During Christianity’s earliest centuries, an era of official persecution of Christians, church and state were not only separate but opposed. Then in the...
Glad You Asked
“Lead us not into temptation.” Christians have prayed these words so many times, it’s easy to slide over their meaning, but they are a bit curious...
For 16 years I prayed them with my entire family before Christmas. I prayed them as a teenager, for the repose of the soul of parents of friends; I prayed them...
The church requires two miracles before a person can be canonized. Why? A Catholic friar on a plane that made a dramatic emergency landing in Poland last fall...
As we’re reminded every Advent, our Catholic Christmas customs are somewhat at odds with the secular “holiday season,” which starts before Thanksgiving and...
How did we arrive at this translation of the Mass? As Catholics in the United States get accustomed to new responses and prayers at Sunday Mass, many will...
One of the great mysteries of our faith is the incarnation, our core belief that the eternal and almighty God became a human being, a man who could and did...
For three days every year Mexicans and Mexican Americans gather for Día de los Muertos. In cemeteries and homes people come together to remember their deceased...
Because of the cultural situation of the time, women wrote little and wielded power even less, so it’s hard to speak of “Church Mothers” in the same way we do...
Of the four wedding invitations currently posted on my refrigerator, only one is for a ceremony to be held in a church. The others? All will be outdoors: in a...
