Apr052013

WITNESSING TO THE RESURRECTION

By Msgr. Stuart Swetland on April 05, 2013 in The Church

Easter and the Easter season is the most important liturgical celebration of Christianity because the Resurrection is the central mystery of the Christian faith. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) calls the Resurrection of Jesus “the...

Apr042013

ST. ISIDORE AND THE NEW (DIGITAL) EVANGELIZATION

By Patrick Leinen on April 04, 2013 in Saints

The new evangelization and the modern digital revolution are moving leaps and bounds faster than most of us expected. When faced with this reality, it can be overwhelming when we look at the possibilities. For example, this is an image from the...

Apr032013

THE FORBIDDEN WORD

By Fr. David Voors on April 03, 2013 in Feasts and the Liturgical Calendar

For forty days of Lent, we tried to discipline ourselves with prayer, fasting, almsgiving, acts of charity, spiritual reading and making a good Confession. Our hope, that we would open ourselves to God's outpouring of abundant Grace and...

Apr022013

WELCOME TO THE FAMILY, LITTLE ONE!

By Megan Swaim on April 02, 2013 in Sacraments

There are few things as joyful as welcoming a new member into the Body of Christ, and Easter is one of the best times of the year because we welcome so many new members! Can't you just feel the joy?! My family and I were especially blessed...

Apr012013

TRULY AND RADICALLY NEW

By Bishop Kevin Rhoades on April 01, 2013 in Bishop Kevin Rhoades

At Easter, we celebrate that something truly and radically new has happened in human history, something that changes the state of humanity and the world. Jesus is risen from the dead! The Resurrection of Jesus is the crowning truth of our...

Mar312013

LET THERE BE LIGHT!

By From the Writings of Pope Benedict XVI on March 31, 2013 in From the Writings of the Pope

Homily of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, Holy Saturday, April 7, 2012 in Saint Peter's Basilica. … At Easter, on the morning of the first day of the week, God said once again: “Let there be light”. The night on the Mount of...

Mar302013

A NIGHT TO REMEMBER

By Frederick Everett on March 30, 2013 in Prayer and Devotion

Last year, during a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to mark our 25th wedding anniversary, my wife Lisa and I had an opportunity to spend three hours of relative quiet and solitude at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. While for western Christians it was...

Mar292013

COMFORT ME BY LETTING ME REDEEM YOU

By Mary Kloska on March 29, 2013 in Prayer and Devotion

It is Friday. All is pitch black darkness. Only a small light comes from bloody footprints on the ground. The stench of rotting sulfur – one that always accompanies Satan – fills the ice cold air. The wind rips and rain pelts like razor...

Mar282013

I WOULD DO ANYTHING FOR YOU

By Fr. Mark Gurtner on March 28, 2013 in Feasts and the Liturgical Calendar

Editor's Note: Today we invite you to spend some time preparing for the beginning of the Holy Triduum with this homily from Fr. Mark Gurtner, given at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Fort Wayne on Holy Thursday, 2004. Nine years later and his...

Mar272013

DEAR JOSEPH

By Jon Leonetti on March 27, 2013 in Feasts and the Liturgical Calendar

Dear Joseph, As I write this we are headlong into the holy season of Lent, the Church's annual springtime. Lent gives us time to start new, just like the grass I see peeking up out of the snow. But like the yards and trees, we have to shake...

Mar262013

SACRED OILS

By Brian MacMichael on March 26, 2013 in Feasts and the Liturgical Calendar

As we draw nearer to the Sacred Triduum, the parish becomes the focal point of the pious bustle with which we anticipate the Easter feasts. Yet in the midst of Holy Week, we encounter a special occasion with implications for the entire local...

Mar252013

SEMANA SANTA

By My Year of Faith on March 25, 2013 in Feasts and the Liturgical Calendar

As Catholics, we celebrate Holy Week together through the liturgies and our big “T” Tradition. But as a catholic, or universal Church, we also celebrate small “t” traditions during Holy Week that are unique to a...

Mar242013

WE MUST SPREAD OURSELVES UNDER HIS FEET

By From the Writings of Pope Benedict XVI on March 24, 2013 in From the Writings of the Pope

Did you know that Palm Sunday is World Youth Day? Usually when we think of World Youth Day our minds go to the large gatherings (usually in the millions) where young people meet with the Pope. Those large celebrations happen every 2-3 years....

Mar232013

GET CARRIED UP TO HEAVEN

By My Year of Faith on March 23, 2013 in Sunday Readings

Did you know that every week Mark Hart (aka The Bible Geek) does a reflection on the upcoming Sunday’s Gospel for Faith and Life Television? He breaks it down to help us prepare to be more engaged to hear the Gospel read to us at Mass. How...

Mar222013

HIS MERCY

By Lisa Everett on March 22, 2013 in Prayer and Devotion

Last year during Easter week, my husband, Fred, and I took a trip to the Holy Land to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. We spent most of the week in the old city of Jerusalem, winding our way through the Jewish, Christian and Muslim...

Mar212013

ENTRENCHING THE WORD IN OUR FAMILY

By Meg Matenaer on March 21, 2013 in Faith at Home

Celebrating the Octave of Easter as a Family in the Year of Faith A few days ago as I was meandering through the Catholic blogosphere, I came across a post discussing the importance of knowing scripture. A real weakness of mine, I read on until...

Mar202013

VIRTUAL PILGRIMAGE: THE HOLY LAND

By Deacon Jacob Rose on March 20, 2013 in Feasts and the Liturgical Calendar

The skyline of Jerusalem is quite breath-taking as it sprawls over the hills and valleys of Israel. At the heart of the city is Old Jerusalem, the oldest part of the city, the places where our Lord Jesus would have walked and prayed. For the...

Mar192013

THE FAITH OF SAINT JOSEPH

By Bishop Kevin Rhoades on March 19, 2013 in Bishop Kevin Rhoades

During this Year of Faith, Saint Joseph, the patron of the universal Church, is a wonderful model and intercessor for us. Like Abraham, Joseph was a righteous man, a just man, with a righteousness that comes from faith. The greatness of Saint...

Mar182013

POPE FRANCIS’ NEW CHAIR

By Megan Swaim on March 18, 2013 in The Church

If you travel to Rome, one of your top priorities, I'm sure, will be visiting St. Peter's Basilica. There, just under the famous alabaster glass window of the Holy Spirit you will find Bernini's “Chair of St. Peter.” It is...

Mar172013

FOR DIVINE PROTECTION

By My Year of Faith on March 17, 2013 in Feasts and the Liturgical Calendar

Today we celebrate the Feast of St. Patrick. This day is about more than being Irish or wearing green; it is about celebrating a man who dedicated his life to spread the faith throughout the country of Ireland. Traditionally the prayer called...

Mar162013

OUR NEED FOR MERCY

By Fr. Jake Runyon on March 16, 2013 in Sunday Readings

In the Gospel reading, we are looking at the story of the woman caught in adultery. This is an interesting passage for many reasons, but one reason quite important for us this year. I cannot hear this passage from St. John’s gospel without...

Mar152013

APOSTOLIC

By Catechism of the Catholic Church on March 15, 2013 in Creed

857 The Church is apostolic because she is founded on the apostles, in three ways: —she was and remains built on “the foundation of the Apostles,”[1] the witnesses chosen and sent on mission by Christ himself;[2] —with the help of...

Mar142013

WE ARE CATHOLIC (AND CATHOLIC).

By My Year of Faith on March 14, 2013 in The Church

It's a great time to be Catholic. And catholic. Yesterday, the world watched as we were blessed with a gift, a new Pope, Francis I. Did it not seem that in those moments, the whole world was Catholic? You would have thought it, from all...

Mar132013

HOLY

By Catechism of the Catholic Church on March 13, 2013 in Creed

The Church Is Holy 823 “The Church… is held, as a matter of faith, to be unfailingly holy. This is because Christ, the Son of God, who with the Father and the Spirit is hailed as 'alone holy,' loved the Church as his Bride,...

Mar122013

AS ONE

By Fr. Andrew Budzinski on March 12, 2013 in Creed , The Church

866 The Church is one: she acknowledges one Lord, confesses one faith, is born of one Baptism, forms only one Body, is given life by the one Spirit, for the sake of one hope (cf. Eph 4:3-5), at whose fulfillment all divisions will be...