Out of necessity, humans have latched onto dating systems and chronologies as the means by which we keep track of ourselves in time. We keep track of where we are through our age, by the face of a clock, by naming generations, and by counting centuries and millennia. How often have you thought about this system by which we tell time? The one universal dating system upon which governments, business, travel, and education are based reigns supreme today, measuring years according to Common Era (CE) and Before Common Era (BCE) to provide a common reference for time. But did you know that there ha ..read more

I first learned of Pope Benedict XVI, then Cardinal Ratzinger, from his former student, Father Joseph Fessio, SJ, during lectures he gave at two Catholic conferences at the University of Notre Dame. I remember Father Fessio describing Cardinal Ratzinger as a brilliant yet humble man who was always kind, a great help to Pope Saint John Paul II, and resolutely dedicated to teaching the truth of the Catholic Faith. He explained and defended the Church’s teachings amidst confusion by leading the committee that wrote the Catechism of the Catholic Church and through his work as Prefect of the Congr ..read more

A Follow-Up to Divine Mercy Sunday 2024 “You are I know the most incapable person, weak and sinful, but just because you are that, I want to use you, for my glory.” It may surprise us to know that Jesus spoke these words to St. Teresa of Calcutta before she founded her religious congregation, the Missionaries of Charity sisters. Jesus first invited her to begin her mission by accepting her need for His mercy in her life. God planned to fill her with His merciful love, strength, and compassion for all the needy souls in the world if only she would accept her weakness and sinfulness and place a ..read more

God puts us where we need to be. A radical statement for an article on the Titanic, I know. But on April 10, 1912, God placed Catholic men and women on board the Titanic to offer prayer and hope when it was needed most.     Three priests are known to have sailed on the Titanic: Father Juozas Montvila of Lithuania, Father Josef Peruschitz of Bavaria, and Father Thomas Byles of England, who had converted to Catholicism while studying theology at Oxford. When Father Byles boarded the Titanic, he did not know that his greatest service as a priest was about to begin. He pl ..read more

Have you ever pondered Jesus’ Eucharistic Virtues? St. Peter Julian Eymard, “the Apostle of the Eucharist,” did. He wrote the following:  Few persons think of the virtues, the life, the state of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. We treat Him like a statue; we think He is there merely to forgive our sins and to listen to our prayers. That is a wrong viewpoint. Our Lord lives and acts in the Eucharist. Look at Him, study, and imitate Him. Those who do not find Him in the Eucharist must go back nineteen centuries, read the Gospel and complete it in its intimate details. They miss the swe ..read more

In today’s Gospel, Jesus appears to the apostles and says, “Peace be with you.”  Why does this produce the exact opposite of peace? Gospel (Read Lk 24:35-48) We would do well today to keep the context of our Gospel reading in mind if we want to understand its full force.  In the preceding verses, Jesus meets two disciples on Resurrection Day walking away from Jerusalem toward a town called Emmaus.  They were bitterly disappointed in Jesus’ death.  Seeing Him would certainly have cured that; however, they were “kept” from recognizing Him.  That made it possib ..read more

Earlier this week, my spiritual daughter texted to tell me that the course she and her husband took in preparation for their baby girl’s Baptism was a 20-minute YouTube video. That was the entire preparation. I was disappointed, but not surprised. In the post-COVID era this has become common. If we are honest, it was common before COVID. My husband and I were handed a poorly written book and told we needed to read through it. That was our Baptism preparation course 13 years ago. We are failing in our mission to minister to and evangelize those coming for the sacraments. People do not need a v ..read more

“Who here has watched The Chosen? Raise your hand.” Dan Burke looked expectantly at the audience. I glanced at his wife, Stephanie, sitting beside me. She smiled. I had not raised my hand. Why hadn’t I watched The Chosen? I tried a few times and only managed to watch the first few episodes before turning it off in frustration and wondering what all the fuss was about. But now, something was stirring in my heart. A voice whispered that I needed to go home and watch this. My heart felt different. I felt different. I watched with new intensity as Mary Magdalene wrestled with the demons that woul ..read more

If you listen to popular music, you are no doubt more than familiar with overly sentimental “love” songs. The problem with many of these tunes is that they are actually about limerence and not so much love. Limerence is a mental state where one has an obsessive longing for someone’s affection. Over and above that, this kind of longing has a dark characteristic—it makes you idealize another person so much so that you ignore their flaws. It is as if you mentally worship an unattainable ideal of a human being every time your thoughts drift into flights of fantasy about them. You probably won’t l ..read more

The vocation of raising a family and especially that of a stay-at-home mother has, in our day and age, become almost a fate worse than death. There is an idea that your twenties are a time for wild (and naughty) fun, and it’s not until your thirties that you turn boring, “resigning” yourself to marriage and kids. But Catholic mom Bridget Workman views her story differently, and her life proves otherwise; her story is not “boring” nor is her life confining. She sees it as expressing an arc that naturally arises from her pursuit of the Transcendentals. Bridget graduated with a BA in liberal art ..read more