This year, 2023, is off to an exciting start! Rather than focusing on New Year’s Resolutions this year I was captivated by the writings in the Word For You Today: “With God all things are possible.” (Mt: 19-26) Many things that are possible remain undone because of doubt and unbelief. So, this year, think “possible.”…
The last thing I expected — not even remotely on the radar — was a text I received on Saturday morning around 10am that a friend had been put on palliative care to manage her pain. WHAT?! Her eldest son was on his way in from Boston to California, to join his brother and family…
Celebrated by Catholic monasteries throughout the world and at many parishes, Tenebrae, which means “darkness” in Latin, focuses our attention on the sufferings and death of Our Saviour. It takes place during the three days preceding Easter Day—Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday—with special psalms and ceremonies during Matins and Lauds (the first two…
CNA, Catholic Catechism—A plenary indulgence is a grace granted by the Catholic Church through the merits of Jesus Christ, Mary and all the saints to remove the temporal punishment due to sin. The indulgence applies to sins already forgiven. A plenary indulgence cleanses the soul as if the person had just been baptized. A plenary…
CNA—Pope Francis’ prayer intention for the month of March is for a renewed experience of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. In his video for the prayer intention, created by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, the pope asked for prayers that the Sacrament of Reconciliation would be experienced “with renewed depth, to taste the forgiveness and infinite…
I am ready for Lent this year. Please don’t misunderstand me. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Something within always resists Ash Wednesday’s sober call to repentance and a reorientation of my life. But, after facing the challenges of the pandemic this year, I admit that business as usual has not been…
I could never have fathomed all the things that have happened in our country during March 2020. I must admit that particularly over the last two weeks, I have been in somewhat of a “funk” because of the Coronavirus pandemic and all the uncertainty surrounding it. The news cycles on TV have been bad for…
CNA—A school district in Utah has issued an apology after a fourth-grade student was told by a teacher that he must remove the cross from his forehead on Ash Wednesday. William McLeod, a student at Valley View Elementary School in Bountiful, Utah, arrived at school with ashes on his forehead in the shape of a…
