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.

Preparing for Christmas with St. Joseph

December 24, 2025December 23, 2025 Articles, Faith and Spirituality

St. Joseph gives us a wonderful example on how to live Advent in preparing for Christmas. God chose him to be Mary’s virginal husband and to safeguard her perpetual virginity with his life. He sensed that Mary’s physical virginity represented something more, a spiritual virginity, a sinlessness that entailed Conception, that God kept a perfect […]

Blessed are the Grateful

November 28, 2025November 28, 2025 Articles, Catechesis

Gratitude is a real blessing. It acknowledges that the good we have received is not earned by our works, but is a free gift from the giver. We ought to thank God for the gift of life—we didn’t do anything to be born—the gift of our family and friends, teachers, and others who have had […]

Christ the King: a Kingly Anointing

November 23, 2025November 21, 2025 Articles, Catechesis, Faith and Spirituality

The Feast of Christ the King is the culmination of the Liturgical Year, reminding us of Christ and his authority, which “is not of this world” (John 18:36). It is an authority that he shares with all Christians, making “us a line of kings, priests to serve his God and Father” (Revelation 1:6). With the […]

St. Francis’ Vision

October 19, 2025October 17, 2025 Articles, Catechesis, Faith and Spirituality

Behind the main altar [of St. Mary of the Angels Church in Chicago] is a painting depicting the vision that St. Francis had in 1216. After experiencing a strong carnal temptation one night, St. Francis jumped undressed into a thorny bush outside his cell. As he landed in the bush it sprouted beautiful roses without […]

Praying the Rosary for Peace

October 15, 2025October 15, 2025 Articles

The Rosary is a form of prayer closely connected to Christ through Mary, as each decade is dedicated to a particular event or “mystery” in the life of Jesus and Mary. Although some find this form of prayer scandalous, Catholics find it indispensable to our relationship with Christ, and a growing number of Protestants do […]

For Peace, Mary Crushes Satan’s Head in Us

October 6, 2025October 6, 2025 Articles, Faith and Spirituality

Scripture prefigures Mary in many ways, beginning with Eve, the first woman and “mother of all the living.” God cursed the Serpent who conquered Eve, saying: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; she shall crush your head, and you shall bruise her heel” (Genesis 3:15, […]

The First Christian Family

January 2, 2025February 6, 2026 Articles, Family and Kids

On December 29 we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family, and on January 5 the Epiphany. In his Wednesday’s audience of December 17, 2014, Pope Francis reminded us that the family is God’s great gift to the world, given to us “when he entrusted to Adam and Eve the mission of multiplying and filling […]

Advent and the Family

December 8, 2024December 6, 2024 Articles, Family and Kids

Advent and the Family Advent is the time that the Christian family focuses ever more on preparing to receive the child Jesus on Christmas day, just as Mary and Joseph did 2000 years ago. Mary and Joseph, relying on their recent marriage in the synagogue, helped each other prepare for the wonderful day when their […]

Thanking Christ the King

November 29, 2024November 26, 2024 Articles, Faith and Spirituality

This year we made November a special month of thanksgiving, thanking God for all those who have gone before us and who have impacted our lives, celebrating All Saints and All Souls Day. Then we thanked God for the many the living who, in quiet or profound ways, have accompanied, shaped, and helped us grow. […]

Thanking God for his Channels of Grace

November 24, 2024November 21, 2024 Articles, Faith and Spirituality

November should be a month and season of thanksgiving that culminates on Thanksgiving Day. We are grateful to God for those saints and sinners who are now with our Lord and who have enriched our lives. We wouldn’t be here without them. We also should be grateful to God for the various family, friends, fellow […]

Thanking God for Living Friends and Family

November 15, 2024November 14, 2024 Articles, Family and Kids

I n this month and season of thanksgiving we not only want to thank God for all those in our lives who have died, but also for the many people still alive whom God has placed in our path. It’s often easier to feel grateful for gifts or events that bring us joy in the […]

Covenant Signs and Memorials

October 19, 2024October 18, 2024 Articles, Catechesis

God not only calls us to worship him with praise and Scripture, but also to worship him with sacrifice (as we saw the last two weeks). God also establishes sacred covenant signs that unite the individual to God and to his holy people—his family—just as a wedding ring or the marital embrace unites spouses, renewing […]

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