As another election concludes, Catholics should remember we are responsible for helping to unify our country. One way to do that is to announce together the Church’s prophetic call to both parties.
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When Moses asks God to provide a name that he might share with the enslaved Israelites in Egypt, “God replied to Moses: ‘I am who I am.’ Then He added: ‘This is what you will tell the Israelites: I am has sent me to you.’ God spoke further to Moses: ‘This is what you will say to the Israelites: The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you’” (Exodus 3:14-15).
What is a man? That’s a wonderful question that seems difficult to raise without provoking strong reactions. On the one hand, there are polarizing responses whose proponents seem almost to enjoy being maligned, since the hostility they experience enhances their self-image as gutsy truthtellers. On the other hand, there are also anxious responses that compulsively censor or deconstruct every effort to define masculinity, lest they or anyone in their in-group feel lacking and called to grow.
I’m sure you may be wondering about the title of this article. Well, to be honest, I’m not too sure about it myself. But what I know for certain is that I was drafting this article during a moment of reflection, and I spontaneously came up with this title. I thought I should go ahead and continue writing, since the title is itself a product of my reflection. Sometimes wild moments come with wild reflections!
Christians are required to apologize for their faith. They do this in one of two ways.
The rosary as we have it today developed over many centuries. As early as the 2nd or 3rd century, monks in the desert used knotted ropes as they prayed. The rosary itself became known as “The Poor Man’s Breviary.” Since most people couldn’t read or pray the 150 Psalms of the Bible as was done in monasteries, the practice of substituting an Our Father and later a Hail Mary for each of the Psalms gradually grew up. Mysteries were added later still, focal points for reflecting on the key events in the life of Jesus and Mary, from the Annunciation to the Crowning of Mary as Queen of Heaven and Earth.
After Jesus’ Resurrection, the last chapter of John’s Gospel tells us that Jesus revealed Himself to His disciples as they were fishing. The disciples had been fishing all night and had caught nothing, but Jesus came into their midst and asked them to try once more: “Cast the net over the right side of the boat, and you will find something.” The disciples trusted Christ and put their effort behind that trust, and they filled their nets that day. It is with this same confidence that we embark again on our shared mission to promote priestly and religious vocations.
Many of us today suffer from scrupulosity, which I think could be defined — at least insofar as it is…
St. Jeanne Jugan, foundress of my community of Little Sisters of the Poor, was a woman of few words. She left behind no letters or other writings, but she did impart little bits of advice to the young Little Sisters among whom she spent her final years.
String bracelets with the code WWJD? became a pious fashion trend in the late 90s, and they remain visible today on many teenage wrists. Coming in a variety of bright colors, the bracelets are a visible examination of conscience to the wearer: “What Would Jesus Do?” is a fruitful question to ask oneself in a moment of temptation.