Since 2008, every year before Christmas I have posted an invitation at the website I shepherd, inviting people to listen for a word to guide them in the year...
Spirituality
Discover resources and reflections to integrate Catholic spirituality into daily routines, relationships, and parish life.
Looking ahead to the new year in those final weeks of 2024, I found myself laying the groundwork for what became something of a family social experiment. With...
O little town of Bethlehem,how still we see thee lie!Above thy deep and dreamless sleepthe silent stars go by. Missing from the famous carol’s description are...
November 10th marks the 50th anniversary of the release of Patti Smith’s landmark debut album, Horses. A blend of poetry and back-to-basics rock and roll the...
Decades ago, it was common in some communities for Catholic children to be clothed with a brown scapular when they received their first communion. The...
My Catholic vocabulary expanded on March 7, 2020 when Pope Francis announced the Synod on Synodality. I knew what a synod was because the church had been...
“And so [Anna] turned [Mary’s] bedroom into a sanctuary. . .”(Infancy Gospel of James 6:4) There are gospels that aren’t part of our Bible, what we call...
Legend goes that the Virgin Mary gave the rosary to St. Dominic, founder of the Dominican Order. Dominic had been battling the Catharists, heretics who denied...
Blessed are those . . . who have set their hearts on pilgrimage. • Psalm 84:5 (NIV) Late one spring, writes Geoffrey Chaucer in The Canterbury Tales...
While browsing a folder of religious iconography, I came across an unusual sight: the image of a saint with a swan at his side: St. Hugh of Lincoln, the...
