From Season to Season

Rejoice for all the saints today; Who ran by faith the narrow way: The great and low together stand With glory crowned at God’s right hand.   How blest are those who wrought the peace; As heirs they share the Victor’s feast; And prophets by injustice slain Have claimed the Kingdom’s righteous reign. Come, ye martyrs red and virgins white, With teachers wise and students bright, All wives and husbands, monks and nuns, With bishops, priests, and deacons, come. Come, holy men and women all; With heart and voice sing praise and call To Christ who rose triumphantly That we may join your company. —Harry Hagan, O.S.B., Rejoice for All the Saints   At my grandparents’ house, many years ago, I discovered a book that changed my life: a  St. Joseph’s Daily Missal . That prayer book, which had belonged to my grandmother or perhaps my aunt or uncle was from the 1950s and was the resource for lay Catholics wishing to take part in the pre-Vatican II liturgy. ...

Christ left his peace to his disciples and, through them, to the Church. This peace is to live according to what is good.                                                                                                 — Saint John Damascene The Apostles Simon and Jude Thaddeus have been honored with a common feast since before the time of the Martyrologium Hieronymianum , a list of saints attributed to Saint Jerome that was composed in 6th century Gaul (modern-day France).   Simon, a native of Cana, who i...

 Among the holy women and men honored today in the Roman Martyrology   are Saints Chrysanthus and Daria. Hardly known outside of Italy and virtually forgotten since their commemoration was removed from the Universal Calendar following the reforms of Vatican II, I came across these married martyrs a few years ago when I read a brief piece about the authentication of their relics in National Geographic , of all places. [To see a brief video on the study of the relics by National Geographic, click here .] Intrigued by what I read, I set about doing some research and prayerful reflecting and the result was this article which was published in both Lay Witness Magazine and Pastoral Review . May these two saints, whose love story includes each of us, continue to inspire us to live out our faith in heroic ways. A prayer in honor of Saints Chrysanthus and Daria + Almighty ever-living God, who gave Saints Chrysanthus and Daria the grace of suffering for Chri...

On this Feast of Saint Luke, we pause to reflect on the special vocation of the Evangelists to hand on the Good News of Jesus Christ. But, today's Feast, honoring the patron of artists, also reminds us of the essential place that literature, the visual arts, and music have always had in the spread of the Gospel in all times and places. Saint John Paul II highlighted this in his Letter to Artists , which was issued in preparation for the Great Jubilee, on Easter Sunday, April 4, 1999: In order to communicate the message entrusted to her by Christ, the Church needs art. Art must make perceptible, and as far as possible attractive, the world of the spirit, of the invisible, of God. It must therefore translate into meaningful terms that which is in itself ineffable. Art has a unique capacity to take one or other facet of the message and translate it into colours, shapes and sounds which nourish the intuition of those who look or listen. It does so...

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him. In love he destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ, in accord with the favor of his will, for the praise of the glory of his grace that he granted us in the beloved. —Ephesians 1:2-3 On December 27, 1673, a nun of the Visitation Monastery in Paray-le-Monial, France, was gifted with an experience of the Divine that left an indelible mark on spirituality. Years later, remembering that vision, she wrote: “The Lord said to me, ‘My Divine Heart is so passionately in love with humanity that it can no longer contain within itself the flames of its ardent love. It must pour them out through [you], and manifest itself to them with its precious treasures, which contain all the graces which they need to be saved.” This Divine Love is what devotion...

The Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary has, for me, always felt like a non-feast. And, in many ways, it is, because it celebrates a movement of prayer and tradition that is fundamental to our Faith--Mary as a woman of prayer. But, this day in early October is also set aside to honor the Holy Roman Empire's victory at the Battle of Lepanto , during which the Christian forces defeated the invading Turkish forces. Although this isn't the only day on the Church's liturgical calendar that has this sort of provenance (i.e. the Commemoration of the Most Holy Name of Mary ), it is an important part of the day's character, highlighting Mary's role as an intercessor for the Church. This evening, in honor of today's celebration, I set aside time to pray the rosary, as well as the Liturgy of the Hours. Although I'm usually quick to admit that the rosary is not one of my preferred forms of prayer (it has always been more of a discipline), I wanted to be sure that the M...