Does following Jesus really mean going to church? This is a question posed to us consistently by the world around us. Can’t I love my neighbor as myself and love God, and even pray to Him and read the Bible, just as well at home on Sunday morning as I can at church? And […]

          Two weeks ago, we celebrated the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, and we saw the great mystery that is Christian Baptism – not only that Baptism removes the power of the Evil One and forgives original sin, but that it makes the Christian a new creation. Starting at Baptism, Christ’s very life […]

          If you’ve ever picked up the bar tab for a wedding reception, you know it can be a significant commitment. But I bet no one here has had to pay for 180 gallons of very good wine – that’s 75 cases or 900 bottles. For common wine usually served at big parties, that would […]

          Each year, through the Church’s different celebrations, we live the entire earthly life of our Lord. Actually, we really do so in a matter of five months between Christmas and the Ascension. After Christmas, we fast-forwarded to when He was 12 years old for the finding in the Temple, then we rewound again for […]

Herod had no right to be king. Celebrating the Epiphany of the Lord, we usually focus on the three magi, but we also need to understand the figure of Herod. Herod comes from a family of aristocratic Edomites who converted to Judaism 50 years before, most likely out of political opportunism. After his family jockeyed […]

          The world had grown old. “Unknown ages from the time when God created the heavens and the earth … Several thousand years after the flood … Twenty–one centuries from the [first covenant with] Abraham and Sarah; thirteen centuries after Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt … one thousand years from the […]

          Christmas is the time of year when people can’t help but act Catholic. Everyone sets up their nativity scenes – images of the saints no longer being graven images so long as they form part of a cute manger scene – and you even hear songs about Mary. Preparing for Christmas, we have to […]

          On Monday, we celebrated the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin, and we saw how, due to being completely free from sin and any and all effects of sin (concupiscence), She is completely and totally free, like Dante at the end of his process of spiritual purification in the Divine Comedy: “Already were all […]

In Conceptione Immaculata B.M.V. 9 December, A.D. MMXXIV “In love he destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ, in accord with the favor of his will, for the praise of the glory of his grace that he granted us in the beloved.” In celebrating Mary’s Immaculate Conception, we usually focus on how Mary […]