by Father Caleb Buchanan DURING THE SEASON of Advent, the priest utters a startling phrase that explains and introduces the reason for the Incarnation: “When our need for a Savior was great……” It is hard to imagine an age when this phrase doesn’t ring true in our lives. In every age until the end of […]
Next week marks the 39th anniversary of the most remarkable adventure of judicial hubris in the history of our constitutional Republic since the infamous Dred Scott vs. Sanford (1857) decision. Through Roe vs. Wade (1973), purportedly to settle public policy by standardizing state regulation of abortion, our highest Court essentially concocted a fictive legislative chimera […]
by Father Robert Lauder Although Christmas has passed and we have welcomed a new year, I find myself still thinking about Christmas and its meaning and its mystery. For several years I have noticed the large role memories play in my Christmas experience. I suppose everyone’s experience of Christmas changes from year to year and […]
by Father Anthony F. Raso JUST WHEN WE are ready to set sail and take out boats northeast, or maybe northwest, along comes the Word of God telling us to set sail due north, period. We think that we know where God wants us to go but it turns out that He wants us to […]
by Father Robert Lauder Sixteenth and Last in a Series AS I RE-READ Father Michael Paul Gallagher’s Faith Maps: Ten Religious Explorers from Newman to Joseph Ratzinger (New York: Paulist Press, 2010, 158 pages, $16.95), I am stunned by the originality of each thinker. I have the feeling that I am learning something new both […]
Continuing an 800-year-old Polish tradition, parishioners at St. Stanislaus Kostka parish, Greenpoint gather in church Monday to Saturday at 6:30 in the morning during Advent to prepare for the coming of the Messiah by celebrating the Roraty Mass. This celebration of thanksgiving to Mary is done before dawn so the church can be in complete […]
by Paul Catafago Growing up in Queens, Christmas decorations meant my mother setting up the traditional crèche, the Nativity scene, in our living room. The practice is a popular one amongst Catholics in Mediterranean countries. Every year around Christmas, the Metropolitan Museum in Manhattan features a Neapolitan baroque crèche, a Nativity scene set around a […]
by Cindy Wooden, VATICAN CITY (CNS) – In the dry spiritual desert of modern society and the darkness of moral and economic confusion, Christians draw joy from knowing that Christ is near, Pope Benedict XVI said. Celebrating a morning Mass at Rome’s Our Lady of Grace parish and reciting the Angelus at the Vatican later […]
by Father Anthony F. Raso THROUGHOUT THE WORLD, and for that matter, throughout the past 2000 years, there has been a great love and fascination for that girl in the Gospel today. Mary was at that point about 12 or 13 years old and no doubt had the appearance of a girl in the eighth […]
My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord, Last October, our Holy Father Benedict XVI issued an Apostolic Letter entitled, “Porta Fidei,” or the “Door of Faith” quoting Acts 14:27. The door of faith is always open to us, ushering us into the life of communion with God and offering entry into His Church. This […]
