Each month Pope Leo, like Francis before him, offers a prayer intention inviting the universal church to join him in lifting up a particular petition. The solemn requests range from broad topics like world peace, immigration, and homelessness to specific appeals like negotiators in Russia and Ukraine, agents and agencies that help migrants, and Christians who […]
It’s exciting news in Kansas City that the Royals may relocate near the city center. And it is exciting news within the Catholic Community that the proposed site is next to one of its iconic churches, Our Lady of Sorrows, on historic Dutch Hill (Deutsche Hill, named by the German community that settled there in […]
The Catholic Church has many devotional prayers, e.g., the Stations of the Cross, Lectio Divina, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, Novenas, the Divine Mercy Chaplet, the Angelus, etc., but most popular through the ages is the Rosary, which gets emphasized in May and October. Many who grew up in the twentieth century prayed the rosary […]
This Good Shepherd Sunday marks the interregnum anniversary when we were without a pontiff. Pope Francis died the morning after Easter Sunday (April 21) while the college of cardinals gathered soon thereafter to elect his successor, Pope Leo XIV (May 8). Francis was the first pope from the Americas and Leo is the first to […]
In their famous 1988 song, Fairytale of New York, the Pogues tell the story of a young Irish man and woman who fall in love with each other while dreaming of fame in America. After exchanging romantic expressions of infatuation and fantasy, things go south and they hurl vicious and condemning insults back and forth […]
While leaders of the world try to carry out their jobs to make their country a better place, so does the pope have his job in guiding the universal church to reflect the message and mission of Christ around the globe. Jesus is often called The Prince of Peace. His resurrection greeting is a message […]
The fifty days of Easter celebrated in Christianity each year mirror the fifty days of the first disciples following the death of Jesus. During that time, the acts of the Apostles changed from those of despairing lost souls to those of courageous people of faith. It began at the tomb where the stone had been […]
About thirty percent of the Gospels are dedicated to recounting the passion and death of Jesus (42% of John’s Gospel), but only one week of the church’s liturgical year is given to the same focus. Much happens between the upper room of Holy Thursday as the sun sets and the empty tomb of Easter Sunday […]
Palm Sunday is the only Sunday of the year in which Mass attendees begin the service outside their church building and enter together. The united movement symbolizes Jesus’ entry into the holy city, Jerusalem, where He was accompanied by a large crowd to inaugurate His passion. “Jerusalem” means peace realized. The ritual saunter also points […]
The late Rabbi Harold Kushner once said: “I don’t believe in a God who looks for reasons to punish people for being less than perfect. It is bad religion to teach that—just as it’s a mistake for parents to be excessively disappointed every time their child makes a mistake. I believe, instead, in a God […]
