3 Minute Read “Aragorn looked at the pale stars, and at the moon, now sloping behind the western hills that enclosed the valley. ‘This is a night as long as years,’ he said. How long will the day tarry?’ ‘Dawn is not far off,’ said Gamling, who had now climbed up beside him. ‘But dawn will not help us I fear.’ ‘Yet dawn is ever the hope of men,’ said Aragorn.” After Jesus was arrested, tortured and crucified, most of his closest followers were terrified that the same thing would happen to them, so they hid behind locked doors (Jn 20:19). On Divine Mercy Sunday, like Jesus’ disciples, we too find ourselves behind locked doors. Most of us have been in our homes for weeks. We have gone without the Sacraments during the holiest time of the year. Many of us have lost our jobs and our businesses...

[embedded content] Wes Tank raps Dr. Seuss’ classic children’s book “Fox in Sox” over Dr. Dre’s legendary hip hop beats for “What’s the Difference” and “Let Me Ride” with much due respect to the flows and styles of Dr. Dre, Eminem, Xzibit and Snoop Dogg.

This combination of pictures created on April 12, 2020, shows Holy Week Masses being celebrated behind closed doors amid the outbreak of the new coronavirus in (L-R and top to bottom) Caracas, Tlalnepantla in Mexico, San Jose and Ouro Preto in Brazil. (Photos by CRISTIAN HERNANDEZ, PEDRO PARDO, EZEQUIEL BECERRA, and DOUGLAS MAGNO — AFP via Getty Images) It is time to hear the pleas of God’s good people. It is time to work courageously, creatively, prudently and pastorally to restore the sacraments to greater and greater numbers. We are more than four weeks into a disaster unprecedented in our lifetimes. Of first concern are those who are gravely ill and those who have died. But we cannot forget many others who have lost their jobs or seen their businesses and livelihoods vanish. Particular...

Lots of people say this, now that most of us can’t go to church: The Church is people. It’s not buildings. We can lose everything and still have each other. Jesus makes us brothers and sisters whether or not we have a place to meet. We say it because not going to church hurts. Not being together, in person — that hurts. The Church is people, true. But the Church requires churches. The church of Notre Dame of Paris almost burned down a year ago today. The near loss of one of Christianity’s greatest buildings reminds us that our places matter. Not a little bit. A lot. The virus has made many of us feel this as we never have before. We Build Things Why churches? Because people who agree deeply and love each other build things. Yes, where two or three gather in Jesus’s name, He’s with them. Bu...

[embedded content] What would happen if you tried to explain what’s happening now to the January 2020 version of yourself?

Nuns playing basketball at a monastery in Sevilla, Spain while sheltered in place for the coronavirus. Hoops makes the world go around.pic.twitter.com/53oKV5GnNU — Michael Dolan (@mikedolanny) April 16, 2020