Painted around 1700 by Johan Schmidtner, the original painting of Our Lady Undoer of Knots is found in the Church of Saint Peter in Augsburg, Germany. A priest named Father Langenmantel had commissioned the work to honor Mary and to thank her for a favor received by his grandparents, who at one point were on the verge of divorce. The husband went to seek counsel from a priest, Father Rem, a Jesuit from Ingolstadt. During their talks they would pray together asking Mary’s intercession....

Back-to-school time can feel overwhelming for everyone—kids, parents, teachers. And it’s easy for our spiritual lives to get lost in the scuffle of new clothes, misplaced notebooks, and sports schedules. Here are some ways to make sure that you keep God in the mix:  Start your day together with prayer. Yes, mornings are hectic, but remember that the crazier they feel, the more you need prayer! It doesn’t have to be long—just a simple thoughtful Our Father is fine&mda...

For four delightful years, I worked in our Pauline Books & Media bookcenter in Alexandria, Virginia. My favorite part of being in the bookcenter was helping people on the floor. I realized that by listening to people and asking them questions, I could find just the right book, resource, or gift item that they needed for themselves or for a family member, student, or friend. The longer I worked in the bookcenter, the more familiar I became with all the great Catholic material that’s ava...

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”?Many authors of the early 20th century were enmired in their specific time, and at a distance their writings appear old-fashioned at best—and irrelevant at worst. Others seem to have been presc...

Dear St. Gianna,I wanted to write to you today on St. Valentine’s Day and thank you for your friendship and what you have taught me about real, true, and lasting love.I smile when I think of the day we met in the hallway of the publishing house. It was two-and-a-half years ago, but I remember it like it was yesterday. There you were, so visibly pregnant, dressed in your white lab coat, surrounded by your beloved husband Pietro and three of your children—right there on the cover of th...

We’re almost through January, and perhaps the shiny promise of the New Year has begun to dull. Maybe we’ve already broken our most important resolution, or we’re wavering about sticking with it. Maybe we put off making any resolutions, and now we feel it’s too late for a fresh start, for making our lives happier, healthier, holier. For me, late January and early February have often been about giving up. February has always been a particularly hard month to get through: I’m as tired of m...

In these first days of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, I have found myself remembering our dear Sister Mary Caroline. For the longest time it was she who managed the book bindery where the machines were run by postulants and novices. Sister Caroline, who was anything but mechanical in her inclinations (that was Sister Mary Guadalupe's specialty), had a way of introducing calm into the situation whenever a machine started making a strange “clink” or (worse yet) had begun spitting out damage...

Do you have family members who are away from the Church? Are you not sure what to say to them when they are home for Christmas? I used to be a fallen-away Catholic who went to Christmas Mass every year with my family. I am not sure why I went to Mass; I was an atheist. Sometimes I felt annoyed during the homilies or unmoved by the liturgy. But there were other times when I felt something stir.Maybe it was something the pastor said. Perhaps it was the reverent way someone received the Eucharist. ...

By Sr. Anne Joan Flanagan, FSP Pope Francis wrote that mercy is “the bridge that connects God and man, opening our hearts to the hope of being loved forever despite our sinfulness.” That image of the bridge, of course, reminds us of the very role of the Pope, the “Pontifex” (bridge-builder). In the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy which started this week it is also a fitting image for Mary, the Mother of God, whose feast we celebrate today under the title of Our Lady of Guadalupe. At Guadalupe...

It is a privilege to reflect with you on the Year of Mercy in these days in which we approach the birth of the Prince of Peace, our Savior who revealed to us the Father, the "God, who is rich in mercy" (Eph 2:4). Have you seen the latest version of Cinderella? In the movie, just as Cinderella and her Prince begin to leave the wicked stepmother, Cinderella turns to face the cruel woman. “I forgive you,” Cinderella says clearly. Then, secure in her resolve to always practice kindness, arm-in-arm...