Author: Fr. John Waiss

Fr. John Waiss

Father John Waiss is the pastor of St. Mary of the Angels Church in Chicago, Illinois. He is also a member of Opus Dei, the prelature founded by St. Josemaria Escriva.

Sin: Rejecting Love and True Happiness

June 28, 2026June 28, 2026 Articles, Faith and Spirituality

Christian morality consists in striving for love and happiness in a relationship with God in Jesus Christ. The relationship is a grace from God that naturally strengthens his family as we develop good relationships with all our siblings: everything we do to others we do to God, who loves each as his children (see Matthew […]

Christ’s Merciful Humanity

June 21, 2026June 19, 2026 Articles, Faith and Spirituality

Merciful beatitude is found in Jesus Christ, and one of the best ways to build up that relationship with him and live an upright life is to contemplate his Sacred Humanity. From this contemplation we learn how to act in a morally upright manner, while falling in love with God-man who “loved us to the […]

Becoming Mercifully Happy

June 14, 2026June 12, 2026 Articles, Faith and Spirituality

As part of God’s divine pedagogy, our Lord summarizes Christian morality in His description of the Last Judgment: When the Son of man comes in his glory… he will separate one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats… the King will say to those at his right hand, “Come, O blessed […]

Love Transforms Rules into Beatitudes

May 17, 2026May 15, 2026 Articles, Catechesis

While love takes effort, St. Paul reminds us how it is the greatest spiritual gift: If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but don’t have love, I am a noisy gong, a clanging cymbal. If I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have the […]

The Objective Dignity of Being Loved

May 10, 2026May 10, 2026 Articles, Faith and Spirituality

Good parents not only teach their children the house rules and laws, they teach them the reason behind them: love. God does the same with us by teaching us our great dignity as human persons made in His image and likeness (Genesis 1:26). The web of interdependent relationships into which we are born images the […]

May: the Month of the Most Holy One

May 3, 2026May 4, 2026 Articles

The month of May is dedicated to Mary, the Handmaid of the Lord (Luke 1:38). The angel Gabriel had told Mary that “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child will be born in a holy manner, the Son of God,” (Luke 1:35). […]

How to Celebrate First Holy Communion

April 26, 2026April 25, 2026 Articles, Family and Kids

Parents—along with Godparents, grandparents, aunts and uncles—have the great and primary responsibility of educating children in the Faith. Your example means everything to them: attending Sunday Mass each week expresses your faith, thanking God for the greatest gift his love could give: to receive him in the Blessed Sacrament. Parents can highlight the true meaning […]

Our Lady, Mother of Purest… Most Beautiful Love

April 19, 2026April 19, 2026 Articles, Faith and Spirituality, Family and Kids

Our world treats vocation as a choice of career and treats sex as meaningless recreation. As rebels we turn to Our Lady, Mother of Love Most Beautiful, to teach us and our young people the beauty of a chaste heart in response to God’s call to love. The Church teaches that God calls all to […]

Love Goes Beyond Rules

March 29, 2026March 27, 2026 Articles, Faith and Spirituality

We often portray Christian morality as something negative, a series of don’ts: Don’t kill… don’t miss Mass on Sunday… don’t lie or steal… In other words, don’t have any fun… Seeing morality as a list of arbitrary rules that restrict and control our lives makes it unattractive and repulsive. True Christian morality is a positive […]

The Divine Pedagogy of Love

March 22, 2026March 22, 2026 Articles, Faith and Spirituality

Forming our conscience is key to living in Christ’s love, a “love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere faith,” moving us to “wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. [But] by rejecting conscience, certain persons have made shipwreck of their faith” (1 Timothy 1:5,18-19). To help […]

Resolving Doubts and Uncertainty Prudently

March 16, 2026March 16, 2026 Articles, Faith and Spirituality

Just as we doubt about what or how to say something, sometimes we have doubts, uncertainty, or fears about what we should do. Forming our conscience responsibly includes developing the virtue of prudence, the habit of properly exercising the conscience, knowing when we can trust its formation and the need to act on its judgments. […]

An Action’s Moral Meaning

March 8, 2026March 8, 2026 Articles, Catechesis

Each human action objectively “says” something, especially in relationship to a person we love. If I point a gun at someone and pull the trigger, even if the gun doesn’t fire, I “say” something evil to that person (doing so as a joke with an obviously toy gun or finger is not the same as […]

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