Spirituality

In 1894, Labor Day was declared a national holiday. Most worked a six-day work week and then enjoyed Sundays for worship, time with family, and relaxation. Sunday was their “Divine Day of Vacation,” set aside by God to slow us down and recharge us physically, mentally, and—most importantly—spiritual...

I’ll never forget when I once told a relative about a group of cloistered nuns—the Poor Clares—in Cleveland, Ohio, who spend their entire lives adoring Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament. That relative thought it was a wasted life. Surely, they could be doing something better with their time, this...

Back in January, I was invited to lead a day-long workshop for Catholic school leaders in the Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon. The topic that I was asked to address was “Catholic education as a healing ministry of the Church.” It is an important topic, and one that I have experienced, researched, wr...

Have you ever been duped? Fooled, tricked, deceived, conned, swindled? “You duped me O Lord!” That was Jeremiah’s complaint. Somewhere along the line, he must have gotten the idea in his head that the life of a prophet would win him friends, success, and honors. Instead, it won him derision and mock...

Modernity has trained us to use our senses for consumption rather than contemplation. Instead of engaging our senses to pull the beauty and meaning out of our lives, we increasingly use them as a means to score a momentary dopamine hit. When we do this, we are not only not using our senses in the ma...

Over the course of her two-thousand-year history, there have always been controversies and heresies within the Catholic Church. One of these is defiance and disobedience towards the papacy in the erroneous belief that one’s adherence to God exempts one from loyal obedience to Christ’s chosen Vicar o...

Q&A WITH MYSTIC ALICJA LENCZEWSKA, PART 5 Continuing the theme of the fallen angels, I selected two long passages from the first volume of Alicja’s Journal, one from 1986 and the other from 1987. The abundance of words written during the mystical encounters may be surprising. It usually happens when...

I have watched multiple priests leave the priesthood over the years, including the priest who baptized my godson. During the wake of 2018 and COVID, there were quite a few, which left many of us heartbroken. There is a balance that must be found when a priest leaves the priesthood. The Church allows...

Previously in this Gospel, Jesus has spoken about authority in His Church.  This Sunday, He shows us how it works. Gospel (Read Mt. 18:15-20) This Sunday, Jesus teaches His disciples about life in the Church He intends to build.  Earlier (Mt. 16), He established Peter as its head, giving him the “ke...

Some time ago, I ran into an old friend, and as we were catching up with each other’s lives, she said to me, “You’ve always been such a patient mom.” I had no idea what compelled her to make this claim, given that I had not seen her in years. Regardless, instead of boosting my ego, her words prompte...

Over the past sixty years the documents of Vatican II, and indeed the council itself, have become emblematic of a sort of Catholic ideological divide. Opponents and proponents site problems and progress that don’t necessarily originate in the Council, which closed on the feast of the Immaculate Conc...

When Joseph Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI in 2005, he knew that the world he was asked to engage with was one of doubt, atheism, material acquisition, hate, violence, and war. Thus, he began his encyclical Deus Caritas Est with these words: In a world where the name of God is sometimes associat...