On Dec. 26, our Evangelical neighbors had their Christmas tree out on the curb, and all the stores had marked the decorations down to 50 (then 75 and 90) percent off. I know that there's a Catholic contingent that insists on observing the Christmas season through Feb. 2 (the feast of the Presentation of the Lord), but that always seemed a bit too long to me.
Read moreIf you asked, "What does Christianity have to say about the Olympics?", most people would probably shrug and say, "Not much," not seeing any real connection between a seemingly secular athletic tournament and religious faith.
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In the coming weeks, we'll be looking at the Eucharistic Prayers most encountered on Sunday at a parish Mass. For each, we'll have a bit more history, a look at its contents, and answer a few questions that have come in.
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When I was in high school, my Protestant grandfather gave me his copy of the "Dartmouth Bible." This translation had a very unusual feature -- it combined elements of the four Gospels into a single unified account. The gift caused me to reflect upon the question of why there are four Gospels? After all, in our devotional lives, we often blend Gospel elements -- think of passion plays or the stations of the cross. So why has the Church steadfastly maintained the four Gospels, also known as the fourfold witness?
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Jesus came among us as light to scatter the darkness of a fallen world. As His disciples, we, too, are called to be "the light of the world," He tells us in the Gospel this Sunday (see John 1:4-4, 9; 8:12; 9:5).
Read moreCatholic Relief Services (CRS) is the international humanitarian aid arm of the Catholic Church in the United States. CRS is emerging from a very challenging year in which many U.S. government grants were defunded. While the size of the funding cuts to operations was considerable, today CRS continues to operate in 100 countries, providing aid to 142 million people. The breadth and scope of the work are breathtaking. The work of CRS continues in so many countries, and the fact that it continues in light of significant government funding cuts to international humanitarian and development assistance is a credit to you and your fellow Catholics across this country, who generously continue to support this work.
Read moreOn July 31st, the Catholic Church in Malawi kicked off its first-ever Missionary Childhood Association Congress. Children from the country's eight dioceses gathered to celebrate the faith that missionaries brought to them and to embrace their duty to continue that mission from their villages. I arrived in a dress made for me of the local Missionary Childhood chitenge cloth. I matched the boys and girls in attendance. Do you think they could tell I was a transplant?
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These past weeks, along with millions of others, my days have been lived in the grip of a cold and icy northeast with no sign of warmth coming soon. At the cold spell began and the icy snow first fell, I found myself in my hometown in New York, enjoying the beauty of snow, complaining about the shoveling of that same snow, relishing the time outdoors when snow draws neighbors together, and cherishing the time indoors with hot coffee and the blessings of a hard-working furnace.
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This article was first published on August 22, 2009, on Evangelization & Culture Online. Just last week I was in Toulouse France, filming for my 10-part documentary on Catholicism. I will admit that I was in Toulouse for fairly personal reasons. In the Dominican church of the Jacobins, in a golden casket situated under a side altar, are the remains of my hero, St. Thomas Aquinas. I spent a good amount of time in silent prayer in front of Thomas's coffin, thanking him for giving direction to my life. When I was a 14-year-old freshman at Fenwick High School, I was privileged to hear from a young Dominican priest the arguments for God's existence that Thomas Aquinas formulated in the 13th century. I don't entirely know why, but hearing those rational demonstrations lit a fire in me that has yet to go out. They gave me a sense of the reality of God and thereby awakened in me a desire to serve God, to order my life radically toward him. I'm a priest because of God's grace, but that grace came to me through the mediation of Thomas Aquinas.
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Q: The Anglican church is elevating its first woman to the role of archbishop of Canterbury, the chief diocese of the Church of England. Theologically, do we as Catholics see this as a problem? A: I think the answer here could be either "yes" or "no," depending on how we approach the question.
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Is 58:7-10 Ps 112:4-5, 6-7, 8-9 1 Cor 2:1-5 Mt 5:13-16 To understand what Jesus means by calling his disciples "the salt of the earth," St. Augustine said that we should keep in mind the two immediately preceding verses, the ones about being reviled and persecuted and about being slandered for the sake of Jesus.
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We have already posted some preliminaries about the Eucharistic Prayer. Before looking at each of the four, here are some additional points for reflection and preparation. None of the Eucharistic Prayers can accomplish perfectly its principal purpose: to give thanks to the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit, within the Holy Catholic Church. The simple explanation why this cannot be done perfectly is that we must use human words, and they always fall short. That's part of why we always end a Eucharistic Prayer with the doxology.
Read moreA little over a year ago, Archbishop Richard G. Henning was installed as Archbishop of Boston, the 11th bishop and seventh archbishop of the see. He became the head of an archdiocese comprising nearly 2 million Catholics, 247 parishes, 92 schools, over 900 priests, and about 850 women religious.
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Last week, I offered the invocation for the special joint session of the Massachusetts Legislature and the "State of the Commonwealth" address by Gov. Healy. The Governor invited me to offer the prayer, and I was honored to accept. Scripture teaches us to pray for our communities and for our secular leaders (cf. 1 Tim. 2:1-2).
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Immigration today is a pervasive fact of life for states, countries, and their societies. This fact creates a political, legal, and moral challenge which must be addressed. In a distinctive way immigration creates a challenge for the Church in our country. It is a challenge we have the resources and the track record to address. Catholicism in the United States is tied to immigration because of our teaching, our history, and our institutions.
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In the readings since Christmas, Jesus has been revealed as the new royal son of David and Son of God. He is sent to lead a new exodus that brings Israel out of captivity to the nations and brings all the nations to God.
Read moreOn the Sunday morning of our Malawian mission trip, we headed to Saint Bernadette Parish in Chitula for Confirmation Day. The parish was still under construction, so Mass was held outside. The altar was elevated on a layer of bricks so that the whole gathering could see. The table was draped in chitenges -- a local cloth -- of the Blessed Mother.
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"In all the Dioceses of the United States of America, Jan. 22 ... shall be observed as a particular day of prayer for the full restoration of the legal guarantee of the right to life and of penance for violations to the dignity of the human person committed through acts of abortion," states the General Instruction of the Roman Missal, which the Catholic Church uses at Mass.
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Q: I am a 14-year-old boy, and growing up I learned to serve the Mass. At first I never served with girls (my old church did not allow it). They stated that serving was a gateway to the priesthood and since girls cannot be priests they "should" not be servers. Recently I started serving at two new churches. The first is a quite large church that allows female servers. The second church is a traditional Latin Mass church -- this church has zero girl servers. The Latin Mass church takes the view that most servers will at least try to be priests so no girls should serve. Just because girl servers were traditionally "banned," does that mean that we should not have them? Are they allowed? Should they be? I asked my local priests about this but it being such a controversial topic I could not get a solid answer.
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Zep 2:3; 3:12-13 Ps 146:6-7, 8-9, 9-10 1 Cor 1:26-31 Mt 5:1-12a This Sunday we find ourselves hearing the most famous sermon in all history: The Sermon on the Mount. Over the years, the Sermon on the Mount has been called many things. One scholar called it "The Magna Carta of the Church"; another labeled it "the manifesto of the king."
Read moreVolunteering in the Pro-Life movement in the 1990s, I remember praying for the overturning of Roe v. Wade as if it would immediately end the abortion problem in the United States. As a high schooler, it seemed like a simple enough solution. Roe v. Wade caused the mess, so getting rid of it should take care of things. But now, after Dobbs v. Jackson, what has actually changed in the last three and a half years?
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Last fall, the Archdiocese of Chicago announced its intention to honor Sen. Richard Durbin for his work on immigration. The senator's approach was clearly in line with the principles of Catholic Social Teaching on immigration:
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The single longest prayer at any Mass is the Eucharistic Prayer. Even though it is said or sung (or some combination of both), there are responses which the rest of the assembly makes, again either spoken or sung, which indicate that we are all participating in this prayer.
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Have you ever felt joy or sorrow, confusion or elation, regret or hope, terror or trust? Are you selfish and giving, a sinner and a saint, foolish and wise? If you have been or felt any or all of these, the Psalms are for you -- for they express all these -- every emotion and aspect that is part of the human experience.
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The global market for cloning cats, dogs, and other pets reached $300 million in 2024, and has been projected to reach $1.5 billion by 2035. When it comes to the ethics of cloning animals, whether cattle, racehorses, dogs or cats, it is important to inquire if a "proportionately serious reason" exists for doing the procedure, since the process can cause physical and genetic defects of varying severity in cloned animals.
Read moreEach one of us is called to become a saint. How we get there is our vocation. For some, it is marriage or single consecrated life. For many young men, it means the priesthood. While in Malawi, I met with 25-year-old Benson Chimwala, a seminarian at Saint Anthony Major Seminary. Benson first felt Christ's nudge to the priesthood through his childhood priest, Father Emmanuel, who always prayed for the sick and brought peace to conflict using the hope of Christ's promises in the Gospel.
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Recently, my neighbor died. When I was at the funeral home and when I arrived at work late after his funeral, I was asked how I knew the gentleman who passed away. It was almost sheepishly, or with a note of apology that I said he was "a neighbor." It was almost as though I thought that to mourn for one who was "just" a neighbor was somehow unjust to his nearest and dearest.
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Q: Is confession required for obtaining a plenary indulgence if there is no mortal sin? A diocesan hermit, who is homebound, says his ministry is to gain plenary indulgences for the poor souls by various devotional practices which confer a plenary indulgence. He formerly had asked for confession twice a month to take care of that requirement. Now he has decided that confession is required only if there is a mortal sin to confess. Does canon law provide any guidance on this issue?
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The Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity, which begins Jan. 18, takes place each year in the days leading up to the celebration of the Conversion of St. Paul on Jan. 25, when the pope travels to the Basilica of St. Paul's Outside the Walls in Rome to pray with other Christian leaders for what Jesus prayed during the Last Supper, that we might be truly one.
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Is 8:23-9:3 Ps 27:1, 4, 13-14 1 Cor 1:10-13, 17 Mt 4:12-23 OR 4:12-17 It's helpful still to take a step back and see the bigger picture, to understand what the church has been trying to teach us these past several months. For I believe there is indeed a message.
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As we move from the preparation of the altar and the presentation of the gifts to the Eucharistic Prayers, some reminders are in order here. A few months ago, the following quote appeared in one of these columns. It bears repeating because it seems that the Liturgy of the Eucharist may be the place where most of the temptations, "customs," or personal whims to "add, remove, or change anything in the liturgy on his own authority" occur at Mass.
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Addressing a very new and often willful Christian community in Galatia, St. Paul offered the community a tool of discernment for their Christian life and development. He reminded them of the "works of the flesh" and pointed out that such flaws are obvious in human beings. Immorality, hatred, jealousy, fury, selfishness and beyond are all too common in the human experience. Then Paul summed up the fruits of the Spirit: "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control." (Gal. 5:22-23)
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It's natural to think of the institution of the Eucharist when the Last Supper comes to mind. The sacramental memorial of Christ's paschal mystery is, after all, "the source and summit of the entire Christian life" (Lumen Gentium, No. 11).
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Jesus speaks through the prophet Isaiah in today's First Reading. He tells us of the mission given to Him by the Father from the womb: "'You are My servant,' He said to Me." Servant and Son, our Lord was sent to lead a new exodus -- to raise up the exiled tribes of Israel, to gather and restore them to God. More than that, He was to be a light to the nations, that God's salvation may reach to the ends of the earth (see Acts 13:46-47).
Read moreBefore visiting the missions, I read checks addressed to "The Society for the Propagation of the Faith" almost monotonously. I understood on a basic level how the funds were used: to purchase a bike for a catechist, to dig a drinking well, and so on. And then what? After visiting Saint Martin de Porres parish in Dedza, Malawi, I discovered the Society's depth and vital impact.
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Is 49:3, 5-6 Ps 40:2, 4, 7-8, 8-9, 10 1 Cor 1:1-3 Jn 1:29-34 If you need help spotting Christ, you can always count on John the Baptist. "Behold, the Lamb of God!," he cried out when he saw Jesus. But that wasn't enough. He needed to explain. He made a point of telling anyone who would listen, "This is the one I was telling you about! He's here!"
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Q: Why is Mary's perpetual virginity so important to us Catholics? I've had discussions with my Protestant friends about this, and while they believe Mary was a virgin when Jesus was born, they don't understand why we're so "hung up on" the idea that Mary remained a virgin for the rest of her life. (Florida)
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There's been a lot written about falling birth rates in the United States. Less covered has been the simultaneous decline in grandparenthood. Grandparents, to hear friends tell it, are an endangered species. Virtually every child-bearing demographic group except women over 40 is having fewer, if any, children. And let's be honest: Potential grandparents with children over 40 are likely to be rapidly aging out of the "fun grandparent" demographic and into the "granny flat" demographic.
Read moreWhat would the collapse of civilization look like? We might immediately think of cutoff utilities, disruptions in the supply chain, violence in the streets and the lack of functional government. While it's true these might serve as external indicators of a functioning modern society, they do not constitute the essence of civilization. A civilized person doesn't just live in the city (the civitas that gives civilization its name) but conforms to an ideal of culture. A barbarian lives for immediate needs and wants, while a civilized person thinks and acts according to higher standards of decency and nobility, recognizing higher goods within the soul and in society.
Read more"Modern men and women listen more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if they listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses." -- Saint Pope Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi 41 When Daria Braithwaite joined our team as Mission Education Coordinator, focusing on our Missionary Childhood Association's responsibility to bring mission awareness to Catholic school and parish students, she was eager to embrace the philosophy of the above statement. Her opportunity came in July 2025, when she spent a month in East Africa. I've asked Daria to share her experiences with you. Her testimony will inspire you!
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Pope Leo XIV presided over the rite of the closing of the Holy Door in St. Peter's Basilica Jan. 6, 2026, officially ending the Jubilee of Hope, which began Christmas Eve 2024. He also presided over Mass for the Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord in the basilica. Below is the text of his homily.
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In the days following Epiphany, the church celebrates the dawning of the light of Christ upon the pagans, as foretold in the reading from Isaiah (60:2-3) in last Sunday's Mass: See, darkness covers the earth,
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Once all have been seated following the Universal Prayer, the Preparation of the Altar and the Presentation of Gifts begin. It's more familiar to us on Sunday as the time for the collection. At this point, the altar has at least two wax candles, usually one on each side. It is preferable for the candles to be standing on either side of the altar and not obstructing the participation -- in this case, visual -- of the assembly. If there is a crucifix in the sanctuary, permanent or processional, then there is not to be an additional crucifix on the altar. This would include any personal preference of a celebrant or other member of the assembly as the rationale for this addition.
Read moreOn May 29, 1924, Pope Pius XI proclaimed the Jubilee Year of 1925 through the Papal Bull "Infinita Dei misericordia." The Jubilee Year would be dedicated to fostering peace and promoting Christian missions throughout the world.
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Jesus presents himself for baptism in today's Gospel not because He is a sinner, but to fulfill the word of God proclaimed by His prophets. He must be baptized to reveal that He is the Christ ("anointed one") -- the Spirit-endowed Servant promised by Isaiah in today's First Reading.
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What does "dominion" mean? In Genesis, during the Creation, God creates humanity in God's Own image and commands human beings to be fruitful, multiply, fill and subdue the earth and have dominion over every living creature (1:27-28). Does this command give license to people to drain every resource in the search for wealth and exercise absolute power over the earth and its non-human inhabitants? The Hebrew term used in the verse does suggest the exercise of control in the sense of subduing and enslaving. On the other hand, another image of bondage, that of a "chain," is the image behind the concept of the covenant, which "binds" the people to the Lord. And that covenant is not God's attempt to dominate or use people, but rather the Lord's desire to serve the good of all creation. So, if God's exercise of dominion is for unselfish service, what does that suggest about the dominion conferred upon us?
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