My aunt Jan has always known she was adopted, and the many mysteries surrounding that reality had never haunted her. She raised her daughters near St. Paul, Minn., her husband’s hometown, and cherished her Catholic faith. Now 56, she is an empty nester who volunteers often and paints religious icons.
As they celebrated their first Christmas in America 150 years ago, the Little Sisters in Baltimore noted that the donations received included “12 turkeys, four ducks, 16 chickens and so many other good things that we didn’t know what to do with it all.”
“Be watchful” and “Be alert” are two traditional spiritual commands often heard by Catholics during the Advent season in preparation for the birth of Christ at Christmas.
Advent, the four-week period preceding Christmas, is a time to slow down as we wait in hopeful expectation for Christ's coming. It's a time to take stock of what's important in our lives, casting away extra commitments and wasted energy we've added throughout the year.
As I have confessed to you many times before, I do not consider myself a good prayer. My prayer is often dry.
When, several weeks ago, a Christian couple who own a bakery in Northern Ireland won a court ruling allowing them to refuse to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding, it was international news.
The vote in Ireland in the spring to take away constitutional protection for the unborn came as an unhappy surprise to Irish Catholics in the United States. It was a piece of news we didn't want to hear or believe.
When the verses from Chapter 33 of the Book of Jeremiah are read as the first reading on the First Sunday of Advent this year, I will hear them in a new way.
In his poem, "Fog," Carl Sandburg describes the fog rolling in quietly "on little cat feet." Advent is like that.
The Baptist’s message: hope and conversion
At the start of our Gospel reading this Sunday, St. Luke offers the historical background of the beginning of John the Baptist's ministry, which historians would place between 27 and 29 AD.