Silvana Ramos
Lent dates back to the 4th century, a time when it began to be observed as a period of penance and renewal for the entire Church through sacrifice, fasting, and abstinence. Although in the West, this time is not as rigorously observed, there has never been any debate...
My grandmother says that in times past in her city people would take a break at noon and wherever they were, whether in the fields or doing any other work, and they would begin to pray the Angelus. Her city was small and she remembers that it was something...
The Confessions is the book through which I encountered a great saint. It is the book I recommend the most when it comes to conversion and the spiritual fight. In addition to being a beautiful dialogue between Saint Augustine and God, this autobiography shows that the...
The Virgin Mary, who - at the message of the angel - received the Word of God in her heart and in her body and gave life to the world, is acknowledged and honored as being truly the Mother of...
"You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every...
What is the Divine Mercy Chaplet? Sister Faustina Kowalska was a nun who received visions from Jesus Himself. After a particular vision on September 13, 1935, she began to share a prayer that Jesus taught her. The account of that vision can still be found in her...
The novena is a Catholic practice of prayer that’s done over the course of nine days. Its practice goes back to the time of the apostles. The first novena can be attributed to when they got together to pray, after the Ascension waiting for the coming of the Holy...
The first time I visited the Blessed Sacrament, I was eight years old. I did it in the context of the preparation for my First Communion. The sister who was preparing us told us with much reverence and passion that inside the tabernacle was the door to Heaven. At...
My dear girl: Yesterday after we talked I was devastated. Forgive me, but the pain and anger won me over. Where was I? Could it be I never listened to what you told me? So many reprimands, so much guilt for not taking better care of you, for not being more clear and...
It’s not an unusual situation (though I wish it were) that many young people today (mostly when they go to college), motivated by different reasons, abandon their Catholic faith. The causes range from the influence of friends and fashions, to intense rationalism in...
“Lectio Divina” means divine reading in Latin. It’s an ancient practice that teaches us how to read, meditate on and live the Word of God. History tells us that it was the Blessed Guigo the Carthusian, who wrote the “most important stages” of this way of meditating...
The origin of the Rosary dates back to the year 800, but it has evolved throughout the centuries resulting in the Rosary we know today. The Rosary invites us to make a beautiful meditation about the life of Jesus and the Holy Virgin Mary. Whether we pray it alone or...
For many young men, approaching a lady is not an easy task. There’s the fear of rejection, of looking foolish, of not knowing exactly what to say, fear of what others will say, and so on. In addition there are all the fantasies that Hollywood, television, and social...
“When men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing in anything.” —G.K. Chesterton. With the following quiz, we invite our readers to reflect on how a nebulous ideology (one Catholics know is...
Embracing chastity and starting to foster it is not always an easy task. If you come from a Catholic background and you have heard it since you were young then perhaps it’s more simple. It gets complicated when, like St. Augustine, conversion happens as an adult and...
Many times, children (even adult children) demand to have perfect parents. We lose our patience with them, and sometimes we even blame them for the things that go wrong in our lives. We forget that they gave us life and have made many sacrifices for our well-being...
What do I think about abortion? I’ve asked myself this question many times...As Catholics we know it’s wrong, but what do we really know about it beyond that and do we truly understand why it’s wrong? I’ve found many people who consider themselves Catholic...
Life passes quickly. One moment you are twelve years old playing in the street, and today you are an adult, 40 years old. What happened to your youthful aspirations, your dreams and your ideals? Though you remember them, do you maintain them? Have you gone through...
Esther Perel is a prominent Belgian psychotherapist who lives in New York. She has dedicated 30 years to couples therapy and to the study of infidelity; and she has been traveling around the world for the last 10 years, collecting information about this topic in...
Human life begins at the moment of conception; this is a scientific fact. Twenty-three chromosomes respectively from the mother and father unite in this moment to create a new being with 46 chromosomes, with unique characteristics and an unrepeatable history in...
Have you heard the Good News? An angel announced to the Blessed Virgin that a child would be born. A child will come to give His life and bring peace to the world. How can this be true? I'm not sure how this could be. I'm not sure but it's a big deal because Malik,...
More often than not, it seems time flies by. We constantly complain about lack of time, yet we spend an incredible amount of time sitting in front of computer and telephone screens. Surfing the web, social media and online shopping have left us static and ironically...
Evil. What is the source of evil? For some, the answer is simple: the source of evil is the devil. For others, the answer focuses on the human being: we are evil by nature. Is our flesh what makes us sin? Deepening a little bit, it would be a mistake to think that our...
It is never easy to share our faith with others, but it is the call that Jesus gave every Christian in the Great Commission: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the...
Is it difficult for you to leave a project unfinished if you have to change activities? Are you unable to delegate work because you think that nobody can do it better than you? Do you have to wake up an hour early every morning to try on a thousand shirts before...
