by Sr. Anne Joan Flanagan, FSPGod loved us first (cf. 1 John 4:10).That is the message of the coming Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception on December 8th, the day we praise God for the way his grace enfolded the Virgin Mary from the first moment of her existence, without any merit of hers. Mary's Immaculate Conception (her being created and sustained in grace, without any trace of original sin) was the first ray of the "dawn from on high" that brought the world the unsurpassable expression of ...

You may have noticed the latest trend in Keep Calm T-Shirts and even Facebook posts: Keep Calm I'm a Nurse, Keep Calm and Carry On, Keep Calm and Let the Chef Handle It, Keep Calm It's My 40th Birthday Today.... Anyone can go on zazzle.com and create their own Keep Calm T-Shirt message. I’m visiting my family these few weeks and these Keep Calm messages have caught my attention.In reality, however, there are lots of events, that can shatter our calm and leave us feeling anxious, on edge, even i...

A couple years ago I went to a Theology of the Body (TOB) Congress in Philadelphia. One thing stood out for me: so many people I talked to said that learning about TOB had made their life happier. I recall one man who was an ordinary Catholic guy—I’ll call him Joe from New Jersey. He said that his wife had started listening to talks about TOB and was very enthusiastic about it. He wasn’t too interested at first. His wife, however, would play the CDs when the two of them were in the car. After...

Answering the Call to Be a Young Adult Writerby Leslea Wahl; author of The Perfect BlindsideI’ve always enjoyed writing. For as long as I can remember I have been a creator of stories and have had ideas swirling through my head. Though I liked writing, I didn’t really pursue it. For years I followed other interests, but I was always drawn to writing. When I worked I wrote articles for in-house publications. I contributed to newsletters for organizations I volunteered with. I wrote summer learn...

In the dining room of our house is an unassuming depiction of the Sacred Heart of Jesus embroidered by my grandmother. I can’t remember a time when it hasn’t graced the walls of our home. Beneath it is a simple glass shelf, a small votive candle, and a pamphlet about the Enthronement of the Sacred Heart in the home. Another image of the Sacred Heart stands out from my childhood. In St. James Church, our parish, to the right of the main altar was a marble statue of the Sacred Heart. I often wou...

If there is one word that has characterized the pontificate of Pope Francis, it is the word mercy. As St. John Paul II before him—who called for a recourse to mercy “in this difficult, critical phase of the history of the Church and of the world” (Dives in Misericordia, 15)—Pope Francis has looked out onto today’s world situation and called for a revolution in tenderness. We see Francis modeling this revolution in his actions, in his gaze, in his words…all of which have captured the imagin...