Mothers and Holiness

Pat McCloskey, OFM May 11, 2020

Most new saints are either priests or women who belonged to religious communities. Which of the most recent saints is a wife and a mother?

During Pope Benedict XVI’s August 2011 visit to Madrid for World Youth Day, he told seminarians gathered at that city’s Almudena Cathedral that he would declare St. John of Avila the 34th Doctor of the Church. Who is this saint and what did he do to deserve such an honor?

God’s Great Reversal: Key to the Gospel of Luke

John R. Barker, OFM May 11, 2020

The Gospel of Luke, read at Mass on most Sundays this year, affirms that God values each of us regardless of age, wealth, health or gender.

The Life and Legacy of Edith Stein

John Feister May 11, 2020

Edith Stein hardly seemed Catholic-saint material. She, a precocious Jewish child, rejected God as a teen at the turn of this century in Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland). But even as a child Edith was, at heart, a radical.

St. Francis’ Style of Prayer

Ilia Delio, OSF May 10, 2020

Prayer is about God and our relationship to God. How we understand God’s relationship to us is very important. If I use distant and remote language to speak of God, then I will imagine that God is distant and remote.

Statue of Saint Paul outside the Vatican

Saint Paul and Women: A Mixed Record

Barbara Leonhard, OSF May 10, 2020

Two biblical sources give us glimpses of Paul in relation to women: Saint Paul’s own letters and the Acts of the Apostles. As a means of discovering Paul’s thinking, the letters are, of course, the primary source.

Story of the Sacred Heart

Fr. Don Miller, OFM May 10, 2020

Devotion to Jesus’ Sacred Heart is nearly as old as Christianity, but it has undergone many changes over the centuries.

St. Francis and His Artisans of Peace

Pat McCloskey, OFM May 10, 2020

The peace that Francis showed with birds, wolves, lambs, larks, and worms reminded his contemporaries that Adam and Eve lived in total harmony with all creatures before they were sent from the Garden of Eden.