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By Clement Harrold July 19, 2024 If anything can rightly be said about St. Mary Magdalene, it is that she remains a mysterious and oftentimes elusive figure. Over the centuries, her identity has been debated and disputed endlessly, with the result that today many Catholics are left feeling very confused. What exactly do we know about her on the basis of the Gospels? And was she a reformed prostitute? Thus we know that Mary Magdalene had seven demons cast out of her (see Mk 16:9; Lk 8:2); she helped to fund Jesus’s ministry (see Lk 8:2); she remained with Him at the foot of the cross (see Mt 27:56; Mk 15:40; Lk 23:49; Jn 19:25); and was the first person He publicly appeared to following His Resurrection (see Jn 20:11-18). For the Eastern Fathers, this is all that we can know about Mary Magd...

(Image: https://en.nursia.org/) The summer is now fully upon us. It is the time when many are traveling on vacation and taking part in “leisure” activities. Yet, as many of us have discovered, it can be just as hectic as the rest of the year—perhaps more so. How many times have we returned from a vacation only to exclaim, “I need a vacation!” This isn’t to say that vacation time is bad. It’s just to say that if it is truly to be leisurely, it has to be done in a certain way. Pope Benedict XVI explained in a 2007 Angelus address what should be our goal: “Every good Christian knows that vacations are an opportune time to stretch one’s body and to nourish the spirit in more ample spaces of prayer and meditation, to grow in one’s personal relationship with Christ, and to conform more and more ...

Recently rumors have been flying that Pope Francis is preparing to impose stringent restrictions on the Traditional Latin Mass. Of course, unfounded rumors out of the Vatican are not new, and some journalists have not been able to identify anybody who has actually seen the document in question. Still, even if it ends up being in the class of “Pope Francis is dying” rumors that we have heard for years, such a document would be in character for a pontificate that has emphasized placing hedges around the more conservative, traditional elements of the Church. While his predecessor’s position towards the Latin Mass community can be broadly characterized as one of accommodation, Pope Francis has taken a more confrontational approach. But why? What is the problem with allowing what is by all meas...

[embedded content] In this video, Dr. Bergsma, a convert who was led to the Church through the Scriptures, gives us seven Bible verses that prove that Catholicism is indeed biblical and even more biblically grounded than what some of our Protestant brethren initially think. Services Marketplace – Listings, Bookings & Reviews Entertainment blogs & Forums

Readings:Jeremiah 23:1–16Psalms 23:1–6Ephesians 2:13–18Mark 6:30–34 As the Twelve return from their first missionary journey in today’s Gospel, our readings continue to reflect on the authority and mission of the Church. Jeremiah says in the First Reading that Israel’s leaders, through godlessness and fanciful teachings, had misled and scattered God’s people. He promises God will send a shepherd, a king and son of David, to gather the lost sheep and appoint for them new shepherds (see Ezekiel 34:23). The crowd gathering on the green grass (see Mark 6:39) in today’s Gospel is the start of the remnant that Jeremiah promised would be brought back to the meadow of Israel. The people seem to sensethat Jesus is the Lord, the good shepherd (see John 10:11), the king they’ve been waiting for (see ...

“If you’re worried about everyone liking you so you don’t say anything, then it’s yourself you are worried about and caring about. It takes courage to speak up,” says Patti (Maguire) Armstrong in this week’s podcast. “Leave it to God and pray to the Holy Spirit. I don’t know where to begin. I don’t know who I’m supposed to sit next to but God does. And He can put us into the right places and, if we give Him permission to use us, He will.” Patti and Deacon Geoff were talking about her article in the National Catholic Register “Nine Points of Advice to Fight the Devil.” Patti is an award-winning journalist and was managing editor and co-author of the bestselling Amazing Grace Series. Her latest books are the humoro...

Suzanne Nunn prays the rosary with friends each morning in her Mission Viejo home. From St. Timothy’s Catholic Church in Laguna Niguel, she brings Communion to the sick and homebound. She drives parishioners without transportation to Sunday Mass, decorates the altar for holidays and instructs adult converts in the tenets of the faith. One observing the 68-year-old in her church volunteer work or at prayer in her regular pew might struggle to comprehend another role she plays in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange: the target of a protracted and expensive legal crusade by the bishop. For more than three and a half years, Bishop Kevin Vann has pursued a libel lawsuit against Nunn over an email she sent to 47 people in 2020 about what she saw as his improper meddling in the finances of a Cat...

Temptations in a fallen city, memories of a beautiful woman, a poisoned chalice, the attacks of an envious priest, curses from a pagan priest, a rock that won’t budge, another that falls on a young monk, a kitchen in flames, a dragon that lurks to devour a fleeing monk, threats from Gothic warlords, and the prospect of a destroyed monastery. St. Benedict, whose feast we celebrate on July 11th, endured constant attacks from the enemy throughout his life. The life of a monk only heightens the constant spiritual warfare we all face in the Christian life. In fact, Benedict even had to use force to manifest his authority as abbot over his monks oppressed by the enemy, as related in Father Robert Nixon’s newly compiled and translated book The Cross and Medal of Saint Benedict: A Mystical Sign of...

PARIS (OSV News) — The capital of France’s Normandy region held its breath on July 11 as reports and social media pictures spread that the Rouen Cathedral’s spire was on fire, causing the building to be evacuated. At midday, flames shot up around the spire, accompanied by heavy smoke, sending Rouen’s inhabitants into a panic and bringing back memories of the Notre Dame Cathedral fire on April 15, 2019, in Paris. Around 70 firefighters brought the blaze under control in less than two hours, much to everyone’s relief. “In the end, there was more fear than harm,” Archbishop Dominique Lebrun of Rouen told OSV News July 12. “Today, the cathedral is reopened,” he said. Rouen Cathedral is the tallest church in France. It was in Rouen that St. Joan of Arc was burned alive in 1431, during the Hundr...

If you are the parent or grandparent of a young person who is nearing college age, you may want to sit down and grab an adult beverage (even if you are Baptist) before reading this weekend “think piece.” Ready? It has been 20 years since I heard my first in-depth (and depressing) lecture on the demographic and lifestyle trends that were going to force the closing of many, many liberal-arts colleges, seminaries and even universities in the decades ahead. That was way before COVID-19, of course, along with a sharp uptick in online education. Throw in terrifying trends in underemployment for young adults and birth rates that keep falling and, well, you get sobering double-decker headlines like this one at Governing.com: Plummeting Enrollment Leads More Colleges to Close College enrollment lev...