The Raising of Lazarus
How old was Lazarus? Robert Browning, in a poem written in 1855—An Epistle Containing the Strange Medical Experience of Karshish, the Arab Physician—suggests... Read more.
The Second Sunday of Lent: The Wonder of the Transfiguration
The Transfiguration is celebrated twice in the Church’s liturgy: on the second Sunday of Lent but also on 6 August. The latter date is significant in that it’s... Read more.
The Lenten Fast for Today’s Catholic
Can there be a shorter account of Our Lord’s forty days in the desert than the one from Saint Mark? It omits not only the familiar three temptations but also the... Read more.
Seventh Sunday Quodlibetal
We moderns have been indoctrinated to regard the Middle Ages as a time of superstition and cruelty, but in fact they were quite wonderful. Simply consider those... Read more.
Catholic and Christian Unity
Today, the 19th of January and the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, marks the beginning of the Church unity octave, a week of prayer for the reunion of Christians—Protestant,... Read more.
Epiphany’s Lesson
In the events surrounding the birth of Jesus, three groups are called to our attention: the shepherds, the Magi and the court of King Herod. Each had its peculiar... Read more.
Preaching the Primacy of the Family
It has always been difficult for the homilist to preach on the feast of the Holy Family. In the old days, the priest would deliver a string of platitudes about loving... Read more.
Christ the King’s Providential Passion
THE GOSPELS this year have come from the Gospel of Luke, and we finish on the feast of Christ the King with a section of Saint Luke’s account of the crucifixion.... Read more.
Sympathetic Nature
MANY PASSAGES in Scripture, both the Old and the New Testaments, are disconcertingly violent, as in today’s Gospel: Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom... Read more.
God and the Five Senses
A priest I knew many years ago opposed to the move from Latin to English in the prayers and readings at Mass. “For,” he said, “if the people heard the creed... Read more.