WE CELEBRATE THE FEAST DAY OF ST. KATERI TEKAKWITHA ON TUESDAY, JULY 14!It takes tremendous courage to step out into the unknown and embrace a God spoken of by strangers.When Tekakwitha did just that, she sent shockwaves through her entire community. To some, she had done something beautiful and brave. To others, she had thrown her lot in with a people who had brought destruction to the Americas.When the French came to the New World, some brought with them the Word of God… and some brough...

Canada Day ~ Evening PrayerThe first Wednesday of the month is dedicated to St Joseph, who is also the patron saint of Canada. In our evening prayer, we entrust to St. Joseph’s intercession the members and mission of the Pauline Family in Canada (all the institutes of the Pauline Family are in Canada except the Apostoline and Pastorelle), and in particular, for the  intentions and needs which our sisters in Canada have shared with us. We’ll alternate sides praying the chaplet.&n...

Canada Day ~ Morning PrayerToday, July 1st, Canada celebrates the anniversary of Confederation with ‘Canada Day.’ As Canadians celebrate the birth of their nation, we pray in a special way for all these souls of our province.  We give thanks for all the hearts the Lord has touched through our presence in Canada, we ask for abundant blessings upon our apostolic initiatives amongst the Canadian people and their culture, and we intercede for our Pauline family present in the North....

I’ve just written a book on hope.I don’t say that expecting you to nod in understanding; I realize hope is a forgotten virtue. Many people equate hope either with optimism or with wishful thinking. I wanted to get back to the theological virtue of hope, which described when our happiness, all of our desires, are directed toward eternity and heaven.But I also didn’t want to write a dissertation about hope; there are a lot of great books that do that already. I wanted t...

We’re living in a time that seems both devoid of hope and, at the same time, filled with it. We asked youth minister Kris Frank, author of Hope Always: Our Anchor in Life’s Storms, available now through Pauline Books & Media, to share some thoughts about hope at this difficult and defining moment. Pauline Books & Media: It feels like we’re at a crossroads of sorts. How can the notion—and virtue—of hope help us in our present moment?Kris Frank: No matter...

My father and I were never close. He worked in the diplomatic service and was away from home—or so it seemed—more than he was with his family. But even when he was physically present, he was not a person who showed or shared emotions easily. We were estranged when he died and there is not a day that goes by—but especially on Father’s Day!—that I don’t feel regret.I know I am not alone. I know that there are fathers separated from their children for a myriad of...

These past 12 days we, as many of you, have been overcome with sorrow at the death of George Floyd. In those eight minutes in which he couldn’t breathe, the ugly horror of racism that exists in our country was exposed for the world to see, for each of us to see. How heavy the burden of fear, pain and suffering our black brothers and sisters have borne and continue to carry!In this country, where we are blessed with so much, we still have not learned that we are all equal in God’s eye...

In the Acts of the Apostles, we read that when the Spirit came upon the disciples in wind and fire, they proclaimed the Word in languages they didn’t even know, so that everyone who heard them would understand.Understanding and connectedness: those are two of the gifts of Pentecost, and two that we need sorely today. Division has been a theme in politics for a long time, but these last few months of the coronavirus pandemic have brought our polarization of thought into sharp focus, forcing...

With the creation of smartphones and the advent of social media, our lives now have digital extensions as we share who we are, what we do, and what we hope to be, all on our social media feeds. We spend hours a day checking our email, viewing apps, and often playing digital games as time-fillers throughout the day. What is all this time on our screens doing to us as human beings? How does it affect our relationships and connection to society as a whole? What is it doing to our brains? How are ou...

If you are at all like me, your life has changed dramatically over these past few months. This pandemic is like nothing we have ever experienced before. Our lives have been brought to a screeching halt, and have been turned upside down—literally! For many of us, there has been no Mass for over two months! To help ourselves hold it all together, we’ve been looking for pathways to peace and serenity…Even though our Pauline Book Centers have been physically closed to our wal...