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I understand that parts of Jesus’ crown of thorns are in Jerusalem, Paris, and Rome. Who found them? Are these really from Jesus’ crown? Is there a devotion to them?
If God was taking care of me when I was in the military and killing people, then why was God not taking care of them at the same time?
Where is God when someone takes a life in self-defense? A just war presumes that soldiers on each side are acting in legitimate self-defense.
Where was God when Cain murdered his brother, Abel? When children are abused by family members, teachers, or members of the clergy? When elderly people are swindled out of their life’s savings?
In the fallout of the ensuing schism, it’s easy to forget that Martin Luther (1483–1546), soon-to-be-arch-heretic, was once a pious monk. An earnest student of the law and scion of Saxony’s nouveau riche, his life was abruptly altered when his family’s patron saint, St. Anne, delivered him from a frightful storm. He sold his things, changed faculties from law to theology, and settled in the Augustinian Cloister in Erfurt.
Peace is a work of justice; it does not come about by a display of superior strength or military might. In fact, it can be argued that those who “live among social outcasts, among the poor and helpless, the sick and the lepers, and those who beg by the wayside” most truly effect the cause of peace and justice by changing society at its very roots: its people. Make a sign of peace today in some small way. Help to effect a change in the world with an act of justice and love.
For Francis of Assisi, Jesus had been his support, always whispering into his ear, “Francis, little one, never doubt my love. I will never leave you.”
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.
In his autobiographical The Seven Storey Mountain, Thomas Merton remembers a conversation with poet Robert Lax.
Bernard of Quintavalle, one of the wealthiest young men of Assisi, became intrigued by reports about one of his peers—Francesco di Bernardone—who had recently aroused ridicule by his ostentatious embrace of poverty.
Founded in 1911, the Catholic Press Association (CPA) of the United States and Canada, according to its directory, reaches over 26 million people through Catholic magazines, media, and diocesan newspapers. That’s many faith lives touched every month!
Here is a sampling of some of the best Catholic periodicals in North America. All descriptions are via the CPA directory and the websites for these publications.
Let us ponder the seven sorrows of Mary.
