Echoes - A forum of Catholic thought. The Opinion section of thebostonpilot.com

Cardinal O'Connell's 1909 Thanksgiving Day address

Thomas Lester

November 29, 2024Culture

On Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 25, 1909, Cardinal William O'Connell of Boston delivered an address to veterans of the Ninth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment. Veterans of the Civil War, "the fighting ...

Faith & Family

Scripture Reflection for Dec. 1, 2024, First Sunday in AdventFather Joshua J. Whitfield

Jer 33:14-16 Ps 25:4-5, 8-9, 10, 14 1 Thes 3:12-4:2 Lk 21:25-28, 34-36 Aside from being one of the fathers of monasticism, St. Benedict is also one of the more profound spiritual doctors of Advent. ...

Faith & Family

Speak, Lord!Archbishop Richard G. Henning

The Holy Scriptures speak to us of a "Living God" and a God Who enters into relationship with us. Our God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Ex 3:15). The Lord has drawn near and has brought us ...

Spirituality

Focus on GodEffie Caldarola

There's a certain apprehension lying over the nation right now, a fear, an uneasiness, a sense of walking in the dark. It doesn't matter how you voted in the recent election. There are things ...

Faith & Family

America, In the Power of the Spirit, Witnesses to ChristMaureen Crowley Heil

What do you get when you mix almost 1,500 priests, religious, and lay people -- young, old and in between -- from every country in the Americas? A Mission Congress, of course! From November 19-22, those ...

Faith & Family

Heads upScott Hahn

Every Advent, the Liturgy of the Word gives our sense of time a reorientation. There's a deliberate tension in the next four weeks' readings -- between promise and fulfillment, expectation and ...

Faith & Family

Liturgical music for funeral liturgiesRichard J. Clark

For clergy, musicians, and pastoral staff, funerals are often the most sensitive and challenging of responsibilities. For those suffering great loss, grief enters their life, usually to stay. Attending ...

Culture & Events

Family and friends, the 2024 election and ThanksgivingElizabeth Scalia

Beyond my usual list of things to be grateful for -- mercy, family, reasonable health, employment, the elders still among us and the children all around -- I am particularly thankful that none of our ...

Culture & Events

Promise and peril of AIRussell Shaw

Remember HAL? For those whose memories may not go back that far, HAL (Heuristically Programmed Algorithmic Computer) was the murderous artificial intelligence machine in Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film ...