It’s been a while since I took “Spirituality and Human Development,” but one of the themes I recall from the class is that our spirituality and prayer life change as we age. The accumulation of experience allows us to gain new insights into the divine and opens us to new ways of communicating with God; [...]

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Patrick. In our secular culture, St. Patrick (and his feast day) is remembered simply for his connection to shamrocks, leprechauns and green beer. In fact, St. Patrick was a native of Britain. While still a teen Patrick was captured and taken to Ireland; he spent six years there [...]

I am reluctant to enter into discussion of liturgical theology and practice. It is not the field in which I work and I have little education on the subject. That having been said, my diocese, like many others, is preparing for the Vatican’s recognitio of the translation of the Third Edition of the Roman Missal. [...]

This morning, across the nation, many people will be setting out for Washington, D.C., to participate in Thursday’s March for Life. Please keep these pilgrims in your prayers: Our Lady of Guadalupe, we turn to you who are the protectress of unborn children and ask that you intercede for us, so that we may more [...]

A Protestant clergyman was visiting an orphanage, and the children were each reciting their prayers for him to hear. On little boy, who had previously been at a Catholic school, after finishing the Our Father began the Hail Mary. ‘No, no!’ said the clergyman. ‘We don’t want to hear about her — go on to [...]

Over on his regular blog Fr. Daren has a brief explanation of the “O Antiphons” which begin today and run until Christmas. (I’ll also second “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” as my favorite Advent hymn.)

Yesterday I had the opportunity to participate in a day of reflection with other employees of my diocese. The day was led by Sr. Renita Brummer, OSF, from the Chiara Center here in Springfield. The theme of Sr. Renita’s reflections was “pregnancy” and its relationship to the mystery of the Incarnation. Mary, in becoming the [...]

Today is the first day of the national Novena for Faithful Citizenship. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has invited Catholics in America to pray every week leading up to the November elections. Through the Novena prayers and accompanying scripture readings, Catholics will be able to prayerfully reflect on the Church’s teachings on life [...]