We’re not just happy that Jesus was born on December 25. We’re always happy about His coming while we look forward to His second coming! It might only be one time a year that we focus on His birth, specifically, but it’s something we always hold in our hearts. During...
We invite you to watch Father's video, then prayerfully read the Gospel and reflection. We pray that this might help you in your apostolate, your family, your classroom, or personally... to prepare for and more deeply experience Sunday's Mass, and to better integrate...
If you were to walk through the narrative of the Nativity story, you’d know it pretty well, right? That’s not a trick question, because I agree, we all know it very well. But what if the reason why we know it so well isn’t just because we’ve heard it year in, year out...
I’m sorry that we used such a click-baity title because really we just want you to have the best Christmas possible. So here are 7 ways you (might) be doing Christmas (a little bit) wrong. But better still, here are 7 ways to make your Christmas holier, happier and...
Well, the year is wrapping up; pretty soon, we will be ringing in the new year! It’s a time for us to start new. We make vows to go to the gym more, eat better, stay organized, and accomplish career or school goals. As Catholics, it’s important to keep spiritual goals...
Mary was “set apart” for a very specific mission. Sometimes, I feel set apart, too. You know, set apart from friends on a Friday night, watching and memorizing my favorite 90’s rom coms for... well, I’m sure I’ll need those quotes one day. Or out to dinner with my...
Sometimes the culture of relativism makes us think that matters pertaining to evil and the spiritual battle are nothing more than theoretical ideas. We start to believe that our sin is less and less serious. “We must always be vigilant against the deception and...
One of the wonderful things about both the Advent and Christmas seasons is the abundance of beautiful hymns and carols. They’re made more special by the fact that they can only be sung once a year! But even so, we can still be overly familiar with some of the more...
Relations between the sexes: Have they ever been worse? It's enough to tempt one to despair. Thankfully, the Church is a bulwark of sanity in every human realm, not least of all in matters of sex and sexuality, on the deepest, primordial realities of Male and Female....
Well, when you ask Alexa if she's Catholic, she will typically reply, "Sorry, I'm not sure," but I have my suspicions that she might be Catholic. There was recently a hoax in which comedian Steve Crowder upset several conservative news outlets and Christians when he...
“He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish.” ~ Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea Every path needs a starting point. In order to leave port, a ship must lose its mooring; in order...
This is an excellent video produced by the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City that helps to explain the process of evangelization and catechesis. Those involved in any type of church ministry within the Catholic faith should take a minute to watch it. If you’ve been around...
It can be difficult to find a book that encourages you, motivates you, and inspires you in your Catholic faith. We've compiled a list of our favorite Catholic books that were published in 2017. There's truly something for everyone on this list. *We're posting these...
One of the great Catholic writers of the last century, G.K. Chesterton, poured out ink (by pen and typewriter and secretary) at a level hardly matched before or since. He wrote novels, biographies, essays, editorials, non-fiction books on philosophy and apologetics,...
In today's video, Fr. Mike Schmitz gives us some things to consider before getting a tattoo. If we do choose to place permanent marks on our bodies, we need to make sure the marks portray values we’ll always identify with and live up to, because tattoos do inevitably...
This year's Advent season will be the shortest possible Advent. With Christmas on a Monday, the fourth week of Advent is only one day! This means that you need to make the most of your twenty-two days of preparation for the Birth of Christ. We have five incredible...
I frequently get mad at God (maybe more than I should?... I don’t know whether there's a reasonable limit to these things). The thing is, I used to think it wasn’t okay, that it meant my faith and love were weak. Little by little, with the Holy Spirit’s help, I’ve...
Father Ian VanHeusen presents a Gospel reflection and spiritual exercise for the Feast of Christ the King, Matthew 25:31-46, where Jesus tells His disciples. As adopted children of God, we actually participate in God's Authority. When we celebrate the authority of...
I love C.S Lewis’ book ‘The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe’, and I think I love it more as an adult than when I read it as a child. If you haven’t read the book, I want to say: please read it! It is a subtle yet powerful allegory of Christianity, set in an...
God is looking for us. He wants us to be saints. When we become conscious of this, we can feel a certain vertigo, imagining what He might ask of us and how we would possibly do it. While some individuals have been asked to accomplish certain truly admirable deeds, far...
Did you ever wish that the The Sound of Music was real? The heroes /heroines, the nuns saving lives, the incredible family? Did it inspire endless daydreams about what you would do if you'd lived in Europe during WWII? The musical was based on the book Sound of Music...
If you haven’t read this Old Testament book, you’ve missed out on a major part of the Jewish spiritual understanding of pain and suffering. I won’t narrate the complete story, but in summary Job had to go through tremendous calamities. He lost his possessions, his...
“Good reason still existed; but it was kept concealed, for fear of the popular reason." - Manzoni Fear of change, of responsibility, of failure, always seeks a justification. Just like Father Abbondio before Cardinal Borromeo in the famous Italian novel, The...
If you feel that you are called to marriage, there are series of things that you can do to prepare yourself for that beautiful call. Here we are going to go over three key ideas that can help you together with some reflection questions. We invite you to watch Father's...
For those who have had the experience of keeping watch over a sick person through the night, especially if it was a very close loved one, you know what it means to fight off sleep. You do everything in your power to stay awake; you use every ounce of strength; you...