There’s nothing quite like reading a terrific book, a book that makes you think, a book that opens up new ways of living a Catholic life, of relating to others, of praying and meditating. Seriously: is there? And what’s even better than finding such a book is being able to get deeper into it, to chat about it, to hear how other people reacted to it.Wouldn’t that be a great idea? A Catholic book club that introduces you to new books, that revisits old favorites, that brings you ...

It can be difficult to teach the kids you love about faith and the power of God’s providence. Often we find that these are abstract concepts, difficult to explain, and we decide to leave them alone, to put off talking about them until children are older. But the true story of the Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe, New Mexico, demonstrates the power of prayer—and can open kids’ eyes to the wonders of God’s work.The story begins when a group of seven sisters set out to build a cha...

It’s summertime, and in the northern hemisphere that means warm—often hot!—weather, longer days, balmy nights. In fact, it’s just the right time to be outside more. We do cookouts, we lie on the grass and contemplate the stars, we swim and hike and do all the things that, come January, we’ll remember with more than a little nostalgia.It’s natural in summer to feel closer to nature—after all, we spend more time outside in the midst of it! And nature,...

It’s hot and it’s humid and what most of us want more than anything these days is a bit of shade and a glass of iced lemonade. What do you mean, talk about Christmas?Leave me alone!The truth is—and we all know it—that Advent has a way of creeping up on us. The calendar seems to accelerate once school starts in the fall, and if you’re like me, every year you say the same thing: I wish I’d started my Christmas shopping last summer!It certainly would be more conv...

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Charbel, someone many Catholics have never heard of. Joseph Makhloof was born at Beqa-Kafra in the mountains of Lebanon in 1828; he entered the Lebanese Maronite monastery of Notre-Dame de Mayfouk when he was 23 and took the name Charbel.We’re not the first generation to have forgotten St. Charbel. Thomas Merton wrote that “Charbel lived as a hermit in Lebanon—he was a Maronite. He died. Everyone forgot about him. Fifty years later, his body ...

As we’ve seen in the past few issues, three major figures in Catholic history represent a Mariology that draws the faithful through Mary to Jesus: Saint Louis de Montfort, Blessed James Alberione, and Saint Pope John Paul II. These three figures are the influences on Guiseppe Forlai’s new book, Mary Mother of Apostles, and we looked at both de Montfort and Alberione in previous articles: Mary as Mother and Teacher Today How to Live Marian Devotion to Proclaim ChristPope John Paul II ...

You are busy. Life happens. You can barely keep up. You know that you could be thinking about more important things, but you don't have the time to stop and consider what they would be, much less do them.And then something happens. You are stopped in your tracks. A spouse leaves. A friend dies. A job is lost. Opportunities pass you by. A child makes decisions that break your heart. As you absorb the pain of what is happening, the important things begin to surface. What was hidden, suddenly s...

I’m one of those people who, for a long time, claimed to love G. K. Chesterton without ever having read anything he wrote. I liked the idea of him, and since I was a theology major I pretended to know all about him when he came up in conversation. But it wasn’t until my junior year of college that I decided to stop posing and actually pick up one of his books.I reluctantly borrowed Orthodoxy from my dad, expecting to be bored out of my mind. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Aft...

Did you grow up saying prayers to Our Lady at bedtime? Is there a special image or icon of the Mother of God that is dear to you? And did you then become an adult with a special devotion to Mary?If this sounds like you, then you’ve probably spent the last couple of years wondering how to renew our understanding of Our Lady’s role in the Church today in giving Jesus to the world, especially in the light of the New Evangelization. It’s normal to be perplexed: the 21st century so ...

Isn’t it an amazing feeling when you read a book or an article and feel that the author has really captured your own thoughts about something? When you find yourself nodding along as you read? When you read words written before you were born and feel that the writer really “got it”? That’s how I feel reading G.K. Chesterton.This was a man of great appetites: intellectual, spiritual, and physical. He weighed upward of 300 pounds, and “liked his beer and Burgundy.&rdq...