A former Southern Baptist who converted to Catholicism nearly 30 years ago is scheduled for ordination into the diaconate on May 21. Daryl Avery, a Texan since birth, is one of 17 permanent deacon candidates and calls St. Monica in Dallas his parish home.
Faith
Pope Francis told older people to use retirement as a time to serve others and to sow the seeds of their wisdom.
The word sacrifice means several things. In a religious or cultic sense, it may mean “the offering of animal, plant, or human life or of some material possession to a deity, as in propitiation or homage” But in everyday usage it may mean the giving up of something that is considered valuable by one person for something of higher value or for a good that may benefit someone else.
The sun shone brightly that day on the 108-year-old sanctuary, which was filled to capacity with slightly more than 400 congregants, as Bishop Edward J. Burns helped Father Stephen Mocio celebrate St. Patrick Catholic Church’s 150th anniversary in Denison. The parish, located about two miles south of the Red River, is home to around 1,000 families.
Though she lives 2,000 miles away from Dallas, Ileana Valdez never forgets the life lessons she learned from her mother, Estela.
Since the days of her childhood, technology and the love for engineering have been passions that Ileana has nurtured with her mother’s help and inspiration. That passion keeps them even closer today while she resides in Seattle, working for a cybersecurity company.
Our world needs Christian faith. A book that proved this to me regarding the medical field is Losing Our Dignity: How Secularized Medicine is Undermining Fundamental Human Equality by Charles C. Camosy.
Many of us want to grow in holiness and draw closer to God. Our perception of our personal holiness or closeness to God often revolves around how many prayers we say, how many spiritual books we read, how often we attend church, how often we receive the sacraments of the Eucharist and Penance, or whether we are good parents or good people. Yes, these are excellent steps toward holiness and closeness to God, and I encourage and recommend that we all practice them.
The Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz, winner of the Nobel Prize for literature in 1980, declared in a book of prose that “the Scriptures constitute the common good of believers, agnostics, and atheists.” For Milosz, whose life was scarred by the Nazi and Communist takeovers of his native land, the moral authority and literary beauty of the Bible was a refuge against the lethal and banal propaganda spewed forth from those godless governments and armies, even though he could not bring himself to believe in God.
Pope Francis will consecrate Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary during a penitential prayer service in St. Peter’s Basilica March 25, the Vatican said.
Lent is a good time to ask God’s help in throwing off any spiritual “drowsiness” that dulls a person’s prayer life and attentiveness to the needs of others, Pope Francis said.