“Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38) With her fiat, Mary of Nazareth said “Yes” to God, agreeing to be the mother of our Savior, and forever changing the world. Advent and Christmas are especially great opportunities …

In the U.S., we often refer to the time frame spanning Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day as “the holidays.” In reference to Thanksgiving and Christmas, it is indeed appropriate to think of the two holidays as joined by a common leitmotif of giving and receiving. Thanksgiving is, obviously, the day …

One of our great treasures as Catholics is the rhythm of the Church calendar in which the hopeful message of God’s great love for us is renewed each year in a way that is familiar yet always new. A new Church year has just begun with the First Sunday of …

Uno de nuestros grandes tesoros como Católicos es el ritmo del calendario de la Iglesia en el que el mensaje esperanzador del gran amor de Dios por nosotros se renueva cada año de una manera familiar pero siempre nueva. Un año nuevo de la Iglesia acaba de comenzar con el …

We go around the table every year: “I’m grateful for my family and friends,” somebody says. “I’m grateful for pie,” one child pipes up. Thinking ahead to my turn, I want to voice something that’s heartfelt and unique, but, most years, I realize that I’ve done little reflection on the …

I am considering donating my body to science. What is the Catholic Church’s perspective? The question of anatomical donations, including donating one’s body to science, engages both the Church’s teaching about the human person and the related understanding regarding an individual’s freedom to discern and offer direction for how they …

“Man cannot live without love. He remains a being that is incomprehensible for himself, his life is senseless, if love is not revealed to him, if he does not encounter love, if he does not experience it and make it his own, if he does not participate intimately in it.” …

All Souls Day immediately follows All Saints Day in the Church calendar for good reason: Vatican II’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, reaffirms our ancient faith as Catholics “in the living communion which exists between us and our brothers and sisters who are in the glory of heaven …

El Día de Todas las Almas sigue inmediatamente al Día de Todos los Santos en el calendario de la Iglesia por una buena razón: la Constitución Dogmática de la Iglesia del Vaticano II, Lumen Gentium, reafirma nuestra antigua fe como Católicos “del consorcio vital con nuestros hermanos que se hallan …

Momma, I don’t feel so good.” Those dreaded words always send a flurry of thoughts running through my mind, especially when uttered on a weekday morning. Out comes the thermometer, and when the inevitable 100.8 degrees registers on the screen, my husband and I start quickly recalculating our plans for …