VIEW FROM THE PEW Of all the experiences of these many weeks of staying separate and feeling fearful, none has underscored the stark mindset of quarantine than hunching over the computer screen watching Mass being said in a nearly empty church. Nothing has made me feel more isolated than singing “alleluia” as a solo in […]
Talk story: Multiplication of the plate lunches
OFFICE FOR SOCIAL MINISTRY “May the Risen Christ, who flung open the doors of the tomb, open our hearts to the needs of the disadvantaged, the vulnerable, the poor, the sick, the unemployed, the marginalized, and all those who knock at our door in search of bread, refuge and the recognition of dignity.” (Pope Francis […]
Father Eugene Hemrick: Something missing in the Mass
THE HUMAN SIDE While watching Mass on television at St. Mathew’s Cathedral in Washington, I thanked God for technology, and especially its gift to shut-ins. Yet seeing empty pews made me feel something was missing. Lacking was an aging parishioner ascending church steps with difficulty. He could easily be excused, but Mass means everything to […]
Msgr. Owen F. Campion: Contact with Jesus through the church
SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER Acts 8:5-8, 14-17; 1 Peter 3:15-18; John 14:15-21 The Acts of the Apostles once again this Easter season furnishes the first reading. In the readings of the weekends earlier in this season, the identity of the Apostles has clearly been given. The Apostles, absent Judas of course, had exercised the very […]
Carolyn Woo: ‘Thank you’ is not enough
THE GLOBAL FAMILY One of my routines in the early pandemic lockdown was to shop at a big-box retailer at 6 a.m. Along with food, a key purchase was fabric and supplies that allowed me to make face masks with my very rudimentary sewing skills. Over the weeks, I struck up a rapport with the […]
Sherry Hayes-Peirce: Celebrating our mother’s love
CHURCH SOCIAL TIPS May is associated with our earthly mothers as the secular world devotes Mother’s Day to celebrate moms. But when it comes to our heavenly mother, the Catholic Church designates the entire month of May in celebration of the Virgin Mary. On May 1 this year, we joined the U.S. bishops in prayer […]
Effie Caldarola: Don’t bottle up emotions
FOR THE JOURNEY Have you had a good cry lately? I have. I saw a Twitter post about a cheerful old fellow in an English care facility who slept with his late wife’s photo every night. So, a thoughtful staff member had a photo company create a pillow for him, one side of which displayed […]
Father Patrick Killilea, SSCC: Wind in the willows
KALAUPAPA DIARY Some people awake to the sound of an alarm, some to the call of one or more roosters and some have a natural awakening. It was that way for me last week during this lockdown because of the coronavirus. One morning I awoke to the memory of childhood days and “The Wind in […]
Father Kenneth Doyle: May we pray to Mother Angelica? Are there sins only the pope can pardon?
QUESTION CORNER Q: I have always had great admiration for Mother Angelica. Would it be wrong of me to talk to her and ask her prayers if she has not yet been declared “blessed” by the church? (Phoenix) A: Mother Angelica died in 2016 at the age of 92. In 1981, she founded the Eternal […]
Christina Capecchi: ‘Keep that hope machine running’
TWENTY SOMETHING It started with the Italians, whose arias rose from the balconies. They were on lockdown, but their voices rang out down empty moonlit streets. Ballads, the national anthem, improvised ditties over the barking of dogs. Cellphone footage of the singing went viral, offering hope amid the horror. “Italians are like their opera characters: […]
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