WHEN PLANE HIJACKING became a national threat, we immediately addressed the problem by upgrading preventive measures at our airports: X-ray surveillance, body searches, luggage inspections.
Guest Columnists
Lifting Up the Vocation Of Fatherhood
Many men today are redefining what it means to be a father. They are intimately involved in the raising of children and the responsibilities of family life, navigating the competing demands of work and home with love. How can we as a Church support their callings? What sources of inspiration in our Catholic tradition offer ways to honor fathers?
A Turning Point Helped Refocus My Vocation
BORN INTO a peasant family in a rural area of Central Vietnam, I am the second of five children. Growing up, I had to work very hard as a farmer.
Craving Approval Is Not Evangelizing
THE BIZARRE COMMENT and the weird gesture have not, until recently, been associated with high-ranking churchmen. Both, alas, were on vivid display last month when Cardinals Reinhard Marx and Gianfranco Ravasi had more than a few of us scratching our heads in wonderment.
Converting, Conforming Ourselves to God’s Will
by Rev. Mr. Alessandro Giuseppe Linardi
THE BEGINNING OF my conversion was in 2004 at the Sanctuary of Saint Pio, when I was almost 22 years old. During that year, I really started to feel the love of God in my heart and the desire to leave everything to follow Our Lord, Jesus Christ.
Don’t Be Afraid to Find Your Answer in Prayer
When I speak with students, I often challenge them to find answers to the most elementary questions of life: Who am I? Why did God create me? What is my purpose/mission in life? These answers cannot be found in textbooks nor can they be googled on the internet. True answers come from a deep interior reflection and dialogue with God.
Quality of Relationships Continues to Decline
It is ironic then that with all the ubiquity of media today, we are poorer in relationships. David Brooks, a favorite New York Times columnist, writes that the quality of our relationships has been declining for decades. As a result, the percentage of Americans who are lonely has increased from 20 percent in the 1980s to 40 percent today.
Gap-Year Experiences For Recent Graduates
Gap year volunteer experiences can shape and expand recent graduates’ worldviews and faith lives.
Grace Under Pressure
A CHAPTER IN a remarkable American and Catholic life will close on June 6, when Abbot Thomas Frerking, O.S.B., concludes more than two decades of service as leader of the monastic community at St. Louis Abbey. His story deserves to be better known.
Inviting Jesus to Mold My Heart
Six years ago, I entered the minor seminary at Douglaston for the Diocese of Brooklyn. It took me five years to respond to the call that I felt in my heart. I was 23 years old and the one desire I had was to do God’s will in my life.