In late May, I celebrated my 55th anniversary as a priest. Looking back on it, the day of my ordination was the happiest day of my life. Growing up as a boy, I was pretty normal, showing no special signs of piety. We were normal churchgoing Catholics. I attended Catholic schools, was interested in sports […]
Bill Dodds | Living in the present
“What time is it really?” That’s what our son, Thomas, wanted to know on a road trip across the United States back in 1989. We crossed an invisible line, and suddenly we were in a different time zone, asking “but what time is it really?” I remember when the kids were even younger and a […]
Kathleen T. Choi: Hard praying
My daily prayers include petitions that I’ve been making for years. These aren’t enormous requests like world peace or a cure for cancer. I’m interceding for certain persons beset by illness or situations that never seem to improve. Sometimes praying for them gets really hard, and I’m sorely tempted to quit. There seems to […]
Msgr. Owen F. Campion | 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time: Fear on the Sea of Galilee
Job 38:1, 8-11; 2 Corinthians 5:14-17; Mark 4:35-41 This weekend the Sunday liturgies return to Ordinary Time after the long period of Lent, the Easter season, and a series of important feasts. The first reading from the Bible for this weekend is from the Book of Job. Job, who has been popularly mislabeled over the […]
Father Kenneth Doyle | Confirmation at a high school?
Q: Recently, at a Catholic boys’ high school, the priest who is the campus minister gave first holy Communion and also (during the same ceremony) the sacrament of confirmation to six young men. I’m certain that the priest received permission from our bishop to do this, but I have two questions. First, isn’t the local […]
Kathleen T. Choi | Lead us not
Recently, a friend told me that she always stumbles over the part of the Lord’s Prayer that says, “Lead us not into temptation.” She can’t believe God would deliberately tempt us, so why mention it? I agreed, but I couldn’t explain why the prayer is worded that way. So I hit the Internet. Google offers […]
Msgr. Owen F. Campion | CORPUS CHRISTI: Nourishment from God, is God
Exodus 24:3-8; Hebrews 9:11-15; Mark 14:12-16, 22-26 The Book of Exodus is the source of this feast day’s first reading, the story of an event that occurred as the Hebrews were making their way across the Sinai Peninsula, in flight from Egypt and slavery. To modern ears, the story may sound gruesome, giving the details […]
Father William J. Byron, SJ: What is that graduation speech really saying?
“I never saw a hearse towing a U-Haul,” remarked a friend of mine the other day. He was talking about the problem of materialism in contemporary life and the need to find ways of convincing the young that there is a whole lot more to life than making money and piling up possessions. That comment […]
Manaolana | Christina Capecchi: The call of the birds: slowing down and tuning in
“The only essential equipment for seeing birds is a pair of eyes. Good ears are a help too.” The first edition of “Birds: A Guide to the Most Familiar American Birds” smells like an old missal and reads like a manual for living well — birding as a hobby, a lifestyle and a meditation. Its […]
Mary Adamski: Ceasefire Sunday
“This is a weapon free zone.” That was the sign on entry door of the assisted living apartments we visited recently. It echoed the instructions on the doors of restaurants, supermarkets and malls: “No handguns or other weapons permitted” or “All weapons prohibited on these premises.” Our friends and family in Wisconsin don’t even blink […]
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