EVERY THIRD TUESDAY of the month, I celebrate Mass at Concord Nursing Home in Bedford-Stuyvesant. The Missionaries of Charity Sisters, who live in the convent, arranged for this Mass to be celebrated each month. The residents of the nursing home look forward to this Mass, but most especially seeing the sisters.
BACK ON THE first Sunday of Advent a line in a reading from Isaiah brought to mind a whole set of memories. The line is: “…O Lord, you are our father; we are the clay and you are the potter; we are the work of your hands” (Isaiah 64: 7-8).
It was unfortunate that Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, recently described “Amoris Laetitia,” Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation on marriage and the family, as a “paradigm shift.” Perhaps the cardinal meant “paradigm shift” in some sense other than … paradigm-shift-as-rupture.
THE DOMINICAN Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist – the name itself is a prayer. When I first met the community in 2000, it was only three years old and already growing rapidly. The Sisters’ full-length white habits and generous smiles bespoke their total self-gift and corresponding joy. In these religious sisters, I recognized the fulfillment of an unexpressed longing of my heart. Though life would bear me far from this moment, I never forgot.
Mini-robots had three minutes to accomplish as many life-sustaining tasks as possible to earn points for their pre-teen coders during a friendly competition at St. Saviour Catholic Academy.
A Bishop, the State Deputy of the Knights of Columbus and two pro-life counselors were the honorees at the Pro Vita Mass celebrated Jan. 27 at the Cathedral-Basilica of St. James in Downtown Brooklyn.
It was a cold morning at 6 a.m. one day in the early 1960s when I first met the late Msgr. William J. Rodgers as an altar boy for Mass in St. Patrick’s Church, Kent Ave., Fort Greene. “Introibo ad altare Dei. Ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meam.” He was praying the Tridentine Mass in beautiful ecclesiastical Latin, and I was a Latin newbie fascinated by the language and the ritual of the Mass.
Parishioners need their priests. But priests need their parishioners. That’s the spirit behind Parishioners for Priests, a grassroots movement that encourages Catholics to give local priests the one thing they need most: prayers.
This past week, a Plenary Session of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was held at the Vatican. This was a meeting of those priests, religious, and laity who work in this particular Vatican office with the Holy Father, Pope Francis. The role of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is not to be “the Holy Inquisition” as it was called many years ago, but one of clarifying and defending the faith and the sanctity of the Sacraments.
For young women looking to grow in Christian discipleship this Lent, the Daughters of Wisdom will sponsor “Passages through Death to Life,” a daylong vocational discernment opportunity on Feb. 17.
