Author: S&P
Pope Francis: Where have the people gone?
The new papal funeral rite has a striking detail: in the first phase, the one at home, the dead Pope is exposed in a simple white cassock. This is particularly unusual. Priests are composed in their vestments because a priest is a priest forever. All the more so for a bishop, who is “chief priest” and possesses what we call “fullness of orders” in Catholic parlance. All gets back to normality when...
Grace Upon Grace
“You’ve shown me that even my mistakes and sins can be recycled into something good—through Your transforming grace.” – Jesus Listens,April 12th Some experiences from our teenage years we can remember as if they had happened yesterday. I still remember with stunning clarity the day I learned a powerful lesson about grace. I was working my first job over the Christmas holiday season at a local depa...
60 Minutes: Notre Dame rebuilt, reverently restored 5 years after world watched French cathedral burn…
[embedded content] Five years after a fire ravaged the Cathedral of Notre Dame, the beloved Paris landmark is set to reopen. With finishing touches underway, French President Emmanuel Macron tells 60 Minutes what it means… Services Marketplace – Listings, Bookings & Reviews Entertainment blogs & Forums
9 Can’t-Miss History Books to Give to Dads This Christmas…
I remember when I was a kid, and my dad was in his forties, Christmas shopping for him was tough. By this point in his life, the guy had pretty much everything he wanted or needed. Socket set? Had it. Ties? He had plenty of those and didn’t want any more. Briefcase? Acquired. Cologne? He had his go-to drugstore cologne and bought more on an as-needed basis. Even though he was pretty set, the one t...
SCOTUS to Hear Oral Argument on Wednesday in ‘US v. Skrmetti,’ Major Case on Sex Changes for Minors…
COMMENTARY: The Supreme Court has an opportunity to further protect vulnerable children and safeguard our Constitution from infiltration by today’s progressive ideologies. The Supreme Court will hear oral argument Wednesday in U.S. v. Skrmetti, one of the most consequential cases under review by the Court this term. Here is a quick primer on what the Skrmetti case is all about: In spring 2023, sho...
Pope’s Sunday Angelus: ‘Be Vigilant and Turn Your Gaze to Heaven’…
Angelus Angelus Dómini nuntiávit Mariæ.Et concépit de Spíritu Sancto.Ave Maria… Ecce ancílla Dómini.Fiat mihi secúndum verbum tuum.Ave Maria… Et Verbum caro factum est.Et habitávit in nobis.Ave Maria… Ora pro nobis, sancta Dei génetrix.Ut digni efficiámur promissiónibus Christi. Orémus.Grátiam tuam, quǽsumus, Dómine,méntibus nostris infunde;ut qui, Ángelo nuntiánte, Christi Fílii...
This Sunday, the Unexpected Jesus: 4 Takeaways From the First Sunday of Advent…
This Sunday is the First Sunday of Advent, Year C, and the Church’s readings ask us to prepare for Christmas in a serious, radical way — in many ways by doing the opposite of what the rest of the culture is doing right now. Here are takeaways from this week’s readings, taken from previous This Sunday posts and the Extraordinary Story podcast. First: Advent in the Church is the opposite of the Secu...
‘I Came To Cast Fire’ introduces readers to the unique work of René Girard…
(Image: Word on Fire) Is Catholicism still acceptable to the technocratic elites of our secular, post-Christian age? Certainly not the Catholic claim to uniquely know and safeguard absolute truth on faith and morals. Nor in the Catholic Church’s repudiation of the sexual revolution’s claim to universal “rights” of sexual freedom, contraception, or abortion. No, the only safe way to represent one’s...
What Has Jesus Got Against Fig Trees?
By Clement Harrold November 29, 2024 Did Jesus have a grudge against fig trees? Was He clueless about horticultural seasons? Or might there be more going on than meets the eye? The story of Jesus cursing the fig tree is famous for its strangeness. It’s one of those Gospel passages that homilists dread, and for many Christians the whole episode is nothing short of baffling. Famously, the 20th centu...
The past, present, and future of Advent…
(Image: Anne Nygård/Unsplash.com) For some Christians, Advent is simply an aid to memory. It is certainly that. It is also much more. For Advent is a season not only of remembering what happened long ago in order to prepare ourselves for the liturgical celebration of Christ’s Nativity, of preparing ourselves to receive Him in our hearts in the sacraments and in prayer, and of preparing ourselves t...
One of the most dramatic political events in history unfolded in a Catholic Church…..
Jean-Paul Laurens – Saint John Chrysostom and Empress Eudoxia; Oil on canvas, 1893, 131 x 164 cm, Musée des Augustins, Toulouse Have mercy upon us, O Lord, the God of all, and look upon us, and cause the fear of thee to fall upon all the nations… and let them know thee, as we have known that there is not God but thee, O Lord. Show signs...
UK Poised to Legalize Assisted Suicide Despite Catholic Outcry…
Lawmakers in England and Wales are set to vote Friday on a bill to legalize assisted suicide — a potentially “colossal” change that Catholic leaders and other opponents of the legislation warn would normalize suicide and subject vulnerable people to enormous social pressure to end their lives, despite promised safeguards to curb such coercion. The proposed legislation — called the Terminally Ill A...
