ADVENT REFLECTIONS Look down from Heaven and see Where is your zeal and your might Will you refuse your mercy to us You were always called Our Redeemer Why Lord do you let us wander from your ways And let our hearts grow too hard to fear you Return Lord to your servants O

Treat yourself to this Christmas video message from the children of a primary school in south London to the local councillor in charge of housing -- and prepare to shed a tear The school did a survey of the families of the schoolchildren and found that 80 per cent were in overcrowded conditions --

St Augustine underlined the supreme value of a prayer which is brief and from the heart It is a prayer of desire as much as of word he likens this kind of prayer to a dart speedily released to God It is with this kind of prayer in mind that this Advent blog has been created It will begin on

The Jerusalem challenges to Jesus are finished Jesus now presents his own challenge again in the form of a question that will tax the authoritative teachers of the Law the scribes The foundation for the question is the conclusion drawn from the Jewish Scriptures that the Messiah is the Son of

Father Jim Martin offers some parting thoughts on prayer in this last installment of his multi-part series You can view all of Father Jim s videos and other video segments on America s new YouTube page And keep an eye on The Good Word for video reflections on Advent and Christmas from the e

First Sunday of Advent These days most people keep vigils because they are anxious We wait in hospital corridors for news of a sick relative A parent stays up with an infant who may be teething or has a high temperature We might even sit by the phone waiting to be reassured that a loved one is s

Pope Benedict XVI greeted a group of pilgrims this past weekend with a short discourse on the Feast of Christ the King that has an obvious application to the political circumstance of the Catholic hierarchy in the United States in the wake of President-elect Obama rsquo s decisive win among Catholi

Here are the notes from President-elect Barack Obama s transition team s interview of a bold non-partisan choice who came highly recommended for a cabinet position Jesus of Nazareth An excerpt nbsp nbsp 8 Briefly describe the most controversial matters you have been involved in dur

From Catholic News Agency comes this article showing that you re not the only person who is reading In All Things nbsp A small correction it was actually a blog post here not an article in the magazine An official from the Vatican s Secretary of State department nbsp has reacted to

Jesus has successfully shown his wisdom to three challenges from the Sanhedrin the Pharisees and Herodians and the Sadducees he has answered each on his own turf Superior in his answers Jesus also reveals his wisdom and will do so again in his reply to the testing from the fourth gr

Tune in below to see James T Keane S J offer some introductory reflections on the Advent season Check back in the coming weeks as our editors offer more video commentary on Advent and Christmas right here on The Good Word Tim Reidy

Vice President-elect Joe Biden liked to say that his Catholicism created an entire culture that shaped his views on public policy as well as private and personal obligations Biden is just old enough to remember the Catholic ghetto in which whole neighborhoods were called by the name of the local Ca

The British media is today reporting -- favorably here less so here -- that the leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales is backing a call by London s mayor for a pathway into citizenship for Britain s 600 000-odd long-term undocumented migrants In reality it should be the other way

The Portugese writer Jos eacute Saramago received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1998 in part for novelistic fables that powerfully critique social institutions and human failings Now 86 years old Saramago has based his latest novel Death With Interruptions on the extraordinary premise that

Pope Pius XII’s Contributions ‘Overlooked’ Pope Pius XII and his teachings represent for the church an “exceptional gift for which we must all be grateful,” said Pope Benedict XVI during an audience on Nov. 8 with participants of a congress titled “The Heritage of

'We all inherit a particular window on God and eternity.'

Opportunity Missed As a religion teacher and a head coach at a Jesuit high school (and an amateur athlete myself), I was excited to receive the Oct. 20 issue with the cover photo and headline “The Soul of Sports.” Unfor-tunately, I was disappointed by what I found inside. None of the art

A forgotten prelate gets his due