Known and beloved as the “Golden Sequence,” the Veni Sancte Spiritus is a beautiful, powerful prayer to the Holy Spirit that dates back to the thirteenth century. It is attributed to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal Stephen Langton. In 1570, this “sequence” (still prayed and chanted after the first reading Epistle and the Alleluia and […]

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 reflection that is especially aimed at youth. We hope that […]

The celebration of Pentecost is a reminder of our need for the Holy Spirit. How often do you pray to and invite the Holy Spirit into your life? Jesus left us with the Advocate to help us grow in holiness, but many of us don’t understand how to incorporate this aspect of the Holy Trinity […]

In today’s Gospel reflection, Father Ian VanHeusen presents a spiritual exercise based on Acts 2:1-11. St. Ignatius of Loyola explains, “By the term “Spiritual Exercises” is meant every method of examination of conscience, of meditation, of contemplation, of vocal and mental prayer, and of other spiritual activities. “For just as taking a walk, journeying on […]

Don’t be surprised if you hear in the coming days that a few hundred thousand people are making their way to Rome. They’ve all headed there to mark the 50th anniversary of the charismatic renewal in the Catholic Church, a phenomenon that is estimated to have impacted the lives of more than 120 million Catholics […]

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 basically like trying to drink water from a fire hydrant. Even […]

In my journey back to the faith I had spent much time researching, listening, and learning about what it meant to be a daughter of God, what it meant to be a follower of Christ, and to clumsily pick up my cross and carry it. All of this seemed like an overwhelming task and something […]

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 introductory post on it here). Over a […]

Have you ever witnessed the power of the Holy Spirit? Not many of us can say that we have actually seen a miracle occur before our very eyes. In the exciting new film about the Holy Spirit, Fearless, you will have the opportunity to watch miracles unfold as you witness Catholics join together to pray for […]

The Holy Spirit has been given to us as a gift, yet few of us choose to use it. Sometimes it is due to a lack of knowledge about what the gifts are and other times it is because we simply forget. The Holy Spirit is not just some ancient, nebulous being.  The Spirit is […]