This is the time of year when many Catholics ask themselves if it is ok to celebrate Halloween. Today we offer a few insights and resources to help you decide how you will participate in the cultural festivities and also remember to keep All Saints Day holy. The...
Today we celebrate the Feast of St. Francis. Among many other wonderful things, St. Francis was known for his love of animals and uncanny ability to connect with them. It is said that he treated animals with the utmost respect, love, and care. Legend has...
I was fourteen years old and mad at my parents. They were wasting a whole day of our French vacation driving a four hour round trip to the Basilica of St. Therese of Lisieux. The car was uncomfortable, it was a perfect hot sunny day and I didn’t want to go. All I knew...
There have been many days when I was on the verge of losing my mind due to obsessive tattling, the never-ending muddy footprints on my hardwood floors and the bloodcurdling shriek of a toddler being tortured by her big brothers. During those moments, I could only...
The Assumption of Mary's body and soul into Heaven, celebrated on August 15th, is one of the dogmas of the Church. A dogma is a belief held by all Catholics. Yet, there is no mention of Mary’s Assumption in Sacred Scripture. How then, did we come to...
World Youth Day in Krakow, Poland, was a huge, week-long event with catechesis in multiple languages all over the city. I was blessed to be able to attend the English catechesis at the Mercy Center in the Tauron Stadium. All of the speakers were clear and able to...
Today, August 5th, the Church celebrates the feast of the Dedication of St. Mary Major, which is also sometimes referred to as Our Lady of the Snows. So why is there a feast involving snow (in the Northern Hemisphere) in August? Read on to find out! 1. St. Mary Major...
Though St. Benedict was born in 480 A.D., he is certainly a Saint for our times. He was a man of strength, conviction, and courage. Although he desired to live a life of solitude by choosing the life of a hermit and living in a cave, when word of his holiness and...
This week the Church has been in the midst of World Youth Day (WYD)! World Youth Day was established because of the creative genius of St. John Paul II. His unique ability to perceive the needs of young people led him to invent this unique way of...
Millions of young Catholics are gathering from around the world to celebrate our faith this week. Undoubtedly, many will experience conversions, form much-needed spiritual friendships, and feel God's love in a whole new way. There will be an abundance of joy,...
If you're like me, you might be struggling just a tiny bit with envy as you watch Catholic social media explode over World Youth Day this week. Unfortunately, I couldn't make it to the international event that gathers millions of young Catholics from all parts of the...
Go big or go home? We all dream of going big. As Christian youth, we dream of someday becoming saints and staying close to God for the rest of our eternity. It sounds great, but do you think about how many times we get sidetracked and fall because of our sins? Let’s...
Today, July 16th, is the feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, the patron of Chile and the Carmelite religious order. Here we present a few important things to know about Our Lady and the Brown Scapular, but if you wish to read a more detailed history, we suggest...
It’s summertime in the Northern hemisphere and therefore, for the great majority of people, vacation time. You have probably looked forward to this moment and have great expectations about what you will do, the money you will spend, the places you know, and the...
June is one of those months that seems to fly by due to graduations, weddings, and the beginning of summer. If you've missed your chance to reflect on the Sacred Heart of Jesus during this month that is devoted to it, I encourage you to try to set aside just a few...
Just a couple of weeks ago, I attended my friend Sean’s ordination to the priesthood. I was overwhelmed by just how beautiful the whole experience was, and I was struck by the eternal nature of the whole ceremony. They say that when you’re ordained a priest,...
School is out, the weather is getting warmer, and ice cream trucks are once again making the rounds. Summer is here! For many summertime means a relaxed schedule with no classes (and no homework!), shorter workdays, and vacations. It is a joy-filled season and a...
One of the best ways to enrich your faith-life is to pray with scripture. A great way of doing this is using the "Lectio Divina"; this is a powerful method which we explain here. We hope that it serves you in your personal prayer and that it serves as a resource that...
One of the best ways to enrich your experience at Sunday Mass is to pray the gospel reading personally. A great way of doing this is using the "Lectio Divina"; this is a powerful method which we explain here. The following is the Sunday gospel reading...
A highly creative piece, Andrei Rublev's Troitsa (Russian for Triune or Trinity) hails from the summit of a more-than-thousand-year-old iconographic tradition. As you might have surmised, it is a Trinitarian interpretation of Gen 18:1-16, the episode in which "three...
One of the best ways to enrich your experience at Sunday Mass is to pray the gospel reading personally. A great way of doing this is using the "Lectio Divina"; this is a powerful method which we explain here. The following is the Sunday gospel reading with a...
In college, I had the pleasure of taking a sacraments course with Dr. Scott Hahn, which was equal parts awe-inspiring and overwhelming. For starters, the man is practically a living encyclopedia when it comes to the Catholic faith, so notetaking in his class was...
I was excited to see that ‘The Wild Goose’ is inviting everyone to join them in a worldwide prayer vigil for Pentecost. If you don’t already know, ‘The Wild Goose’ is an online series, created in partnership between Fr. Dave Pivonka and 4pm Media. (You can see our...
As I write this, we are approaching the 5th Sunday of Easter, meaning that we will now be breaking into the last weeks of Eastertide before Pentecost Sunday. Every Easter I have the same thought, usually at some point in the Easter Octave, once the drama and intensity...
This article is for you, especially for you, if you have been thinking about going back to Mass this Christmas season. On the part of all of us at Catholic-Link, let me personally invite you back to mass (we even wrote a letter for you!): We want you back! Today's...