It’s St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, and everyone is Irish today — if not in fact, at least in spirit. Come on now, don’t be an old Druid! Regardless of your nationality, St. Patrick is a saint for everyone. It’s not just because I’m half Irish or that my parents named me after St. Patrick, […]
Queen Esther, seized with mortal anguish, had recourse to the LORD. She lay prostrate upon the ground, together with her handmaids, from morning until evening, and said: “God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob, blessed are you. Help me, who am alone and have no help but you, for I am taking […]
It’s that time of the year again. For those of us who are on the Nineveh 90 challenge, we began Lent-like practices back in February. God is so good at giving us what we need to grow in holiness even though we might not have selected the means He uses. How loving that God choses […]
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. […]
“But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.” (Matthew 6: 1-6) I begin most mornings working out on a treadmill at the local gym where sixteen television screens flash before my eyes. Each channel […]
By Archbishop Samir Nassar An apocalypse In six years of war the face of Syria has been completely transformed. A large wasteland of ruins, pulverized buildings, burned out homes, neighborhoods turned into ghost towns, villages razed to the ground … and more than 12 million Syrians (half the population) don’t have roofs over their heads […]
How ironic that Pontius Pilate who sentenced Jesus Christ to death, should give testimony to the existence of Jesus 2,0000 years later through a stone bearing Pilot’s name. The decision of the prefect of Judea to crucify Jesus, clinched salvation history and was both the greatest good and the greatest evil—killing God and saving mankind. […]
On February 25, 2004, I was teaching English at the University of Central Florida in the Diocese of Disney, lecturing on “Ash Wednesday,” T.S. Eliot’s famous poem. There before me in the lecture hall sat several students with ashes smudged across their foreheads in the shape of a cross. Ash Wednesday. How apropos. T.S. Eliot […]
By Jacques Berset WHEN the Missionary Sisters of Jesus, Verbo y Víctima from Peru arrived toward the end of the 20th century, it caused a veritable sensation in the rural enclaves of Virgen del Carmelo de Villa Ygatimy, a sprawling community northeast of Paraguay’s capital of Asunción. Today, the sisters serve some 20,000 faithful through […]
John Henry Newman’s longest poem, The Dream of Gerontius, is a spiritual work rich in theology. Composed at the time in which he had the presentiment of an impending death, the reality of Last Things was very present to the author. The poem, written in 1865 when Newman had been a Roman Catholic for twenty […]
Once, love was too heavy a word to be uttered casually at random people and objects. Once, love was the object of contemplation by the wisest and keenest philosophers. Once, the subject of love was tread upon very carefully lest it would catch fire. Nowadays the word and the concept of love have been reduced […]
By Maria Lozano NEW YORK—“Hope is coming back to the Nineveh plains!” That is the verdict of the Middle East expert of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), the international Catholic charity. Just back from a fact-finding mission to the region in northern Iraq recently liberated from the grip of ISIS, Father Andrzej Halemba […]
Christmas has always been a season of Hope, especially for children and most especially for young children. We invest so much in our children, trying to make them happy, secure and successful. But new statistics have shown how our secular lifestyles are threatening their future, the future of society. As Christians we are not supposed […]
I woke up this morning. I could have instead been meeting my Maker, sautéing like a piece of human bacon in the eternal frying pan or dancing with angels. You must have woken too or you wouldn’t be reading this. Have you ever put much thought in that? Waking up in the morning is not even […]
By Jaco Klamer Late last year, Ismail fled Mosul with his mother Jandark Behnam Mansour Nassi (55), the two having survived ISIS’ reign of terror for two years. From the safety of Erbil, Kurdistan, the Iraqi Christians, former residents of the town of Bartella, on the Nineveh plain, told their story to international Catholic charity […]
Rome is known as the Eternal City for good reason. One of the city’s ancient marvels is the Egyptian obelisk in Saint Peter’s Square, a block of marble as tall as a tree that weighs 330 tons. Erected as a monument to Pharaoh in 1850 BC, it stood watch over the whole of Egyptian history, […]
Coming out of high school in 2012, Joe Burger was not offered a scholarship to Ohio State University. Undeterred, he worked hard at contributing to the team in any way he could. His work has paid off, as he was awarded a scholarship last year. And now the linebacker is a senior captain of the […]
The Christmas Season is meant for inexpressible Joy. After all, Advent marks the coming of Jesus Christ to earth to save humanity from the penalty of sin and evil. It should be a joyous time as we contemplate this colossal event that was so immense that even the heavens were shaken and altered at what […]
By Father Ziad Hilal, S.J. ALEPPO, Syria–For the past few days, Aleppo city has been breathing sighs of relief. Since the rebels reached an agreement with the regime forces and its allies to evacuate all civilians and militants from their last stronghold in east Aleppo city, there finally can be some peace. From the very […]
Saint Ignatius was Bishop of Antioch overseeing 1st century Syrian Christians and was a disciple of the Apostle John. He wrote a letter to the Christians at Ephesus as he was being transported to Rome to face wild beasts in the arena. He said, “For our God, Jesus Christ, was conceived by Mary in accord […]
Adoration: The intense and greatest admiration culminating in reverent worship of the divine. Acts of homage in words of praise, prayer or gifts that express the adoring attitude of the creature in the presence of his Creator. The expression of the soul’s mystical realization of God’s presence (Smith’s Bible Dictionary, 1901). There is just one […]
The following report is written by an Aleppo-based Jesuit priest, who preferred to remain anonymous. Dec. 8, 2016 In the last few days the news has come in thick and fast. The government forces have been retaking the zones that it has lost control of ever since 2012. The people here are hoping this military […]
On November 10, the Conseil d’Etat ruled it “inappropriate” to show happy children with Down syndrome on TV, as that sight could “trouble” women who chose not to give birth to their disabled children. With this pronouncement, the French judges upheld a previous decision by the CSA (“Conseil Supérieur de l’audiovisuel” – equivalent of the […]
