Advent holds a very special place in my heart. In the Advent liturgy we are able to experience with all our senses the haunting beauty of this time of ardent longing and waiting. The smells of pine wreaths and burning wax, the plaintive melodies of Advent hymns, the promise-filled prophecies and Old Testament readings, the great Advent figures – they all urge us to focus on what God has done for us in Christ Jesus. In four short weeks we learn to wait, to hope, to be quiet, to prepare. How appr...

A sister in my community and I recently went to a special dinner hosted by the Archdiocese of San Antonio for young women considering consecrated life. I am often reminded at functions like this of the vital importance of Saint Peter's encouragement, "always be ready to offer a reason for your hope." I take it to mean, "be ready to use simple language to tell people why you are so happy." When conversing at any length with people (even "practicing Catholics") about religious life, we are almost ...

I have always loved the readings of the Liturgy in the last couple weeks of November and the end of the liturgical year, particularly the book of Revelation. Just yesterday we began proclaiming the prophetic messages to the seven Churches. Those who are victorious I will feed from the tree of life!  We too want to stand one day robed in white, singing the song of the Lamb. In today's Strength for the Week, Pope Francis offers us some personal spiritual guidance on our journey. In the digital ma...

Way back in 1959, St. Paul Editions, as our publishing house was then called, compiled and printed a marvelous book: the Queen of Apostles Manual of Prayer. It wasn’t just another prayer book—at that time there were hundreds of those on the market—but literally a manual, a how-to, of conversation with God, learned by…praying. It was reprinted and revised more than once. By the time it received a new title, Queen of Apostles Prayer Book, it contained over 400 prayers and novenas. At least tha...

"Then I looked, and there was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion! And with him were one hundred forty-four thousand who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads" (Revelation 14:1).The one hundred forty-four thousand standing on Mount Zion... A new song only they could sing... The wedding of the Lamb. The heavenly Jerusalem...To be honest, these are not my "everyday" thoughts. Yet this is who I am, who we are. Politics, problems, and plans seem more real, more in the moment, mo...

As a sister, I find that when it comes to sharing the Gospel with family and friends, I often feel like I’m either a lightning rod for religious discussions (friendly or hostile in tone) or I am ignored as irrelevant to everyday life. I suspect that any practicing Catholic whose family members “aren’t religious” goes through this as well. How do we share the joy of the unconditional love of God with all of these expectations swirling around us? There are two fundamental choices or attitudes ...

No matter what your background, evangelizing friends and family is not an easy task. When engaging with loved ones who have fallen away from the Church, it is easy for us to focus on what they’re doing wrong or on what we’re doing wrong when we try to witness to them. But the more important thing is to concentrate on God’s desire for all of us to become saints. When we allow God to purify our inconsistencies that keep us from clearly communicating Jesus to our loved ones, then we will be able...

This past month we celebrated a number of the Church’s great people of prayer: Saint Teresa of Avila, Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Therese of Lisieux, and Blessed Timothy Giaccardo. They were all masters not only of liturgical prayer, but of personal prayer. What does that mean? Very simply put, it means they prayed from within their own lives. They prayed who they were, so to speak. Would we put ourselves in that category? Do you and I pray, as St Therese did, “our own little way?”  Let’s...

October is a lovely time in many parts of our country. Last week I had the chance to see fall in South Carolina: a still green landscape. In North Carolina’s mountains, reds, yellows and browns were appearing. In Boston more colors are displayed along our roadsides. A side street was covered with dry oak leaves—a sure sign of change in the air.Recently an on-line reader commented on an article I wrote. He recalled having met me in our Toronto bookstore about five years ago. To help himself thr...

             We, Synod Fathers, gathered in Rome together with Pope Francis in the Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, greet all families of the different continents and in particular all who follow Christ, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. We admire and are grateful for the daily witness which you offer us and the world with your fidelity, faith, hope, and love.Each of us, pastors of the Church, grew up in a family, and we come from a great variety of backgrounds and experie...