Spirituality

Many Catholic families have welcomed the Sacred Heart of Jesus into their homes through an enthronement ceremony. Others have participated in parish consecrations or renewed personal acts of devotion during the month of June. These are beautiful practices, but they naturally raise an important quest...

A Visitor from Heaven, Part I: Apparitions in Northern Italy Last year, in remote Poland, an intriguing book appeared around private apparitions of Blessed Jerzy Popiełuszko. This publication may serve as a spiritual guide for all who desire to enter through the narrow gate and live forever with Jes...

As our nation turns its attention to the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, I’ve found myself wrapped up by a sobering event: 9/11. I am recalling the manner Americans instantly sought God in our collective grief. A quarter century after America’s worship spaces overflowed with gr...

Jim, Jim, I wore a tie today,The first one that I ever wore.You’d have said I looked like a dummy, Down at the dry goods store. That was country music legend Willie Nelson circa 1985. It was a duet with fellow legend Johnny Cash, who sang the second verse: Jim, Jim, the preacher said a lot of things...

The debate over euthanasia and assisted suicide is often presented as a debate about compassion. Who, after all, wants people to suffer? Who wants the elderly, the disabled, the terminally ill, or the mentally anguished to endure pain without help? The language is powerful because it touches somethi...

When ChatGPT first hit mainstream markets in 2022, it was the artists who began warning about the dangers of artificial intelligence. There is something about artists—whether painter, sculptor, graphic designer, iconographer, poet, writer, photographer, and others—being more in tune with reality at...

A couple years ago I bought a manual typewriter. I was in a slump in my writing and seeking some kind of creative, esoteric reboot, I suppose. There were things I wanted to write that I didn’t necessarily want online, or on the nebulous Cloud, or even on a hard drive, and so I thought perhaps going...

Jesus sends out seventy-two disciples on a missionary journey, granting them significant spiritual authority.  Wasn’t that risky? Gospel (Read Lk. 10:1-12, 17-20) As Jesus traveled to Jerusalem from Galilee for the last time, St. Luke tells us He commissioned seventy-two disciples “whom He sent ahea...

In the mountain-town of Emmitsburg, Maryland, there is a historic school unfamiliar to most Americans. Its founding in 1808 is a direct consequence of 1776. Its founder, Fr. John Dubois, was mentored by James Monroe and Patrick Henry to unleash a new birth of freedom in a country weary from a long t...

On July 4, 1776, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson signed the Declaration of Independence. Both had worked hard together in producing it. Subsequently, Adams became the second American president while Jefferson followed him as the young country’s third. Both had a high regard for the Bible. “It is the...

The phrase attributed to Mother Teresa of Calcutta, “The worst feeling: resentment,” offers a profound reflection on the human condition and the way emotions shape the course of our lives. While there are painful feelings such as sadness, fear, frustration, and loneliness, resentment has a distincti...

Since my mother’s womb, you have been my strength. (Ps. 71:6) Today, the Church celebrates the birth of John the Baptist, one of just three liturgical birthday celebrations, along with that of Jesus and Mary. According to pious Christian speculation, John was born (though not conceived) without orig...