The Season of Lent has begun and Catholics are required to fast today (Ash Wednesday) as well as on Good Friday. We are, however, allowed to break the Lenten fasts on Sundays throughout the season. And you don’t have to fast if you are ill, nursing, below 10 years old, etc. So although 40 days of sacrifice seems like a lot, fasting from food for only two days is a walk in the park compared to what the saints listed... Read more
Ash Wednesday And so the Lenten Season begins. We recall our mortality and our need for redemption. Today we will head to Mass and be marked with the sign of contradiction, in ash upon our foreheads. A sign that says we do not hold to this world’s notion of truth. Today we will tithe of ourselves by giving up ten percent of a year being penitent and remembering the words of the Holy Spirit, For all that is in the... Read more
This weekend we discovered my husband no longer has the biggest feet in the house. Our 14-year-old does. This weekend that same son and I head to New York, to spend time with my mom, and with my 81-year-old dad, a retired surgeon struggling with a puzzling host of health problems, including the waning of memory. I remember clearly my mom and dad visiting St. Peter’s University Hospital in New Jersey soon after our son was born with a seizure... Read more
—Feast of St. Kieran Those who complain that the Church won’t change with the times seem to not realize that though “the times” produce new gadgets, technologies, and toys, the human beings wielding them haven’t changed at all. The critics also seem to miss the fact that the Church does change and develop, albeit at a pace that is too slow for their tastes. The fact that we human beings are the same fallen model we’ve always been is why... Read more
Sometimes, it takes a while to figure out our vocation. I am thankful for the earnest searching a young musician has pursued in an effort to find her true calling. A year ago in this space, I wrote a post praising Danielle Rose Skorich, a Catholic folk musician known professionally as Danielle Rose. What struck me about her music was its mix of orthodoxy and soulful folksiness. After a brief career as a musician of international renown, Danielle Rose Skorich... Read more
In his book The Interior Carmel: The Threefold Way of Love, John C.H. Wu ends the chapter on “fraternal charity” with a short poem he composed. I read elsewhere that he was a poet too, but this is the first time I’ve seen one of his originals. I’ll let him introduce it to you,Last year I hit upon a poem when I was waiting for the bus. I have outlined these (as) my ideals of life. Although I myself am... Read more
My friend Martina said something funny and true tonight during our School of Community: once you own a certain model of car, you start seeing it everywhere. Likewise, she said, once you begin to see Christ, you begin to see Him everywhere. Because He is. My involvement with the ecclesiastical movement known as Communion and Liberation has helped me to discern the presence of Christ in my daily life. I have come to understand that my faith is not a... Read more
The subject of “lying for Jesus,” as Mark Shea puts it, has been rolling through the Catholic blog-o-sphere in light of the tactics used by the Pro-Life group Live Action. I even posted a little piece comparing many of the commentators to characters from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. I dubbed Mark Shea as “Faramir” because that character said, “I would not snare even an orc with a falsehood.” Mark states his case based on what the Catechism says... Read more
I happened to be at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in New York today with my friends from Communion and Liberation. The mass was magnificent and so was Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan’s homily. What struck me deeply were his reflections on the life of Bernard Nathanson. Tomorrow morning at 10, the Cardinal will preside at a funeral Mass for Nathanson, a founder of NARAL, the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws, a proabortion group.Nathanson once boasted he ran the nation’s... Read more
Our family van is in the shop this week and I’ve been driving our sedan 40-plus miles to work. The car is as old as our marriage: 17 years. My husband works close to home and so he drives the sedan to work and back, logging less than five miles a day. For years, the gas gauge hasn’t worked, but we’ve adapted by relying on the trip odometer.We turn it to zero when we fill up and at when it... Read more
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