The countdown to Holy Week has begun, and for some of us that’s an unwelcome reminder that we’ve become less enthusiastic or energetic about the Lenten practice or discipline we selected back at the beginning of March. Forty days is a long time, and giving up one thing, or adding on something else, can become difficult to maintain over time.The good news is that you’re not alone: a lot of Lenten practices don’t make it through the season. No one does everything they plann...

If you are, then you’re not alone. A lot of people wonder about what will happen to the Church throughout this century and beyond. When I find myself worrying about the Church’s future—and believe me when I say I do—there is one place that I can turn that invariably gives me hope. I hope for the Church’s future for the simple reason that I have studied its past.Our history is filled with many inspiring, miraculous, and beautiful moments. It tells tales of heroi...

Can you remember who influenced your life the most? Perhaps it was someone from your childhood, an adult—such as a relative or teacher or priest—who made you see clearly what was important for you, what shape your life should take?That’s usually the way it happens: children are most often influenced by the lives of adults around them. But in one little-known situation, it worked the opposite way. And, oddly enough, the adult influenced by the child’s life lived half a wor...

As inhabitants of the 21st century, we tend to think that our style of anything—fashion, thought, language, music—is the best that things have ever been. We’ll listen to songs from the past with a grin of nostalgia. We’ll look at clothing from the past with a grimace of how-could-we. And while we know that the treasures of Catholic spirituality might be relevant to us today, we often get stuck precisely on their style.No one talks the way people used to, and no one writes...

by Alexis WalkensteinThat was the last thing I uttered when I was inside the crypt at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City at Christmastime 2008. I was praying to then-Servant of God Fulton J. Sheen, asking him for intercession with a litany of impossible prayer requests, three for others, and two for me. I closed my prayer with, ”If you help me with these intentions, I will promote you.” That profound moment inside the crypt was a stand-out moment of so many thin...

With the exception of the Bible, it is perhaps the most widely read spiritual book in the world. It was first published anonymously in 1418 and consists of a series of counsels of perfection that are as relevant today as they were when it was written.It is The Imitation of Christ, and every Catholic should own a well-thumbed and much-consulted copy!When its author, Thomas à Kempis, was a boy, he attended a school operated by the Brethren of the Common Life. He was so impressed with t...

Every Lent, I look around for a Way of the Cross that will draw me into the mystery of redemption in a new way. So I was really intrigued by the introduction to the new Way of the Cross written by Father Marco Rupnik, SJ, a small book which also features his mosaics. The book is called Contemplating the Face of Christ.These stations featured in Contemplating the Face of Christ were constructed by Father Rupnik and the artists from the Atelier of the Aletti Center. They stand outside the church o...

Do you think Church history is dull? It's okay to admit it! But here are a few facts that might liven it up a little: Feeling pent up in the Vatican, Pope John Paul II used to sneak out to ski and hike in the Italian Alps. He did it over a hundred times before being discovered by a 10-year-old boy who pointed at him and shouted, "The pope! The pope!" The only Christian church in existence for the first 1,000 years of Christian history was the Roman Catholic Church. Most non-Ca...

Saint Paul lists joy second among the seven famous fruits of the Holy Spirit. But if you are like me, you might often find joy to be elusive and somewhat immeasurable. No one can force another person to be joy-filled.Finding even the least bit of joy in our hearts, in fact, can seem almost impossible in the desert sands of a Lent that opened with the horror of the school shooting Ash Wednesday at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. After this tragedy, we might fe...

It’s almost Valentine’s Day, and thoughts turn easily to romantic love. But what if you could read something thoroughly romantic… and thoroughly spiritual and thoughtful as well?  The love letters exchanged between Saint Gianna Beretta and her husband, Pietro Molla, might provide just what you’re looking for. Better than a theological treatise, these letters are a convincing proof that the way of holiness does not necessa...