by Father William Dulaney Love, relationships, and memories – how amazing, how mysterious! lt’s hard to imagine what our lives would be without them. I recall talking with a high school senior after his father died. Though looking forward to graduation, he was subdued. Dad had been his role model and mentor; he, Dad’s pride […]
Sunday Scriptures
The Good Shepherd Still Calls
by Father James Rodriguez On this fourth Sunday of Easter we continue to rejoice, feeling the warmth and light of the paschal flame, divided but undimmed. However, as human beings we have a tendency to forget. Good Friday already seems so long ago. The hunger of fasting is replaced with feasting and the pounds lost […]
Change By The Power of the Cross
by Father James Rodriguez People don’t change. That is the lie that most of us have been trained to believe, perhaps from our own personal experience, or from the brokenhearted warnings of others. People don’t change. It is easy to believe. After all, who among us has not been hurt before? Who among us finds […]
Divine Mercy Is Always Available
by Father James Rodriguez MERCY. It is at the very heart of today’s readings. It is a commonly misunderstood word, yet the Word of God teaches us on this second Sunday of Easter that it is essential. In a vision, our Lord showed St. Faustina the now-popular image of His divine mercy (see photo). In […]
Changed By the Secret of Easter
by Father James Rodriguez IN THIS COLUMN last week, I wrote about an icon of Christ crucified. Through closed eyes, the image starkly reminds us of the price of our redemption. At the end of this holiest of weeks, the light of Christ’s resurrection opens our eyes and shines all around us. In another beautiful […]
A Love So Great He Gave It All
by Father James Rodriguez ONE OF THE MOST powerful features of religious iconography is the penetrating stare of the subject’s eyes. Whether it is an image of our Lord, His Blessed Mother, or any of the saints, there is something incisive and profound about the subject’s eyes that cuts deep into the soul of anyone […]
Genuine Glory Is Found On the Cross
by Father Jean-Pierre Ruiz FRIENDS OF MINE who are Yankee fans shook their heads in disbelief when I told them that I once sat next to Jorge Posada and his family on a flight from San Juan to New York and had no idea who he was until the flight was over and the flight […]
Examining the Divine Plan At Work in Our Lives
by Father Jean-Pierre Ruiz FREE ASSOCIATION is a funny thing: when I think of John 3:16, football is inevitably the first thing that comes to mind. The gridiron and God so loved the world — what gives? Maybe you remember seeing the man with the crazy colorful wig in the stands behind the goalposts at […]
A Message We Still Need to Hear
by Father Jean-Pierre Ruiz “We preach Christ crucified.” That’s what St. Paul has to say to the Corinthians in the second reading for the third Sunday of Lent. As we know, St. Paul wrote letters to the young Christian communities where he had preached the Good News in person. By means of these letters, he […]
Fathers Have Power to Impart Authentic Faith
by Father Jean-Pierre Ruiz I’m proud to be the son of Pedro Ruiz. I can tell you — with all due respect to my teachers — that I learned more from him about what it means to live as a person of authentic faith than I could learn from all the books that have ever […]