I have a stack of them. People whose lives I’ve admired. People whose words have inspired me. People whose memory makes me want to be a better person, a holier person. Most of these heroes are people I’ve chosen through my encounters with them in various ways, through my readings, through my prayer, through observing their lives and accomplishments. The list is disparate: Oscar Romero, Dorothy Day, Lillian Hellman, Hildegard of Bingen, Julian of Norwich, Jimmy Carter, Pope Francis&he...

Do you want to be happy? It seems an absurd question; everyone wants to be happy, right? But many people see happiness as a bluebird that comes and lights upon them and bestows joy without any effort on the person’s part. And yet it’s been the observation of many saints over the centuries that if you want to be happy, you have a big say in making it happen. And if you feel terribly unhappy, then that has something to do with you, too. Not with your actions, but with the sta...

Let’s face it: we’ve always loved reading other people’s letters.Perhaps it’s a bit of voyeurism, this glimpse into someone else’s life; but more often than not, reading the correspondence of others—particularly of people we hold in esteem—leaves us with a humble understanding of how they lived in a day-to-day manner, how they expressed themselves to each other, and finally how they came to be the people we admire and strive to emulate.And when the corre...

There seems to be one observation with which everyone can agree, no matter how much discord there might be around other issues, and here it is: there are a lot of problems in our culture. Seemingly insurmountable problems.Knots, we might call them.For over 300 years there has been a special devotion to Our Lady Undoer of Knots. It is one of Pope Francis’ favorite devotions. And it’s not difficult to see why. Our culture needs healing, it needs transformation, it needs an influx of lo...

They’re called “keynotes.”A keynote speech is a talk or presentation that establishes a main underlying theme. It sets up the framework for a program of events that will follow, summarizing the core message or the most important revelation. The term itself comes from the practice of a cappella music: doo-wop or barbershop singers played a note before singing to determine the key in which the song would be performed.Gabrielle Bossis, writing in the spiritual journal that would b...

Pauline Books and Media has just released Francis de Sales and Jane de Chantal. The story of the extraordinary spiritual friendship between Francis de Sales and Jane de Chantal is recounted in this welcome addition to the Saints by Our Side series. Francis de Sales (1567-1622) was a priest, bishop, founder of Salesian spirituality, and a renowned spiritual director. Jane de Chantal (1572-1641) was a wife, a mother, a nun, and the founder of a religious community.Author Wendy M. Wright is a ...

2016 felt like a chaotic year, didn’t it? There was a difficult presidential campaign season in the U.S, and meanwhile presidents of other countries were impeached and even put on trial. There were horrible terrorist attacks across the globe. Syria’s bloody civil war ground on with the bombing of hospitals, churches, and homes, leaving thousands of people dead and thousands more fleeing for their lives.Will 2017 be less chaotic? We can hope so. But even if it isn’t, there are w...

In the classic He And I, French mystic Gabrielle Bossis, like the rest of us, started every year with something new. But her “resolutions” were very different from ours. Her conversations with God, recorded in her journal according to the date they took place, always started on January first with something called a “keynote,” what we might think of as a theme for the year. And all of these themes have one thing in common: they have nothing to do with self-i...

Most of us turn the page from December 31 to January 1 with mixed feelings. There may be regrets for what we’d planned to see accomplished in the year that is over. For many people, probably for most people, there is hope that the new year will be different. And most of us make new year’s resolutions. We decide that this is the year we’re going to lose weight, or start a new career, or take a class. We’re all about self-improvement, about making changes that will&mda...

For four delightful years, I worked in our Pauline Books & Media bookcenter in Alexandria, Virginia. My favorite part of being in the bookcenter was helping people on the floor. I realized that by listening to people and asking them questions, I could find just the right book, resource, or gift item that they needed for themselves or for a family member, student, or friend. The longer I worked in the bookcenter, the more familiar I became with all the great Catholic material that’s ava...