The Style of Saints

    In just two weeks, on the first day of November, the Christian world will celebrate All Saints Day. The celebration of All Saints dates from the 7th century in Rome, when the pope changed the Pantheon from a pagan temple dedicated to all the pagan gods, into a...
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Flee to the Cross

  The little girl broke free from her parents and made a beeline for the foot of the Cross. She couldn’t have been more than four years old, but she clearly knew where she wanted to be. Standing in the chamber in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, while the Greek...
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“Life Must Not Be Played With”

    When I was a college undergraduate, I read Malcolm Muggeridge’s book Something Beautiful for God, a transcript of his remarkable BBC interview with Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Muggeridge, a British journalist, author, and television personality, was not the...
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“You Don’t Owe Me Anything”

    I may flatter myself, but I like to think I’ve matured as a prolifer. and having learned some philosophy and theology,  I was pro-life out of moral principle. Now, however, I increasingly think that to be pro-life is to share in the extravagant love and mercy of God...
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Thoughts on September 11, Twenty-two Years Later

  As everyone who was in the area remembers, September 11, 2001, was a clear, shining day. Not so memorable, perhaps, is what it was like to live in the world before the iPhone. My wife, Susan, and I were even less connected, having eschewed television. Thus, when I drove...
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Forward to Basics

  There are many people, clergy and laity, who have a strong witness for life. Most never speak their witness before an audience or in front of a camera. Even so, their life-affirming words and deeds are heard and seen every day. Here is the story of one such witness. During...
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Lift High the Cross

  The Roman Basilica of Santa Sabina on the crown of the Aventine Hill in Rome was given to St. Dominic when he founded the Order of Preachers in 1216, and it remains the headquarters of the Order. It was built in the mid-fifth century and has a tall, pillared nave, light...
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God Sees Her

  “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me” (Genesis 16:13). Recently, I was speaking to a friend over lunch, a woman who has given herself to what we might call the issues of life, particularly abortion and euthanasia/assisted suicide. Speaking of our culture’s...
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Rested and Ready

  Summer is a good time to reflect upon Our Lord’s words to his busy disciples: “‘Come away by yourselves to a lonely place, and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.” (Mark 6:31) This reminds me of how the Marine Staff Sergeant...
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Pro-Life as Promise, Not Pageant

    “That’s what I’m talking about.” English dictionaries cite this phrase as an idiom for approval, satisfaction, and vindication: Prior words or actions may have been inadequate, but this at last is how I want things to be. Because the pro-life movement has a political...
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