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“A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head.” — Revelation 12:1 In the morning twilight of Dec. 9, 1531, a breathtaking chorus of birdsong stopped the Aztec Indian Juan Diego in his tracks as he was rounding the foot of a hill called Tepeyac. The birds’ music so enthralled the fervent convert that he asked himself whether he was in a dream or, perhaps, even in Heaven, for the hill itself seemed to be singing responses to the birds each time their chorus quieted, a miraculous symphony of nature greeting the dawn. But the music ceased, and Juan Diego heard a woman’s voice calling from the hilltop: “Juanito! Juan Dieguito!”  Mystified, he ascended in the half-light to find a beautiful mestiza maiden ...

By Fr. Jerry Pokorsky ( bio – articles – email ) | Dec 10, 2024 The Word of God came to John in the wilderness. John “went into all the region about the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’” (Lk. 3:2-4) God’s law is perfectly compatible with human nature and is the benchmark of human behavior. Repentance begins by acknowledging our departure from the precepts of God’s law. Eternal law God is the author of every nature. The eternal law is the plan of divine wisdom that directs all the actions and movements of created things. God created everything in the universe. Man participates in ...

FRONT ROYAL, Va. (OSV News) — It was the feast of Christ the King — Sunday, Nov. 24 — and excited yet hushed murmurs of expectation rippled through the worshippers assembled for vespers at Christendom College’s Christ the King Chapel in Front Royal. The “botafumeiro” — a several-foot-tall, 180-pound, silver-plated brass leviathan resembling a conventional censer enlarged to massive proportions, with an eight-sided Gothic cathedral cupola perched atop its bowl — was about to swing in commemoration of the chapel’s namesake liturgical celebration. Catholics are accustomed to watching a single priest employ an incense-emitting thurible on special sacramental occasions, circling the altar as clouds of fragrant incense rise to the heavens like the prayers they are meant to represent. But Christe...

Wicked will now take a one-year intermission. Enjoy the snacks at the concession stand.  Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard By far the most important thing to know about the film release of Wicked is this: it’s only Act One of the musical. This caught me by surprise, because the film is called Wicked (rather than, say, Wicked, Act One or Something Bad Is Happening in Oz or even How the Flying Monkeys Got Their Wings). And I had noticed that the run time was 2:40, which seemed about right for a Broadway musical adaptation. When the movie ended in the middle of the story, I exited feeling a little foolish for not having known. But I’ve looked again at the promotions I saw for the movie, and I’m still not sure how I could have known that this was only half of the story without a subscription to...

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The new papal funeral rite has a striking detail: in the first phase, the one at home, the dead Pope is exposed in a simple white cassock. This is particularly unusual. Priests are composed in their vestments because a priest is a priest forever. All the more so for a bishop, who is “chief priest” and possesses what we call “fullness of orders” in Catholic parlance. All gets back to normality when the exposition is public, in the second phase, and the Pope is dressed in red vestments. However, the details says something. The idea appears to be to make the Pope’s funeral rites the rites of a pastor. The Pope is no longer Pope but a man among men, and therefore, in a simple white cassock. If this is the reading, it is problematic for several reasons. First, the pope is still a priest and the...

I remember when I was a kid, and my dad was in his forties, Christmas shopping for him was tough. By this point in his life, the guy had pretty much everything he wanted or needed. Socket set? Had it. Ties? He had plenty of those and didn’t want any more. Briefcase? Acquired. Cologne? He had his go-to drugstore cologne and bought more on an as-needed basis. Even though he was pretty set, the one thing he still enjoyed finding under the Christmas tree was a new book. My 12-year-old brain couldn’t comprehend it. The one time a year you could ask for anything and all you wanted was a book? Well, now that I’m in my forties myself, I completely understand my dad. I don’t want or need much these days. But I always welcome a new book. I’m sure a lot of guys can relate. The holidays we need now ar...

By Clement Harrold November 29, 2024 Did Jesus have a grudge against fig trees? Was He clueless about horticultural seasons? Or might there be more going on than meets the eye? The story of Jesus cursing the fig tree is famous for its strangeness. It’s one of those Gospel passages that homilists dread, and for many Christians the whole episode is nothing short of baffling. Famously, the 20th century atheist philosopher Bertrand Russell regarded the cursing of the fig tree as evidence that Jesus was less intelligent than Socrates or Buddha. (An inference which itself raises the question as to whether Bertrand Russell was more intelligent than a fig tree.) Certainly we can concede that the story of the fig tree appears confusing on the surface. But if we resist the temptation to engage in la...

Jean-Paul Laurens – Saint John Chrysostom and Empress Eudoxia; Oil on canvas, 1893, 131 x 164 cm, Musée des Augustins, Toulouse Have mercy upon us, O Lord, the God of all, and look upon us,    and cause the fear of thee to fall upon all the nations… and let them know thee, as we have known    that there is not God but thee, O Lord. Show signs anew, and work further wonders;    make thy hand and thy right arm glorious. -cf. Sirach 36:3-6 One of the most dramatic political events in history unfolded in a Catholic Church. A very high-ranking politician in the Eastern Roman Empire named Eutropius lived in the 300’s at the same time as Saint John Chrysostom, who was Archbishop of Constantinople. The Church at this time ...

Security experts warn of ‘basic security failures’ after Vatican website crash Skip to content A Vatican website crash last week bears the hallmarks of a cyberattack, security experts say, highlighting the Vatican’s online exposure to the prospect of interference from malicious actors. Most of the Vatican’s website crashed Nov. 19, and remained unavailable for several days in some parts of the world. Vatican Information Technology Center. Image via Vatican Apostolic Library While the Vatican has not confirmed the origin of the issue, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni gave indication over the weekend that Vatican officials themselves suspect an attack on their web servers. Bruni said over the weekend that there was an “abnormal number of interactions” on the servers, which, in combination with...