years ago—on November 22, 1963—our parish hired a photographer to come and take a group photo of all of us:  the priests, the sisters, the high school students, the elementary school students, the teachers, the maintenance crew…. All of us, girls and boys, the wise and the still-learning, the young and the oh-so-restless. I was there.  So was my future husband (although we wouldn’t meet until three months later).  And my four sisters.  And (I think) my baby brother. ... Read more

2016-09-30T15:55:00-05:00

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 3:55 pm   By

Where in the Bible do we learn that the Virgin Mary’s parents were named Anna and Joachim? Can’t figure out what chapter and verse it is?  That’s because it’s not really in the Bible.  Saint Anna and Saint Joachim (sometimes spelled “Ioacim”) show up in a separate book called the Protoevangelium of James or, more simply, the Gospel of James. Not one of the canonical gospels, the Gospel of James is considered apocryphal—not part of the divine revelation, although elements... Read more

2015-01-14T06:02:10-05:00

Last updated on: January 14, 2015 at 6:02 am   By

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has just released two slim books of homespun messages from Pope Francis:  on Hope and on Evangelization.  The first is only 66 pages in length; the second, 73 pages.  The English-language edition is published in conjunction with the Vatican publishing house, Libreria Editrice Vaticana. The “Simple Wisdom of Pope Francis” Series includes papal remarks that have garnered worldwide media attention.  Some of the quotes which may be familiar to you are: “Let us remember... Read more

2016-09-30T15:55:01-05:00

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 3:55 pm   By

This morning in the East Room of the White House, pro-abortion feminist Gloria Steinem received the highest honor which the President can bestow upon an individual who is not a member of the U.S. military.  She was awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom. What is amazing, I guess, is that I can still be amazed by the abortion president’s actions. Steinem described her own abortion in London at age 22 as “a pivotal and constructive experience.”  She later wrote: “It... Read more

2016-09-30T15:55:01-05:00

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 3:55 pm   By

Every mother is a working mother. It’s just that some mothers go out into the world and spend their time and their energy in the workplace, advancing someone else’s goals and dreams. And some mothers expend that same energy building, creating, laboring for those whom they hold most dear in all the world:  their husbands and children. *     *     *     *     * I know that not every family can afford to have... Read more

2015-01-14T06:03:26-05:00

Last updated on: January 14, 2015 at 6:03 am   By

Three-year-old Colton Burpo underwent emergency surgery in 2003, following a burst appendix.  On the operating table, Colton had a brush with death, and lay unconscious for 17 days; and doctors told his family that he was not expected to live. But Colton did survive—and several months later, he began to tell stories that shocked even his family about the time while he lay unconscious.   He described events about which he could never have known, and people whom he had never... Read more

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