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Who is Setting the Tone at Home? Here Are 3 Suggestions…..
How I think about marriage and homelife is much affected by life with my wife. I must remind myself not to universalize too quickly or without nuance. Yet I think what I’ve seen with my eyes, and felt in my heart, does point to something that goes beyond the contingencies of my experience. Woman has a natural inclination, we could say ‘genius,’ in setting the tone of life in the home. This ‘tone’ is anything but peripheral. It’s at the center of family life. It is its beating heart. Is home a place of peace, joy and refinement; or contention, gloom, and lack of refinement or even coarseness? Is home a place where people are welcome, life’s challenges are faced with confidence, and sorrow is met with compassion and care? Here I will focus on one major feature of the tone of homelife—namely,...
The Communion Conundrum…
The Easter season provides an opportunity to celebrate the life and death of Jesus Christ. His sacrifice on the Cross brought light to the world conquering sin and death, his destruction of the works of the Devil, and the opening of the gates of heaven. We are also blessed to receive the richness of the liturgical readings from the Acts of the Apostles that highlight the development of the early Church, the celebration of Divine Mercy Sunday, and the witness of our fellow brothers and sisters received into the Church who have finally come home. Within this series of celebrations, we also encounter another important event, a child’s first Holy Communion. It is the last of these events, I argue that poses a communion conundrum because of the nature and substance of what the child receives an...
Midwest Catholicism Is Humble, Yet Powerful — Just Like Mary…
Midwesterners are used to being overlooked. After all, this is the part of the U.S. known as “flyover country” by coastal denizens. Even the region’s most prominent metropolis, Chicago, is known as “The Second City,” a nickname that originated as a put-down, made by a visiting journalist from the nation’s “first city,” New York. To put it in familial terms, the Midwest is the nation’s disregarded middle child, less elite than the elder East, not as cool as the younger West, and far more unassuming than the charming (though sometimes-rebellious) South. But Catholics know that being overlooked in the eyes of the mighty often coincides with finding favor with God, who chooses “the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something”...
Archbishop Dennis Schnurr of Cincinnati Diagnosed With Cancer, Will Begin Chemotherapy Treatment…
By Daniel Payne CNA Staff, May 8, 2024 / 12:55 pm Archbishop of Cincinnati Dennis Schnurr has been diagnosed with cancer, the archdiocese revealed this week, with the prelate set to begin preparing for chemotherapy treatment this week. An archdiocesan spokesman told CNA on Wednesday morning that on Friday the archbishop “received a post-operation diagnosis of stage 3 small bowel cancer.” “His doctor noted that, generally speaking, the archbishop’s health is excellent, and that is certainly a source of optimism for the success of the treatment,” the archdiocese said. “The treatment plan includes a regimen of chemotherapy over the next six months, preparation for which will begin this week,” the statement continued. Services Marketplace – Listing...
The Miraculous Medal Is Ireland’s Hope, and Ours…
A holy medal tumbling from a ballot box as the voting papers are emptied out feels like a cry from the past. The quiet roar of a forgotten people. By Carrie Gress A story out of Ireland two months ago got little attention here across the pond, but it offers a rare ray of hope in the culture war. As The Guardian explained, back in March, on the International Day of Women, the Irish voted on a proposed referendum that would have changed language in the constitution, redefining the family, no longer founded on marriage, but based on “durable relationships.” It also proposed changing language about motherhood, removing reference to a “mother’s duties in the home” to more general language about care from family members. Voters shot the referendum dow...
Strange Phenomena and Spiritual Warfare: A Catholic Convert’s Testimony…
As soon as my family and I began the conversion process, we were inundated with strange occurrences in our home, but a house blessing and enthronement of the Sacred Heart brought us the peace of Jesus Christ. After months of prayer, study and preparation, my husband and I joyfully received the sacraments of baptism, confirmation and Holy Eucharist at this year’s Easter Vigil. As a newly initiated Catholic, I am grateful to fully participate in the faith and experience God’s graces in a welcoming parish community. But the journey to the Easter Vigil Mass was also filled with spiritual challenges that I did not anticipate. Before our conversion, my family belonged to a contemporary non-denominational church, where we packed into an auditorium with large video screens, theologically weak musi...
‘Veritatis Splendor’ priests expected to leave Tyler diocese…
‘Veritatis Splendor’ priests expected to leave Tyler diocese Skip to content A group of priests associated with a controversial residential project in the Diocese of Tyler, Texas is expected to leave the diocese, as their efforts to reach a stable canonical status have faltered, according to sources close to the diocese. Fr. André Metrejean, priest of the Diocese of Lafayette and leader of the Pious House community in Tyler. Image via Veritatis Splendor/YouTube. Bishop Joe Vásquez, apostolic administrator of the Tyler diocese, met Monday morning with the board of Veritatis Splendor, a planned Catholic residential community in the diocese which has faced controversy involving its leadership’s financial administration and personal conduct. According to sources close to the diocese, Vásquez t...
Hitting the Bricks, 750th Anniversary of Lyons II, and the News…
Hitting the bricks, the news, and Lyons II Skip to content Pillar subscribers can listen to this Pillar Post here: The Pillar TL;DR Hey everybody, It’s the 750th anniversary of the Second Ecumenical Council of Lyons, and you’re reading The Tuesday Pillar Post. If the reference seems a bit obscure, I apologize. But Lyons II, which opened 750 years ago today, was attended by about 500 bishops, almost 100 abbots, and emissaries from governments and hierarchies across Eastern and Western Europe. It’s an important one, at which the Council Fathers resolved that the Church, and Christian states, should do what they could to address violence in the Holy Land, and in which Pope Gregory X aimed to resolve the schism between the Churches of Rome and Constantinople. Progress was even made...
God will not just raise you from the dead someday — He will transform you in the body you have…..
For the heart, life is simple: it beats for as long as it can. Then it stops. Sooner or later, one day, this pounding action will cease of its own accord, and the blood will begin to run towards the body’s lowest point, where it will collect in a small pool, visible from the outside as a dark, soft patch on ever whitening skin, as the temperature sinks, the limbs stiffen and the intestines drain. These changes in the first hours occur so slowly and take place with such inexorability that there is something almost ritualistic about them, as though life capitulates according to specific rules, a kind of gentleman’s agreement to which the representatives of death also adhere, inasmuch as they always wait until life has retreated before they launch their invasion of the new landscape.—Karl Ove...
Vatican to Publish New Document on Marian Apparitions ‘and Other Supernatural Phenomena’ Next Friday, May 17…
Fernandez will speak at a livestreamed Vatican press conference at noon on the day of the document’s publication, along with Monsignor Armando Matteo, the secretary for the DDF’s doctrinal section. The announcement comes after Fernández and Matteo met privately with Pope Francis on May 4, a meeting in which the pope likely reviewed the forthcoming document. The Catholic Church calls for “great prudence” in examining the facts related to presumed apparitions of revelations. According to the 1978 norms, it is the Church’s responsibility to first judge the facts before permitting public devotion in the case of an alleged apparition. Under Pope John Paul II, the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments issued a lengthy document on popular piety in 2001 that ...
The story behind the hidden persecution of Christians in Nicaragua…
[embedded content] Discover the untold story of Catholic Priests in Nicaragua, facing adversities and government opposition in their efforts to bring the Gospel to their people. Despite Nicaragua’s deep-rooted Catholicism, priests and bishops find themselves targets of persecution and religious constraints. Through this interview, you can step into their world with Fr. Robert Havens from the CANELA Foundation as he unveils the struggles they face… Services Marketplace – Listings, Bookings & Reviews Entertainment blogs & Forums
As an Underwater Graveyard, the Great Lakes Have Claimed Close to 10,000 Ships…
The Great Lakes were a massive graveyard for ships lost at sea for centuries. Sailboats have slipped into storms, never to be seen again. Steamers have rocked in the waves. Even massive freighters have sunk to the sea floor. Although shipwrecks may seem like part of the Great Lakes’ past, advancing technology is helping researchers understand the weather patterns that have made so many voyages fatal. Technology is also helping scientists find sunken vessels that were once thought to be lost forever. Great Loss in the Great Lakes There isn’t an official number as to how many ships have sunk in the Great Lakes, but most estimates range between 6,000 and 10,000 lost ships, according to Carrie Sowden, the archaeological and research director for the National Museum of the Great Lak...
