Imagine the thrill and wonder in the hearts of children as they witness the divine power of Jesus — in the astonished leper, his rags falling to the ground as he touches his smooth face; in the deaf man turning his head toward birdsong; in the bent, crippled woman unfurling to full stature, rejoicing! Through
What You Should Know About Prayer As we begin our journey through the prayer lives of the earliest Christians, it’s important to understand a few things. First of all, while it is true that the first Christians met in homes, and the setting for their worship was necessarily less formal than what we might experience
Story of the (Sacred) Heart There are many experiences in life that can touch our hearts; some touch us so deeply that we remember them forever. While on a high school mission trip to Jamaica, my eyes were opened to truth, beauty, and goodness. The Jamaicans taught my classmates and me how to sing, to
The Pilgrim Church and Holiness The concept of the Church as viator or pilgrim has caused much difficulty in the post-Vatican II Church. This is odd, as the difficulty seems to rest on a fundamental misunderstanding of why this chapter was included in the document and what the concept of “pilgrim” means. Many have interpreted
I absolutely love the Catholic Church. There is nothing that gives me such stalwart confidence and hope for my salvation. In response to this love, I have made it my mission to dialogue with Catholics all over the world, and what I’ve discovered is that many Catholics want to know more about their faith but have
Some of us turn to pleasure for happiness. And marketers definitely encourage us to do so because they can sell us momentary pleasures. There are lots of things that bring us pleasure. Good food is one example. Maybe you really like fresh strawberries. And look! They’re on sale right now! You could get a pound of fresh
Fr. Paul Mankowski, S.J., is not a common Catholic household name like Archbishop Fulton Sheen, Fr. Mike Schmitz, or Fr. James Martin, S.J. He would have been had he not been silenced by the superiors of his religious order, the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits. In 2003, the Jesuits banned him from writing and from
There is a popular image of Fr. Solanus standing near a grotto of Mary, with book in hand, praying. According to a caption I came across, it says Solanus is praying the Little Office. He took this devotion quite seriously, believing that to neglect it would be a sign of his ingratitude toward the Blessed
When we consider how important prayer is for the life of the Church, it is very surprising just how little the Church fathers and mothers wrote about prayer. They talk about it, of course, but they almost never engage in teaching their people how to pray. If you want to write a book on how
God gives us the gifts of faith, hope, and love in Baptism. To be rooted in faith and hope and to live out love, we need prayer. Prayer brings us consolation and, by allowing God into our lives, brings Him consolation. Moreover, prayer makes us new, as the prophet Haggai illustrates in the following parable:
