AS I RECENTLY celebrated the second anniversary of my ordination to the priesthood, two things came to mind. In one sense, I felt that my ordination took place only yesterday and in another, it seemed as if I have been a priest my whole life. Hence, the mystery of the priesthood! In a priest’s life, no two days are ever the same. While your identity as a priest of Jesus Christ is unchangeable, your encounters with the people of God each day renew that identity.
LAST YEAR, I saw nearly 500 young people gather on a Saturday morning, carrying signs about the mercy of God. They were getting ready for their annual procession around New York. But in this procession, prayer was intertwined with joyous dancing and upbeat singing about how God’s love and mercy are for all.
by John Fitzgerald
SUNDAY MORNING and the concluding rite at the end of Mass begins with the celebrant saying, “The Lord be with you” and we respond, “And with your spirit.”
By Brother Mike Sheerin, F.M.S. I said “yes” to become a Marist Brother while I was a student at Christ the King High School in Middle Village in the late 1960s. I was intrigued by the 35 brothers who served in the Boys’ Division of the school back then. Their ability to engage 1,500 […]
WHEN I WAS first introduced to the fascinations of the DNA double-helix in a biology class at Baltimore’s St. Paul Latin H.S., 50 years ago, the “unraveling” of this key to unlocking the mysteries of human genetics had taken place just a dozen years before. Yet, in the five decades since my classmates and I built plastic models of the double-helix, humanity’s knowledge of its genetic code has grown exponentially. And it seems likely that, as a species, we’re only at the threshold of our capacity to use this knowledge for good or ill.
by Antonina Zielinska
BEING A TEENAGER in New York City was a treasure like no other. During my coming of age years, I had friends from all corners of the earth, practicing different religions and holding vastly different understandings of the world.
SOME BIBLICAL SCHOLARS consider the Book of Deuteronomy to be a collection of sermons: catechetical homilies on the great theme of the Exodus and the fulfillment of that epic adventure in God’s gifts of the Law and the land to the people of Israel.
THE PARISHES THAT make up the Diocese of Brooklyn are at the forefront of praying for vocations. Praying for vocations cannot be a one-day event, but a constant commitment for the entire parish community. Therefore, as a new pastoral year begins, let us address what we can do in our parishes so that everyone becomes actively involved in creating a greater awareness for vocations.
by Dr. Hosffman Ospino
MY 6-YEAR-OLD son came home after school and unexpectedly asked my wife and me: “What am I?” The question caught us off guard. “What do you mean,” we replied. He said, “Am I Mexican? Are people who speak Spanish Mexican?”
THOSE WHO PERSIST in denying that the Church is engaged in a culture war, the combatants in which are aptly called the “culture of life” and the “culture of death,” might ponder this June blog post by my summer pastor in rural Québec, Father Tim Moyle:
