I teach graduate students how to teach math and science. On the first day of each semester, I ask, “Who can tell me something about Albertus Magnus, Albert the...
Saints
I was well into my adult years before I knew the church had a day set aside for the Feast of the Holy Innocents, a commemoration of King Herod’s murder of all...
By Thomas E. Blackburn The article was originally published in the August 1972 issue of U.S. Catholic Every time I start wrestling with the question...
One of the most impressive elements of Our Lady of Guadalupe’s December 12 feast is the dramatic representation of her apparitions to St. Juan Diego. I...
“Know who you really are and how God can use you,” one of my seminary teachers exhorted. Living this injunction, simple albeit powerful in message, has been an...
There’s a common stereotype about women in the medieval church. We often talk about female saints like Hildegard of Bingen, Julian of Norwich, or Catherine of...
“I’m convinced that my life has to end now, early as it seems, because I have fulfilled my life’s mission. I wouldn’t know what else I have to do on this earth...
I first encountered her in a cold stone church in Périgueux, France. She stood in a corner, a young shepherdess with a plaster lamb looking up at her...
Papal counselor, politician, Doctor of the Church, preacher, spiritual advisor, and theologian: Catherine of Siena wore many hats, and occupied a very visible...
Growing up in an evangelical Protestant family, I didn’t hear much about the Christian mystics. My religious background tended to equate mysticism with occult...
