Read & Reflect
Articles, reflections, news, and homilies — thoughtful Catholic content for the faithful, published regularly.
Spirituality
Spirituality
Did I Meet My Son’s Guardian Angel?
“Be devout to the Guardian Angels of your friends; they render you in many instances greater services than you are aware; and sometimes they even give you assistance which you do not receive from your own Guardian Angel. There are occasions on which they interest themselves in your behalf for the sa...
Spirituality
There Are No Ordinary Encounters: Immortals on a Hill Road
A few years ago, I spent a week in a scenic hill station with some fellow students and colleagues. One evening, after a picnic, my friends wanted to refill their supply of spirits. The place was in a “dry” state, but there were shops for those who knew where to look. We asked Gautam, our driver, to...
Spirituality
Are We Helping Build a More Human Society?
About 1.5 years after we moved into our current house, a major bridge construction project began two blocks away. This led the city to divert traffic through our neighborhood. As the project drags on, it is creating more and more problems in the neighborhood from the volume of traffic it was never m...
Spirituality
How to Pray a Novena to St. Michael the Archangel
St. Michael the Archangel is one of those saints that you can go to for anything. Priests and parishioners invoke his name for spiritual protection, especially at the end of Mass. We also see St. Michael coming to the aid of the sick and dying, especially in the visions of Pope St. Gregory the Great...
Spirituality
Do We Grumble About God’s Generosity? 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Jesus tells a parable that poses an interesting question: Would we ever grumble about God’s generosity? Gospel (Read Mt. 20:1-16a) In the verses preceding this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus told the disciples, “it will be hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mt. 19:23). A “rich young man”...
Spirituality
Why Catholics Need Catholic Therapists
I. Opening: A Personal Shock I have practiced psychotherapy for more than three decades, treating individuals, couples, and families across a wide range of presenting problems. In recent years I have semi‑retired from clinical practice and now teach in a graduate counseling program—work I deeply enj...
Spirituality
The Divine Will: 3 Stages of the Spiritual Life
“Thy will be done,” which every Christian prays at least once a day, is perhaps the most difficult petition of the Lord’s Prayer. It demands that a person put aside their own selfish wishes and trust in a higher plan. (Read John 6:67.) St. Alphonsus Liguori wrote: “All our perfection consists in the...
Spirituality
The Beauty of the Holy Trinity: Part I
In His perfection and elegance, God approached the world gently. First, by the language of nature, then by the voice of the intellect, and finally by Divine Revelation. Nonetheless, Revelation itself was also given in stages, starting with the creation of the material order, continuing with the law...
Spirituality
The Most Unlikely Disciple and the Importance of Invitation
[Jesus] saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the customs post. (Lk. 5:27) Levi the tax collector, also known as Matthew, has one of the greatest conversion stories of all the disciples. Why? Because of all Twelve, Matthew not only lived a sinful life before meeting Jesus—as did most of the rest...
Spirituality
Less Can Be More: When Subtracting Adds to Your Prayer
When a soul falls in love with God there is a strong desire to do everything possible for His greater glory. A Latin motto of the Society of Jesus is Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam which means, “for the greater glory of God.” The soul in love longs for his life to bring God glory, to attract people to His t...
Spirituality
7 Things You Didn’t Know About the Stigmata of St. Francis
St. Francis of Assisi was the first saint known to receive the sacred stigmata, the marks of Christ’s passion on the body. St. Francis received the stigmata at Mount Alverna in Tuscany in the year 1224. St. Francis had been observing a 40-day fast on the mountain in preparation for the Feast of St....
Spirituality
What It Means To Be Wise as Serpents, Innocent as Doves
There is something deeply unsettling in Christ’s instruction to His disciples in the tenth chapter of St. Matthew’s Gospel. We might have expected Him to say, “I send you as lions among wolves,” or perhaps as soldiers entering battle. Instead, He says: “Behold, I send you as sheep in the midst of wo...