I still remember the moment I first heard the prayer of St Elizabeth of the Trinity. In the quiet of our convent chapel on Staten Island, New York, Father Bruno Forte—Italian theologian and now Archbishop of Chieti-Vasto—led our community in a profound meditation on silence and prayer. We each had a small copy of the famous prayer of Elizabeth of the Trinity. Bruno Forte opened up the treasures of each phrase one by one, leading us deeper and deeper into interior recollection. It was...

A lot of us are feeling small these days. Insignificant, inconsequential in the face of the pandemic and overwhelming economic distress. And then comes Lent, and this year it somehow feels both irrelevant and trivial to consider doing without chocolate for 40 days.Fasting is one of the three cornerstones of the season, but we’re all exhausted by a year of giving up so much. Yet it’s possible that we’re partially at fault for that exhaustion, because even as we lost incomes, fel...

We all want to live out our faith, knowing—with St. Francis—that we may be the only Gospel our neighbor ever reads. But it’s easy to be not exactly blinded, but rather oblivious, to ways that could make our lives real, vibrant, to allow us to walk with Jesus through the challenges of the 21st century, and particularly in terms of racial justice.Lorna DesRoses, the Coordinator of Black Catholic Ministries at the Archdiocese of Boston, has had this on her mind for some time. &ldq...

Now that several Covid-19 vaccines are in production, you may be asking yourself the question, “Should I get vaccinated?” Some Catholics are wrestling with this question because these first couple of vaccines have some connection with abortion. Here's a moral framework to help you think this through.... The first vaccines that have been approved for the Covid-19 virus raise moral issues because they have a connection with morally compromised cell lines. Kidney cells from a b...

A few years ago I went to see the tall ships that were visiting Boston harbor. On my way home I stopped at Saint Anthony’s Shrine downtown. As I was walking toward it I noticed a tall, thin man hanging around in front of the church, sort of huddled into a corner wall. Though he looked around furtively through his black-rimmed glasses and seemed a bit timid, he didn't appear to be begging. True to my New York upbringing, I began to walk quickly past, pretending not to notice. As I went ...

We have started to do book studies via Zoom, and these book studies are blessing folks left and right! I am excited to announce that we will be starting a new book study on SAINTS ALIVE: THE GOSPEL WITNESSED. We are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses and we are so oblivious sometimes! SAINTS ALIVE is going to help us get in touch with our holy brothers and sisters through 30 fantastic stories of dramatic moments of grace. Each story is compelling and speaks to our lives today in the situati...

by Sr Mary Lea Hill, FSP, Author Complaints of the SaintsWell, I did have a book on this topic in mind for quite a while. Complaining is such a natural topic for me to cover. I feel I was born to comment on the obviously off-kilter that is all around in everyday life. ⁠⁠I have always maintained that complaints are really necessary social commentary. And I’m a master at this, long practiced. As for it being my memoirs, I guess it is in a kind of unraveled way. If you read through all my b...

The Daughters of St Paul are re-releasing two albums sung by Sister Thea Bowman, FSPA. Songs of My People: The Complete Collection is being made digitally available to a new generation. Fr Maurice Nutt, C.Ss.R., who was Sr Thea's student and "spiritual son" and who is working for the advancement of Thea's cause for canonization in the diocese of Jackson, Mississippi, likes to think of it as a revival."Sr Thea preached the good news of a Church revived, and w...

Canada Day ~ Morning PrayerToday, July 1st, Canada celebrates the anniversary of Confederation with ‘Canada Day.’ As Canadians celebrate the birth of their nation, we pray in a special way for all these souls of our province.  We give thanks for all the hearts the Lord has touched through our presence in Canada, we ask for abundant blessings upon our apostolic initiatives amongst the Canadian people and their culture, and we intercede for our Pauline family present in the North....

These past 12 days we, as many of you, have been overcome with sorrow at the death of George Floyd. In those eight minutes in which he couldn’t breathe, the ugly horror of racism that exists in our country was exposed for the world to see, for each of us to see. How heavy the burden of fear, pain and suffering our black brothers and sisters have borne and continue to carry!In this country, where we are blessed with so much, we still have not learned that we are all equal in God’s eye...