In his work for Christian unity, St. John Paul II often expressed the hope that Christianity in its third millennium might “breathe again” with its “two lungs:” West and East, Latin and Byzantine. It was a noble aspiration. And when he first visited Orthodoxy’s ecumenical patriarchate of Constantinople in 1979, perhaps the successor of Peter […]
Guest Columnists
This Season’s Best Deal Is Free
By Father Eugene Hemrick The stores began selling Christmas items long before Thanksgiving, and even Black Friday was pushed up to attract bargain seekers. Each year, the messages and peddling of items seem to come earlier and earlier. Sometimes it feels as if it is all too much: too much shopping, too much noise, too […]
A Season of True Repentence
By Maureen Pratt This year, I was asked to help at my parish’s Advent reconciliation service, and as soon as work began to put it together, I became much more aware of the role of “I’m sorry” in my daily life. From “my bad” to “mea culpa,” the variety of ways we use to declare […]
Six Great Reads for Under the Tree
That “there is no end to the making of books” is attested by both revelation (see Ecclesiastes 12:12) and a browse through your local bookstore – which, if well-stocked, will help you get the following to deserving readers on your Christmas list: N.T. Wright, “Paul: In Fresh Perspective” (Fortress Press) The former Anglican bishop of […]
Advent: Embrace The Suspense
By Msgr. Joseph P. Calise The experience of waiting for something can cause a lot of different emotions. The effects of waiting for a train when you are late for work or waiting for results from some medical tests are very different from waiting for the tooth fairy or Easter bunny to come. Waiting can […]
Working Toward God’s Abundance for All
By Carolyn Y. Woo In the Catholic Relief Services guest dining room in Baltimore, we have decorated the left wall with pictures of various grains, plants, trees and water. The inscription reads: “We shall see the bounty of the Lord.” On the opposing wall, we have the words from Psalm 27:13, “in the land of […]
Gratitude Is the Essence of Religion
By Father William J. Byron, S.J. As the Thanksgiving season quickly spills over into Advent and Christmas, many people find themselves remarking that this is their favorite time of the year. Thanksgiving Day is, of course, a secular feast day, and we know Christmas is not. And most of those who speak of “the holidays” […]
Lessons from Dietrich Von Hildebrand
Dietrich von Hildebrand (1889-1977), a German Catholic philosopher, was part of a circle of thinkers that first formed around Edmund Husserl, founder of the philosophical method known as “phenomenology.” Others in that circle included Max Scheler, on whom Karol Wojtyla (St. John Paul II) wrote his second doctoral thesis, and Edith Stein, now St. Teresa […]
Vatican II and The Berlin Wall
History sometimes displays the happy capacity to arrange anniversaries so that one sheds light on another. On Nov. 21, 1964, Pope Paul VI solemnly promulgated the Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, which began by proclaiming Christ the “Light of the Nations” and is thus known as “Lumen Gentium.” In November, 1989, the […]
A Modern Synod is Needed For a Modern Family
By Kelly Bothum I will be honest – the recent Synod of Bishops on the family was not a topic of discussion at my family’s dinner table. Finding half an hour for our family of five to scarf down the latest concoction in the slow cooker before we splinter off to the next band practice, […]