“When Joseph was dying, Mary sat at the head of his bed, holding him in her arms. Jesus stood just below her near Joseph’s breast. The whole room was brilliant with light and full of angels. After his death, his hands were crossed on his breast, he was wrapped from head to foot in a white winding sheet, laid in a narrow casket, and placed in a very beautiful tomb, the gift of a good man.”
The green world gushes feeling, overflows meaning from a cup / And I, drinking deep, suffer yet that boundless desire / For the blood-red wine of the everlasting hills. / Who will drink it if not I? For swine know not their pearls; / Will the world, undrunk, wait full and wretched? / Or shall it, shucked of man, show empty?
The Pew Research Center’s “Religious Landscape Study” has made it clear that the number of faithful Catholics in the United States is shrinking. The study focusses on the U.S., but it is safe to say that a similar pattern can be seen throughout the whole Western world today. It has become increasingly difficult to deny that Catholics are faltering with their mission to make disciples of all nations...
What is our job, as Catholics, when our nation tumbles into chaos, violence, and political mayhem? This is a fair question to ask, especially for anyone living in the United States these days. Unfortunately I do not hear a lot of people asking it. Everyone seems to think they know exactly what their job is. [...]
In his Commentaria In Ecclesiasticum, the seventeenth-century Scriptural commentator Cornelius a Lapide argues that Wisdom in the Sapiential Books is attributed to both Christ and the Blessed Virgin under the ratio of a final end, or the cause of causes...
In a very low place With very little light A man was found By God with might Who dared descend And garments rend Seeing his child With none to defend And did that man Escape that place? Owing to strength In human race?
In his encyclical Spe Salvi, Pope Benedict XVI writes that “The present, even if it is arduous, can be lived and accepted if...
Hear the words of St. Paul: “rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your forbearance be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:4-7).
I whipped him, and I slashed him And I stabbed him, and I kicked him And I mocked him, and I nailed him And I wouldn’t give up And I wouldn’t stop Not even when he cried out to God But then I paused… Because then I could see… That when he cried out to God… He cried out…for me?
You black and icy iron chain That shackles hand and foot, You filled my heart with doubt and shame; You filled my lungs with soot. In my youth you held me down. In winter cold you grew. You made me fear for all I had And question all I knew. When I became aware of you, I knew you for my foe. And though I begged and though I clawed You would not let me go
