Elevating Your Experience Of The Liturgy After more than a year of dispensations from attending the Mass, Catholics around the world are taking a look at the liturgy with fresh eyes. As the saying goes “absence makes the heart grow fonder.” For a few, the pandemic may...
Are you feeling low? Tired? Empty? Perhaps God is asking you to go on a silent retreat. Retreats, particularly those done in silence, allow us to set time apart for God by disconnecting from the very connected world we live in. Retreats can be for as little as...
There are wonderful times in our lives when God answers a prayer. Maybe it is something we have been praying for years; maybe it is something we never thought would be answered. Maybe the answer was beyond our wildest dreams, better than we ever could have imagined....
The Sign of the Cross is the most common Catholic prayer. We use it at the beginning and end of prayers, in the Mass, when we pass by a Church, cemetery, or abortion clinic, and when we hear an emergency vehicle siren. But do we know that it is a prayer itself? Or...
In this two part series we will explore 1) Icons and Statues in the Catholic Worldview and 2) Images and Statues in Secular Culture Forbidden Images The First Commandment expressly forbids the worship of anyone and anything other than God. “I am the Lord your God, who...
This week on the podcast we talk about the struggles of moving through the spiritual levels. One of the temptations of conquering your sins is to become judgmental of the process of others. We talk about having to be very aware of what is hurting us in sin to be able...
If you have not read part one of this series entitled: “Music in the Roman Church, part 1 – What is Sacred Music?” please go read that first for background. In this part of the series, we will get a bit deeper into the specifics of restoring Sacred Music in the Latin...
Good question, right? Why does the Church use so many candles? The answer lies within the tradition and history of the Church. The use of candles is a part of the rich heritage of the Catholic faith. Sure, candles probably served some practical purpose in...
An incredible new initiative from Adoration Artists, the 177 Project, will bring a Holy Hour to all of the 177 dioceses in the United States over the next ninety-five days in an effort to help Catholics come to know the power of Jesus Christ present in the Eucharist....
First, let me tell you that I'm not Catholic. But having lived in Europe for several years, I've probably been in more Catholic Churches than most Catholics. Not that this makes me an expert, but more of a connoisseur. However, I have asked several of my Catholic...
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...
https://catholic-link.org/trouble-understanding-the-mass-heres-a-simple-explanation/ A few years ago, I belonged to a choir, but for different reasons, I had to leave it and commit to other things in the field of evangelization. However, I have continued educating...
How do you respond to an invitation to a party? Jesus uses the metaphor of a party invitation to talk about a deeper spiritual principle in this week's Gospel. We're all invited to the heavenly banquet, which actually begins on earth in the Mass. But how do we...
Habits and routines form and shape our experiences and our lives. These habits will help you make going to Mass more than a habit. Going to Mass is the ultimate form of prayer and should be a spiritual encounter with Christ. I invite you to reconsider your Mass...
One of the most common refrains I hear from young people is 'Mass is boring. Homilies are boring. I don't know why I have to come Sunday after Sunday.' Some of my youth in the rear pews would be distracted on their phones during Mass. When I asked them once what they...
I was listening to some music on YouTube while cleaning the other day when a song I had never heard before came on and quickly caught my attention. Now, I'm the first to admit that I'm not up on current secular hits and, to be honest, I pretty much only ever listen to...
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...
Even if you weren't aware of their names, or haven't heard them in Latin, chances are you're familiar on some level with these two traditional hymns, both composed as prayers by none other than the Angelic Doctor, St. Thomas Aquinas. In addition to sharing a common...
One of the most fruitful yet daunting experiences in my life has been Eucharistic Adoration. Just a few years ago, I would often marvel at how some people could sit before the Blessed Sacrament and get lost in the experience. Meanwhile, I was scratching my head trying...
Have you ever found yourself in a prayer rut? Perhaps you've been saying the same prayers for so long you no longer pay attention to the meaning behind the words. Your prayer routine has become just that, routine. Though it is good to be in the habit of...
Through intentional breathing, we are subtly able to affect both our heart rhythm and our interior life (see Heartmath Institute). Such gentle guidance of our interior life constitutes a form of asceticism whereby we can calm the disorders of the heart and create the...
We have all experienced the joy of sharing what we have with others, especially when we do so for those in need. When we share, we do not lose, rather we gain. Not only do we have more, we are more and our heart is filled with joy. How much greater would that joy be...
"The Eucharist & You" is another ODB films production. The main character, Jimmy, is the typical "All American Kid", and, in fact, proposes the typical "ideal life". Most conceptions of the ideal "American" life don't tend to include the Eucharist, much...
Mother Angelica shares with us about the power of the Eucharist. Do you take the time to devote yourself to Jesus in the Eucharist every day? Let her words inspire you too! “If you want to be holy, if you seek meaning in your life, start looking into your own life and...