We beg you, Eternal Wisdom, to give us new visionso as to view persons and events with the eyes of Christ.Open our hearts to great respect for every human personand for authentic values rooted in the Gospel.Help us to promote what is true, just, pure, and good,so that all persons may recognize the dignity to which God calls them.Make us your leaven in the midst of humanity,proclaiming and bringing your salvation into every corner of our world.Holy Spirit, allow us to be surprised bythe...

Lord, make me an instrument of your grace.Where there is ignorance, let me bring inspiration;Where there is prejudice, understanding;Where there is weariness, strength;Where there is ugliness, beauty;Where there is loneliness, companionship;Where there is sadness, joy;Where there is fear, courage;Where there is doubt, faith;Where there is hatred, love.Lord, fill my mind with your truth,my heart with your love,my whole being with your Spirit.Grant me the supreme giftof forgetfulness of self in se...

Most of us turn the page from December 31 to January 1 with mixed feelings. There may be regrets for what we’d planned to see accomplished in the year that is over. For many people, probably for most people, there is hope that the new year will be different. And most of us make new year’s resolutions. We decide that this is the year we’re going to lose weight, or start a new career, or take a class. We’re all about self-improvement, about making changes that will&mda...

Our Lord Jesus Christ made these twelve promises to those who honor His Sacred Heart to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, a French nun, whom he called “the Beloved Disciple of the Sacred Heart” and the Heiress “of all Its treasures”, in the 1670’s. They show us how much he cherishes this devotion. Considering that the blood that redeemed us at Calvary came from His Sacred Heart and that so much love and light still exude from it, we can easily understand why! These promises were revealed in one o...

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...

You may be familiar with the passage in the Gospel of Matthew, where Mary and several family members approach Jesus while he is preaching. A disciple tells Jesus that his mother and family are there to speak with him. Jesus looks at his disciples, extends his arm, and says, “Who is my mother?” He goes on to say, “For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother” (Mt 12:48, 50). At first glance it may sound as if Jesus is disparaging his mother. One imagine...

To understand God’s call for us, we need to also understand how God sees us; we have to understand our “backstory” (to put it in storytelling terms) or where we come from.How does God see us? Most simply put, we have been loved into being:There is one truth for believers that, no matter how much our wounded nature might try, cannot be twisted. This truth is that God chose to create each of us. There is something so unique and wonderful about us that God wants to share his life with us. God wa...

Holy Week is an extraordinary week in the life of the Church, and it’s meant to be an extraordinary week in our personal and spiritual lives, too. But from waving our palms on Palm Sunday, to being splashed with holy water on Easter Sunday, sometimes it’s hard to get into the rich liturgies of Holy Week. We may get restless during the longer services or find it hard just to get to church an extra time during the week. Sometimes, we may find it uncomfortable or depressing to focus on Jesus’ su...

 Wish us a happy birth-year. This June the Daughters of St. Paul will celebrate a hundred years of participating in the mission of the Church, becoming the Good News of Jesus, and communicating him through the media within the world’s cultures. Our story would not be the same without one woman who was indispensable to its first fifty years—Thecla Merlo, well on her way now to being declared “Blessed.” Our centenary appropriately begins this year and ends next year with her anniversary—Febru...

In these days each morning at Mass I have been moved by the readings from the Letter to the Hebrews. Jesus our High Priest is the centerpiece of this masterful work from the New Testament. The writer tells us that Jesus learned “obedience from what he suffered” for us. He purchased our souls for God, and because of what Jesus did we have hope.In our coastal New England area it is easy to visualize an anchor holding a ship fast, despite the strength of the wind or waves. Jesus is the anchor tha...