Icon of the Immaculate Heart in Byzantine style
On today’s memorial feast of the Immaculate Heart, I want to honor Mary with a reflection on her virtues, which we are all called to imitate, all of which center on the one true thing — love for Christ. I selected 5 icons of the Blessed Virgin to aid me in this reflection, and I hope they will help you reflect and ponder more deeply the mysteries of Mary and Jesus in your life. More…
by Alison Batley
Adorable Sacred Heart of Jesus, which so greatly loved men and has not spared anything for them, unite with the Immaculate Heart of Your loving Mother, so full of merciful love, and together be my help, my comfort, and my salvation. Amen.
Wrestling with moments of dark and light within the human experience is what theologian Alejandra Garcia-Rivera calls “wounded innocence.” More…
The Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus celebrates a feast of human and divine paradox. As we ponder the eternal depths, the sorrow and joy of his human heart, pierced for our sins, we focus mostly on Christ’s humanity — he who was and continues to be both true God and true man.
Today I want to focus on the person of Christ — the divine Second Person of the Blessed Trinity — and the impenetrable thoughts of his heart, thoughts naturally inaccessible to our finite minds, yet revealed to us, in part, from his own human lips. He came from heaven to teach us the truth of our human reality: how much God loves us and so wills to save us (John 3:16).
We know whatever God wills, he has the power to do: what he wills to exist will exist at some point in time and what he wills to accomplish will undoubtedly be done, because there are no obstacles to God’s infinite power. More…
By Alison Batley
“I now receive you who are the price of my soul’s redemption, I receive you who are the food for my final journey, and for the love of whom I have studied, kept vigil, and struggled; indeed, it was you, Jesus, that I preached and you that I taught.” Thomas Aquinas as he received Viaticum, his last Eucharist
Alison Batley
An earnest probing of the human heart will find an internal longing for a desire that cannot be quenched by any earthly substance or worldly pleasure. As St. Augustine professes, “Our hearts are restless until we rest in You, Lord.” More…
By Fr Jose LaBoy
The New Testament, in many passages, reveals to us the divine plurality of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Synoptic gospels clearly present a Trinity in the Baptism and Transfiguration of Christ. More…
For the past seven weeks we have kept the Easter Candle burning, lighting it every time we celebrated Mass.
The living flame of the Easter Candle reminded us that Christ is alive, that he rose from the dead just as the sun rises each morning to put an end to the darkness of the night. The tall, white candle with a burning flame on top reminded us of God’s faithfulness throughout all of history. More…
By Fr José LaBoy, LC
The Easter season ends with the celebration of the Solemnity of Pentecost. Even though it is an ending of a liturgical period, the mystery itself marks a beginning: the life and mission of the Church.
Pentecost is the apex of the Paschal mystery, since Christ makes it very clear that the goal of his “going away” (his death, Resurrection and Ascension) is to send the Holy Spirit. This is what we find Jesus saying in the last Supper discourse: “But I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go. For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.” (Jn 16:7) More…
By Fr Jason Smith, LC
What would a personal Pentecost look like?
At the beginning of the Second Vatican Council, as the Church reached out to an increasingly secular and rationalistic world, Pope John XXIII offered a providential and much needed prayer. He prayed for “a new Pentecost.” More…
For most Christians, the word “heaven” doesn’t mean very much.
This is for two reasons.
The first is that we just don’t think often about heaven. The practical demands of life on earth tend to monopolize our attention. More…
By Fr José LaBoy, LC
Vocation to heaven
St. Leo’s second homily on the Ascension is centered on the bodily absence of Christ from this world, which is a necessary consequence of his “going up” to heaven, and its importance for Christian living. What stands out in this homily is the positive interpretation he gives of this reality and how it is exactly because Christ cannot be seen that we can know him as he truly is and set our minds and hearts on him in heaven. More…
Biltrix 