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.
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.
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 volunteer experiences can shape and expand recent graduates’ worldviews and faith lives.
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.
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.
You’ve probably never heard of the Waupoos Family Farm. I hadn’t either, until I met folks involved in it during a recent visit to Ottawa. Their story vividly illustrates the dictatorship of relativism at work.
In a recent interview, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State of the Holy See, suggested that certain critics of a deal between the Vatican and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) were misconstruing the Holy See’s motivations: “There are those who’ve accused us of only wanting diplomatic relations as a sign of some sort of success. But the Holy See, as the pope has said many times, is not interested in diplomatic successes.”
For the last three years, I have received countless invitations to speak at parishes, academies, youth groups, high schools and college Newman clubs on the topic of vocations. It has been, and continues to be, a great joy to meet so many people in this ministry.
As a reward for beating cancer, I went on a pilgrimage to Italy with other young adults from my parish. During that trip, I realized that I had been changed by cancer, and that my attitude had to change.
