-Feast of St. Peter Chanel Joe Six-Pack, USMC here. Yesterday my family put into practice prayers that they learned a long time ago. You see, a line of storms was forecast to hit our area, and everyone took them seriously. Wednesday nights are when many parishes hold their C.C.D. classes for the kids. That’s an abbreviation for Confraternity of Christian Doctrine classes. The teachers called the house and informed us that due to the weather forecasts, classes for tonight would... Read more
One of the first blogs I ever read was McNamara’s Blog. I enjoy it because I enjoy history. And as a new Catholic, the amount of Church history I do know is tiny compared to what is available for me to learn. Pat McNamara, who also has a column over at Patheos, helps bring Church History to life for me. This is the second time I have asked one of my blogging friends to write a post for me answering... Read more
Guest Post by Dee Sparacio Last week, I spent hours in church. Not just the normal one-hour Sunday Mass, but the services on Thursday, Friday and Saturday known as the Easter Triduum. Attending those services gave me time to reflect on my ovarian-cancer journey and my faith.On Thursday, I attended the Mass of the Lord’s Supper. The Mass was bilingual, Spanish and English and I loved listening to my fellow parishioners singing hymns in both languages. I watched as the chrism... Read more
True enough, Elvis Presley loved gospel music. And though he never shied away from singing of his love for the Lord, did anyone else? I mean besides Johnny Cash. Did the culture at large recognize Jesus in song? Well, that is what this first MfM post of Eastertide is going to focus on: pop songs about Jesus. Many of them were mega-hits, others were one-hit-wonders. Some you’ll remember easily, others probably not. Eastertide is roughly seven weeks long, extending from... Read more
Guest post by Giovanni Papini (published in 1921) After the solemn interval of the Passover, plain, ordinary everyday life began again for all men. Two friends of Jesus, among those who were in the house with the Disciples, were to go that morning on an errand to Emmaus, a hamlet about two hours journey from Jerusalem. They left as soon as Simon and John had returned from the sepulcher. (more…) Read more
When Catholics know someone is ill, we can do many things. We can offer a Mass in their name. We can add their name to a parish prayer list. Or we can do what my dear friend Meredith did: We can mail the person a bottle of holy water. My octogenarian dad has been struggling recently with a puzzling array of health problems. Meredith mailed me a bottle of holy water for him. The gesture moved me; she never even... Read more
First a confession. A confession perhaps someone who writes for a Catholic blog shouldn’t make. But truth be told, until I read Light of the World, A Conversation with Peter Seewald, I didn’t “get” our Pope. I missed Pope John Paul II terribly, as if he were my father. I didn’t understand Benedict. And though six years passed by since he took office, I really hadn’t given him a chance. So when a friend recommended I read this book, I... Read more
“If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain” (1 Cor 15:14-15.) The Christian faith stands of falls with the truth of the testimony that Christ is risen from the dead. If this were taken away,. it would still be possible to piece together from the Christian tradition a series of interesting ideas about God and men, about man’s being and his obligations, a kind of religious world view: but the... Read more
What follows is from Giovanni Papini’s introduction to his Life of Christ. Published in 1921, you would think that these words were written just yesterday. John C.H. Wu tipped me off to this book and I found a used copy of it on Alibris. It’s 408 pages long and is filled with great passages. Written in his native Italian, it was translated in 1923 by Dorothy Canfield Fisher. Papini had been an ardent atheist, anarchist and was one of the... Read more
This morning, our sons and I, along with thousands of others, participated in the Way of the Cross procession from the Basilica Cathedral of Saint James in Brooklyn across the Brooklyn Bridge, (see us all crossing the bridge?) to Saint Peter’s Roman Catholic Church in Lower Manhattan, the oldest Catholic parish in New York City. Along the way, we walked in silence, stopping only at several stations to pray sing and reflect. The procession was sponsored by Communion and Liberation,... Read more
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