Christian life on earth is often called a journey, a pilgrimage. Even on our best days in this world, we never feel entirely at home here, entirely comfortable or at rest. We’re not supposed to.
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One of the hardest tasks we face is the conversion of our ways. Wouldn’t we all like to walk out of church on a Sunday morning feeling compelled to change our lives for the better? To feel so inspired that we are willing to give up anything and do anything for the Lord? It always […]
Where does prayer come from? Especially prayer of the deepest kind with “sighs too deep for words” (Rm 8:26)? Is there a bedrock from which prayer rises utterly pure, sincere, and true? What Scripture calls “the depths” we could call the ‘ground zero’ of our prayer life—a place which few have explored and mapped as […]
God is very close to us right now. Isn’t that the promise of Christmas, God-with-us? What is the right response to that closeness? God has chosen to create a closeness between Himself and ourselves. He has taken our body on Himself. It’s His doing, His “project,” from start to finish. What should be the result […]
Images of rest and peace are woven throughout today’s readings. [1] The Lord reminds David of the “rest” He has given the king from his “enemies on every side,” and how He intends to plant Israel in a secure dwelling place, free from “further disturbance.” Zechariah’s canticle ends with a light dawning from on high […]
“Who of us can live with the consuming fire?” asks the prophet Isaiah, a question that should resonate with anyone who not only tries to serve God but to grow very close to Him (Is 33:14). Something about closeness to God makes us feel the heat of a consuming fire. The canonization of Elizabeth of […]
“If you’re not struggling, it’s no use telling me that you are really trying to become more closely identified with Christ, to know him and love him. When we set out seriously along the royal highway, that of following Christ and behaving as children of God, we soon realize what awaits us: the Holy Cross. […]
“I will tell you which are man’s treasures on earth so that you will appreciate them: hunger, thirst, heat, cold, pain, dishonor, poverty, loneliness, betrayal, slander, prison…” St. Josemaria Escriva The Way, no. 194 CARRIER OF GOD’S TENDER AND MERCIFUL LOVE “The canonization of Mother Teresa invites us to look to her as a Christian […]
St Josemaria Escriva had a strong desire to help all married couples, and those preparing for marriage, to find meaning and encouragement in their vocation through a commitment to daily prayer and friendship with God. Friends of the St. Josemaria Institute, Dan and Annie Anderson, were recently married, and shared with us that in preparation […]
Why, one will hardly die for a righteous man—though perhaps for a good man one will dare even to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Romans 5:7-8 If God’s love is proved by a sacrificial death for the salvation of people dead […]
“Ever since I began to preach, I have warned people against a certain mistaken sense of holiness. Don’t be afraid to know your real self. That’s right, you are made of clay. Don’t be worried. For you and I are sons of God — and that is the right way of being made divine. We […]
“Let us also contemplate his blessed Mother, who is our Mother too. We find her on Calvary, at the foot of the Cross, praying. This is nothing new for Mary. She has always acted like this, as she fulfilled her duties and looked after her home. As she went about the things of this earth […]
“What must the cheerful way that Jesus looked upon people have been like? It must have been the same which shone from the eyes of his Mother who could not contain her joy — Magnificat anima mea Dominum! — and her soul glorified the Lord while she carried Him within her and by her side. […]
The Blessed Trinity’s love for man is made permanent in a sublime way through the Eucharist.
by Most Rev. Charles J. Chaput Anything without heart, anything without love — and I mean politics, music, law, art, even religion —anything without love, no matter how brilliant, is finally inadequate and weak. At the end of the day, the human soul yearns to be loved, and to love in return. And it won’t settle for […]
Don’t just talk to the Paraclete. Listen to him! When you pray, consider how the life of childhood, which enabled you to realize deeply that you are a son of God, filled you with a filial love for the Father. Think how, before that, you have gone through Mary to Jesus, whom you adore as […]
In 1933, Saint Josemaria Escriva inscribed a now famous dedication in a book that many people have come to know and love, and to adapt as their own prayer: “May you seek Christ. May you find Christ. May you love Christ.” More than 80 years ago, Madrid was for St. Josemaria the place of a […]
“Christ plants the seeds one by one so that each Christian in his own setting can bear witness to the fruitfulness of the death and resurrection of the Lord.” St. Josemaria Escriva Christ is Passing By, no. 157 Saint Josemaria liked to apply our Savior’s image of Himself as a dying and rising seed directly […]
The Holy Thursday liturgy is very rich in content. It is the great day when the Holy Eucharist was instituted, a gift of heaven for mankind. It is also the day of the institution of the priesthood, a new divine gift that assures the real and effective presence of the Sacrifice of Calvary in all […]
Wednesday of Holy Week recalls the sad story of one who was an apostle of Christ, Judas. As St. Matthew tells us in his gospel: Then one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What will you give me if I deliver him to you?” And they […]