Four days ago we celebrated a feast in honor of the Patroness of the United States.  Today we honor the Patroness of the Americas, all the countries of the Western Hemisphere, Our Lady of Guadalupe.  She was responsible for the greatest conversion of all time.  During the ten years after Mary appeared four times to […]Read more

In 1519 the first European, a Spanish explorer, saw the Mississippi River, the name of which comes from the language of a Native tribe and means “Great River.”  But in 1673, another European explorer, the Jesuit priest Jacques Marquette came upon the river and named it “River of the Immaculate Conception.” The Immaculate Conception was […]Read more

“Viva Cristo Rey!”  Long live Christ the King!  These were the last words of Blessed Miguel Pro, a Jesuit priest, who was shot by a firing squad in Mexico on November 23, 1927.  He was one victim among tens of thousands whom the Mexican government killed in the persecution of 1926-29. Two years earlier, Pope […]Read more

Today’s feast, “The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed” or “All Souls’ Day,” is so important that when it falls on a Sunday it takes the place of that Sunday’s prayers and readings. The Church clearly does not want us to forget those who have died and may need our prayerful help.  Though we are […]Read more

If someone about to have surgery asked you to pray for them, would you?  Or would you say to them: “Why are you asking me to pray for you?  You can go directly to God.  You don’t need me to help you, just ask God for help.” Of course you would never say that to […]Read more

On October 7, 1571, a great naval battle took place in the Ionian Sea west of Greece.  Pope St. Pius V had asked the Christian world to pray the Rosary for its navy’s success against the navy of the Ottoman Empire which was threatening Italy, preventing travel in the Mediterranean Sea, and enslaving kidnapped Christians.  […]Read more

The feast of the Exaltation of the Cross is followed immediately by the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows.  We remember how the Blessed Virgin Mary shared intimately in the sufferings of her Son throughout His life but especially when she stood under the cross on which He died. We are called to follow Mary’s […]Read more

There are not that many popes who have been officially named “great”; only three: Leo I, Gregory I, and Nicholas I, all of whom lived before the 10th century.  The second of these was the 63rd successor to St. Peter as Bishop of Rome, and he began his papacy on September 3, 590, and served […]Read more

Until 1969, the Blessed Virgin Mary’s Queenship was celebrated on May 31, the end of the month dedicated to her when many groups and parishes honored her with a “May Crowning.”  But Pope St. Paul VI moved this celebration to the octave day (the end of eight days after a major feast) of the Solemnity […]Read more

In the Nicene Creed which we recite today, the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a Holyday of Obligation, we end with the words, “I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.”  Christians have been saying those words for seventeen centuries and […]Read more