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Are you sure you are prepared to make those sacrifices during Lent? Giving up your favorite television show, swearing at others, eating chocolate, or perhaps starting an exercise routine. Is this something you want to start during Lent? You will either quit after three days or stop altogether after Lent is over and then what is the point? Perhaps you might try to be considerate of those around you instead of yourself. On second thought, maybe not, you like yourself too much. Praying at the crack of dawn for more than five minutes a day might be something manageable and not too difficult to start and maintain throughout Lent. But that means less sleep, I am not sure you want to go that route. How about aimlessly talking about God? I do not see the need to develop a close relationship with J...

By Dr. Jeff Mirus ( bio – articles – email ) | Feb 16, 2024 There has been a great deal of study of the Providential preparation for the Christian message in the Holy Land and in Europe, but not so much in other regions. Obviously, of course, the entire Old Testament is a kind of historical, cultural and spiritual chronicle of God’s preparation for the coming of the Messiah to His chosen people. Despite Christ’s widespread rejection by the Jews, there has been tremendous reflection on and analysis of the long period of preparation. This sacred history and subsequent reflections upon it by Christians around the world have led to a keen awareness of a long preparation by God so that, in the fullness of time, His personal disclosure in Christ might be accepted and lived by those w...

(us.fotolia.com) Francis X. Maier is a senior fellow in Catholic studies at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, Washington, D.C., a contributor to CWR, and the author of the new book True Confessions: Voices of Faith from a Life in the Church, published by Ignatius Press. He recently corresponded with CWR, reflecting on his many conversations with bishops, priests, religious, and lay people, while also sharing insights from the words and actions of “mature, faithful Catholics” in the United States. CWR: Why choose the title True Confessions, and why write such a book now? Francis X. Maier: We “confess” our faith every Sunday at Mass, but also through the witness of our daily lives. I wanted to capture what confessing Jesus Christ really looks like through the voices of people who are livi...

The traditional Lenten practices of intensified prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are spiritual disciplines to be followed along the six-week pilgrimage from Ash Wednesday to the Easter Triduum. As I suggested in Roman Pilgrimage: The Station Churches, that journey can be lived as a kind of annual catechumenate-for-the-already-baptized, in which we join the catechumens — who will be baptized at the Easter Vigil or received into full communion with the Catholic Church — in a deep-dive examination of conscience and a more thorough reflection on baptism as the font of Christian vocation. Having literary companions along the Lenten journey can help us live those traditional practices more intensely. Spiritual reading comes in many forms, pre-eminent among them the Holy Scriptures. In its Lenten ...

By Phil Lawler ( bio – articles – email ) | Feb 13, 2024 Re-reading Jesus of Nazareth, I find myself stopping frequently to meditate on Pope Benedict’s many incisive observations. But recently I was stopped in my tracks by what seemed an almost parenthetical remark: his observation that “the early Christians called themselves simply ‘the living.’” To say that we are “the living” might suggest that other people are dead. But Pope Benedict is discussing the joy that those early Christians felt because of their confidence in eternal life. They were “living” in a way different from their pagan neighbors. They rejoiced in a life that could not be extinguished by death. So it was not only their hope in the afterlife that made those early Christians think of themselves as “the living....