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Hey everybody, Today is the feast of St. Jeanne Jugan, the foundress of the Little Sisters of the Poor, a religious community of women founded and dedicated to care for the elderly poor. Jeanne was born in France in 1792, amid the turmoil of the French Revolution. She was the sixth of eight children. When Jeanne was four, her father, a fisherman, was lost at sea. Her mother was left to raise the children on her own – and to secretly catechize them at home, with anti-Catholic persecutions on the rise in France. Jeanne, like all her siblings, was sent to work at a young age to keep the family afloat. She was a shepherdess, a seamstress, and then a kitchen maid in the home of a devout French noblewoman. The noblewoman, the Viscountess de la Choue, frequently took Jeanne with her when she’d br...

There are things that, at first blush, might appear marginal but are in truth major. Since it was introduced by the Catholic priest Mike Schmitz, who goes by Father Mike, in January 2021, the little-heralded “The Bible in a Year (With Fr. Mike Schmitz)” has been the most popular Apple religion podcast for a majority of 2021 and 2022 and has even, on two occasions, reached the No. 1 spot among all podcasts on Apple’s platform. The show has been downloaded 350 million times and an average of 750,000 times a day. Its popularity is easy to understand — the show goes down smoothly. Each 20-to-25-minute installment, designed according to a study plan developed by the Catholic biblical scholar Jeff Cavins, features two or three short scriptural readings and a pithy reflection by Father Mike, an a...

Listen to this story: ROME – Pope Francis yesterday created 20 new cardinals, including 16 under the age of 80 and thus eligible to vote for the next pope. It was Francis’s eighth consistory, and whenever we get a new crop of Princes of the Church, several chronic misconceptions tend to head once more unto the breach. Herewith, three conceptual mistakes to avoid in thinking about the men who wear the red. It’s not about liberals v. conservatives To begin with, there’s a natural tendency for Western handicappers to try to divide up the cardinals like they do everyone else, meaning in terms of where cardinals stand on the liberal/conservative divide. This generally works fairly well for Americans and Europeans – it’s not wrong, for example, even if it’s a little reductive, to think that new ...

DJI is one of the most well-known drone manufacturers in the world, and while they probably don’t necessarily need any promotional work to spread their brand amongst drone enthusiasts, the video below is certainly going to help them to move some product. DJI sent one of their Mavic 3 drones with an expedition crew on Mt. Everest to prove that the device can withstand even the harshest conditions, and they managed to capture some absolutely spectacular shots while they were at it. Load this video up on your desktop, choose the maximum resolution, go full screen, and enjoy the next 3 minutes. DJI: “When we say Imaging Above Everything, we mean it. Discover more about the DJI Mavic 3: https://bit.ly/3yj0Vl7 Pick up your Mavic 3 now: https://bit.ly/3PzO6tw This is Mount Everest. The highe...

I forget who originally came up with the term “Romeaphobia.” This can be defined as the hatred or fear of all things that can be viewed as links to Roman Catholicism or the early church in general. Obviously, this affects issues linked to worship and church governance. However, in my experience (I grew up in Texas), many evangelicals (especially Baptists) have a fear of clear, authoritative doctrinal statements that, you know, might be interpreted as “Roman” creeds. All together now: We are “Bible Christians” and that’s that. I am not saying this to take a shot at my heritage (I am very thankful for the deep faith and examples of my family and my father was a Southern Baptist pastor). The reason I mention this up is because, in my opinion, this anti-creedal Romeaphobia is playing a major r...

In the Gospel for Sunday’s Mass, the Lord Jesus summons us to a deeper appreciation for what brings true honor, for what makes a person truly great. As you may imagine, what the world considers great and honorable is rather different from what God thinks and sees. Let’s look at this Gospel in three parts and discover its paradoxical vision. I. THE PERSON who HONORS – The Lord is at a banquet and notices people vying for seats of honor. In response, He gives the following teaching: When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not recline at table in the place of honor. A more distinguished guest than you may have been invited by him, and the host who invited both of you may approach you and say, “Give your place to this man,” and then you would proceed with embarrassment to take...

The greatest insight lies in neither telescope nor microscope, but in the viewer, who is challenged to view reality through the lens of God’s love. Courtesy of the hard work of scientists, along with some amazing technology, the Webb telescope has captured images that give us insights into the very origin of human life itself.  I recently saw another image that urged me to look back, not to a point in time billions of years ago—that would be spectacular enough. Rather, it caused me to catch of glimpse of something much more impressive: eternity.   I speak, of course, of the image of a child in the womb.  For a Christian, it is difficult to see both photos without thinking of Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”   But before th...

“…while, from a very small piece of ground, a large part of the food of a considerable family may be raised, the very act of raising it will be the best possible foundation of education of the children of the laborer.”William Cobbett, Cottage Economy (1824) One of the most remarkable aspects of human life is how what is truly good ends up being good in more ways than we realized. There are many things in which as we go through life we discover a generous plan written-in to reality. The most obvious examples are in the moral realm, as for instance how hard-won qualities such as honesty or fidelity bear many fruits we could not have foreseen. We might think of the little boy whose habitual truth-telling ends up winning for him positions of responsibility and honor. Similarly, acting in accor...

Whether you have an abiding interest in insect biology, or simply enjoy watching events that happen very, very quickly played back very, very slowly (and who doesn’t?), this short video from the Evolutionary Biology and Behavior Research Lab at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and North Carolina State University is a dazzlingly wild ride. Guided by the biologist Adrian Smith, who heads the lab, the film captures a series of 11 different winged insects – including a praying mantis, beetles and weevils – as they propel into flight at a riveting 3,200 frames per second, and are slowed down roughly 200 times for your viewing pleasure. For more of Smith’s nifty camerawork, watch Moths in Slow Motion. Join Our Telegram Group : Salvation & Prosperity  

It’s a little after 7 a.m. on Tuesday in Rome, but I’ve already put in close to two solid hours at the Vatican already. For the uninitiated, the Vatican opens to the public at 9 a.m. during the week, but on this particular morning I’ve been given a peculiar task — I’m to open the Sistine Chapel. Typically, it’s a job that falls exclusively to the key masters — a small group of giant key ring-wielding men who, through years of service at the Vatican, have earned themselves the appellation. But today, the responsibility has been passed on to me (and a handful of others), who have spent the past two hours unlocking every door, gate, closet and window at the Vatican in preparation for the day ahead. And, when the time comes, it’s me holding the oversized (and presumably very old) iron ske...