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Columns

How to plant a ‘Mary garden’ during May

By Nancy J. Emanuel

Celebrating Mary during the month of May seems as natural as blossoms opening in spring. I never actually knew why we celebrated Mary during May, just that it was tradition. It may have had something to do with the arrival of spring, a relief from the bitter cold of winters in Western Massachusetts. The fragrance of spring lilacs reminded us that life was being renewed. Perhaps it was the special crowning ceremony when, as a child at Catholic school, we crowned the beautiful statue of Mary in our church, recognizing her as “Queen of the Angels, Queen of the May.”

5/11/20
Reading Time 3 min

Things that make us happy this week Vol. 3

By Zoey Maraist

Once a week throughout this pandemic, we’ll bring you fun and uplifting videos, photos and posts from people throughout the diocese. 

5/8/20
Reading Time 1 min

‘Keep that hope machine running strong’

By Christina Capecchi

It started with the Italians, whose arias rose from the balconies. They were on lockdown, but their voices rang out down empty moonlit streets. Ballads, the national anthem, improvised ditties over the barking of dogs.

5/8/20
Reading Time 3 min

Become Christ-centered

By James C. Hudgins

One of the hardest lessons to learn is that your life is not about you. One could even say that to understand that idea is the secret of living. We were designed by God to give ourselves away in acts of self-forgetfulness, and we will never know happiness until we learn to do so. A light was made to shine. A fish was made to swim. A bird was made to fly. And a human person was made to live for God, and for others. Our sadness and anxiety only increase whenever we imagine our lives to be a grand self-actualization project —  as if we were created only to serve our personal ambitions and to make all our dreams come true. As the Second Vatican Council states, “Man cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself” (“Gaudium et Spes,” 24).

5/7/20
Reading Time 3 min

Understanding the sacrament of confirmation

By David Wallace

Every sacrament confers sanctifying grace, but each sacrament also confers its own proper sacramental grace. In addition to sanctifying grace, the sacrament of confirmation brings an increase and deepening of baptismal grace, roots us more deeply in divine sonship, unites us more firmly to Christ, increases in us the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit, renders our bond with the church more perfect, gives us a special strength to witness, spread, and defend the faith boldly and without shame, and imprints on the soul an indelible spiritual mark with the seal of the Holy Spirit (“Catechism of the Catholic Church,” 1303).

5/7/20
Reading Time 3 min

Lockdown debate

By Russell Shaw

It now appears that the legacy of the coronavirus pandemic is going to include an ongoing, sometimes ugly debate on the merits of closing churches and suspending religious services to halt the spread of COVID-19. The argument is one of those unfortunate cases where two important goods — here, religious liberty and public health — are set in opposition, with no one likely to emerge a clear winner.

5/1/20
Reading Time 3 min

Things that make us happy this week Vol. 2

By Zoey Maraist

Once a week throughout this pandemic, we’ll be bringing you fun and uplifting videos, photos and posts from people throughout the diocese.

4/30/20
Reading Time 1 min

‘The very best of me’(1)

By Elizabeth Foss

I had a dream last night about ventilators. In my dream, the machines were fueled by squares of brightly colored quilting cotton. These days, I am making masks  —  dozens and dozens of masks. I love to sew. The smell of quilting cotton under a hot iron is one of my favorites  —  right up there with incense and chrism. Unlike some of my quilting friends who are quietly hating the task while sewing hundreds of masks, I’m actually enjoying the process. I like to pair fabrics to make the mask pretty. I like the skills involved in pleating and topstitching. All in all, it’s not a bad way to suffer through a global pandemic.

4/29/20
Reading Time 3 min

What does the shroud reveal?

By Robert J. Matava

On Good Friday, April 10 this year, the Shroud of Turin was publicly exhibited online in response to thousands of requests made to the archbishop of Turin during the coronavirus pandemic. This was an extraordinary opportunity, for the shroud is usually only revealed a few times per century. The shroud is an ancient textile bearing the mysterious image of a crucified man and is widely claimed to be the actual burial cloth of Jesus. While the church has not issued any verdict about the shroud’s authenticity, what is beyond doubt is that the shroud is not only a sign of Our Lord’s passion and death, but also of his resurrection.

4/29/20
Reading Time 4 min

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