Archive by tag: MaryReturn
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Why Catholics Ask Mary's Intercession

Why Catholics Ask Mary's Intercession

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 ...
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First Surprises of 2015

First Surprises of 2015

My first surprise for 2015 was not pleasant: I spent the first few days of January sick in bed!Right after Christmas, I caught a bad flu and just as I thought I was getting well, a relapse totally knocked me down on New Year’s Eve. (I’m feeling much better now, thanks to the TLC of several sisters, lots of bed rest and a surprising amount of cold medicine.)  My second surprise of the new year was much more pleasant: the time I needed to spend in bed has proven to be unexpectedly fruitful! Bein...
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Be It Resolved...

Be It Resolved...

There's something about New Year's that inspires hope in me. Every year, during those first seven of the Twelve Days of Christmas, I find myself actively and enthusastically contemplating the start of a new year. No matter how tattered (or forgotten) last year's resolutions are, I am confident that this year will be different. Maybe it's the glow from the Christmas lights, but snarky and cynical shadows of how well last year's resolutions went don't have a chance. It's a New Year, and in some wa...
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Where Do We Turn If Not To God?

Where Do We Turn If Not To God?

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...
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"It's Going To Be Okay"

"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...
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Mary's Secret of Joy

Mary's Secret of Joy

May is a great time for thinking about decisions and futures. We celebrate ordinations, graduations, weddings…. We honor what has been achieved in people’s lives or our own, and we turn our eyes toward the next stage of our journey in life, whatever it may be.It is a wonderful blessing to us all that in the month of May we reflect on Mary, a woman who had to make a very important decision when she was probably just in her teenage years. She shows us the courageous spirit that makes decision-ma...
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