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  On May 13, forty days after Easter Sunday, most of the Christian world celebrates Ascension Day. Then begin the nine days leading up to Pentecost, the climax of the Easter season. These nine days, when the disciples prayed together in Jerusalem, are called the “Great Novena,”... Read More →

I served for 11 years as a chaplain in the United States Naval Reserve. Chaplains’ school consisted of a seven-week training program at Naval Station Newport in Rhode Island. One of the lessons we learned was how to carry on “deck-plate ministry.” Chaplains were instructed to get... Read More →

  I have taught in schools, seminaries, and churches all my adult life. My first job was as babysitter to my cousins, followed by nursery attendant at my church. My first job after college was teaching pre-school, where I was assigned immediately to the beleaguered... Read More →

  The one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church strives to serve the Gospel of Life. Remember that the Gospel of Life is simply the Gospel, and that the Gospel is simply the Gospel of Life. (St. John Paul II and Rev. Richard John Neuhaus often reminded us of that.) Political... Read More →

  You may have heard it said—even in a sermon, which should be free of such speculation—that Christians chose December 25 to celebrate Jesus’ birth because that was the day the Romans held a festival celebrating the sun god. The idea, oft proclaimed, is that Christianity... Read More →

  Jesus said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.” It’s an aggressive instruction. The word for “put,” as elsewhere in this passage, can mean throwing, thrusting, plunging—the... Read More →

  Death and life have contended in that combat stupendous. The Prince of Life, who died, reigns immortal. Alleluia! (Victimae Paschali Laudes) As I grow older, I find myself increasingly interested in obituaries (I wonder why). And there, one often reads that the deceas... Read More →

  “Jesus . . . sent two of his disciples and said to them: ‘Go into the village opposite you, and immediately upon entering it, you will find a colt tethered on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone should say to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’... Read More →

  When he was in high school, my eldest son was assigned Jonathan Edwards’s famous sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” He was to compare it with a sermon of his own choosing—one his deeply Calvinist teacher might expect him to find wanting in light of the... Read More →

Psalm 83 For they conspire with one accord; against you they make a covenant (83:5).    “Conspiracy theorist” is a term thrown about much these days, usually to belittle those who believe that sometimes people engage in, well, conspiracies. Call someone a conspiracy theorist... Read More →