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Your sustainable best

By Elizabeth Foss
As the year winds down, the year-end reviews begin. Perhaps these are a formal part of your life — something that happens at work or at school. Or perhaps they are more casual and even more time-consuming: they are a dialogue with yourself inside your head, evaluating and judging, comparing and maybe even complaining. We […]
10/19/23
Reading Time 3 min

A free gift that costs everything

By Fr. Steven Oetjen
Is salvation given to us as a free gift, or does it require something of us? The answer is yes to both. This might not be easy to understand, and it is often confused because of polemics with various Protestants, but the parable in this Sunday’s Gospel helps illustrate it. In the first part of […]
10/14/23
Reading Time 4 min

Remember gratitude

By Fr. Jack Peterson, YA
Gospel Commentary Oct. 8 Mt 21:33-43 Gospel parables are stories handcrafted by Christ to teach us very important truths about God and about us. Today, Jesus uses a parable to proclaim the goodness of the Father and the importance of humility and gratitude. The landowner in today’s parable represents God who fashions a vineyard. The […]
10/7/23
Reading Time 3 min

Beneath the blanket

By Elizabeth Foss
The other day, as I was sorting through a pile of college memorabilia, I found a card from a florist: Hang in there! October doesn’t last forever. Love, Beth. We were a pair that year — Beth and Elizabeth — completely over our heads in extracurricular activities and leadership opportunities. This card was probably the […]
10/5/23
Reading Time 3 min

Respecting life in ordinary times

By Lucia A. Silecchia
Nearly 10 years ago, Pope Francis recounted a story from his youth. He spoke of a man who lived with his wife, children and aging father. As the elderly father’s abilities declined, he started to eat sloppily while dining with the family. His son lost his patience. He got a small table, placed it in […]
10/5/23
Reading Time 4 min

Titanic passenger rescued by a pig

By Christina Capecchi
A mother understands. From the outside, Edith Rosenbaum was bursting with beauty and promise, 32 and a rising star in fashion. Her job was glamorous, working as a Paris correspondent for Women’s Wear Daily, an American fashion publication. She covered couture openings and penned a column that appeared on the front page, offering her impressions […]
10/5/23
Reading Time 3 min

Artisans of the culture of life

By Sr. Constance Veit, LSP
Each October the Catholic Church in the United States observes Respect Life Month as a time to focus on the protection of God’s precious gift of human life. The theme of the month varies from year to year, but it usually concentrates our attention on the issue of abortion. This year’s theme is Living Radical […]
10/3/23
Reading Time 3 min

End state

By Fr. Joseph M. Rampino
Oct. 1 Mt 21:28-32 It is one of the more unfortunate parts of growing up in a modern American context that the years of our childhoods are punctuated and outlined by report cards. We learn, even from the earliest days, to judge our success or failure based on our cumulative performance. Though we might reset […]
9/30/23
Reading Time 3 min

Vineyard servants

By Fr. Richard Miserendino
Gospel Commentary Sept. 24 Mt 20:1-16 In our Gospel today, we find ourselves in the famed parable of the vineyard-owner and the hired hands. It’s a hard passage to hear, and immediately our ear is drawn to the end: “Are you envious because I am generous?” There’s a perception of an injustice somewhere in the […]
9/23/23
Reading Time 3 min

Who evangelizes? Everyone

By Elizabeth Hofer
At my eighth-grade graduation from St. Agnes School in Arlington, way back in 2010, a laminated placard with my picture hung from the cinder-block walls of our parish center, alongside those of my 40-something other classmates. Each told of our individual career dreams, if a 14-year-old can have such a thing. Mine read, “Architect or […]
9/21/23
Reading Time 3 min

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