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It may sound simplistic, but it is one of the most important things that has ever happened to my prayer life: Just show up. Even if prayer is nothing more than a box to be checked off in our day, checking that box off is better than not doing it.
What Thomas Merton sought was an awareness of “the presence of God in this present life.” His abiding witness in his several vocations is that men and women might find their deepest freedom in God; and, holding firm to the central mystery of Christian faith, he acknowledged that “in order to become myself I must cease to be what I always thought I wanted to be….and in order to live I have to die.” In his refusal to conform, to give way, to settle for a quiet life, he continues to encourage those who go beyond the conventions of life and dare to claim for themselves the freedom of the sons
Jesus calls us to follow him on his own path of humiliation. When at certain moments in life we fail to find any way out of our difficulties, when we sink in the thickest darkness, it is the moment of our total humiliation, the hour in which we experience that we are frail and are sinners. It is precisely then, at that moment, that we must not deny our failure but rather open ourselves trustingly to hope in God, as Jesus did.
This writer and chaplain guides us through one of the holiest sites in Church history.
The place of Jesus’ burial was in danger until a historic renovation rolled back years of damage and unearthed long-lost frescoes and inscriptions in Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
They say the best things in life are free—and I believe it. No amount of money can buy a sense of real belonging with your family, friends, and community, or assure health in body, mind, and soul. As I think about my own life, there is almost nothing that I really care about that I earned, planned, or even expected. It has all been a gift.
One of the first things I learned as a parent is that kids are like sponges. They soak up everything around them—even the things we don’t want them to. When they’re young, it’s easier to limit all of the sources from which they pick things up. We can monitor what they watch, listen to, or hear us say.
Sometimes the key to growing our faith is a return to the basics.
During Pope Francis’ visit to Chile and Peru last January, he married a couple during one of the flights. Does Church law permit that?
Carlos Ciuffardi Elorriage, 41, and Paula Podest Reuiz, 39, had been civilly married for several years but not in the Catholic Church. They approached the pope about their situation, and after an extended conversation he offered to witness the wedding on the next flight during his pastoral visit.
What were the customs in Jesus’ day for young Jewish people regarding courtship, engagements, and physical intimacy before marriage? What about any children conceived or born before the wedding?
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