Pardon my lord I am the woman who stood near you praying to the Lord I prayed for this child And the Lord granted my request Now I in turn give him to the Lord As long as he lives he shall be dedicated to the Lord

This year for the first time the same song is competing for the UK Christmas no 1 music slot with a title borrowed from a famous Jewish-Christian exclamation Leonard Cohen s 1984 song Hallelujah exploded into mass consciousness after it was sung by this year s X Factor winner Alex

Hark My lover here he comes Running to me across the mountains Across the hills My lover speaks he says to me Arise my beloved my beautiful one and come Let me see you Hear your voice For your voice is sweet And you are lovely

Don t miss Peter Steinfels appreciation of John O Malley SJ s marvelous new book What Happened at Vatican II in the Times today nbsp Steinfels summarizes O Malley s history of the Council as well as his approach to the widespread continuity vs discontinuity debate nbsp In short

The virgin will be with child and bear a son and she shall name him Immanuel which means God is with us Isaiah 7 10-14 God with us Who can believe it Such love and concern for me in my world Can I

Mark 16 9-20 are inspired by God inerrant and canonical just as is the rest of the Gospel of Mark Most scholars believe however that someone other than Mark wrote these verses they argue that the style and vocabulary of Mark 1 1 16 8 shows an author different from the one who has hi

Cambridge MA I return today for a third time to the theme of Krishna in Advent nbsp In my first and second reflections on this theme I highlighted famous verses from Chapter 4 of the nbsp Bhagavad Gita and from the commentary on the verses by the medieval theologian Ramanuja There is a lot go

Fr Peter Schineller associate editor at America draws on the wisdom of Mesier Eckhart Origen and St Francis in this reflection for the fourth week of Advent

The hysteria on the Left especially gay rights activists over President-elect Barack Obama rsquo s selection of mega-church pastor Rick Warren to give the invocation at his inaugural ceremony is comic For those who care about the rights of gays and lesbians however the hysteria is also tragic

Critics of the Archbishop of Canterbury who try to dismiss him as a bearded lefty have been confounded by his very public disagreement with the prime minister Gordon Brown over how to respond to the fast-deepening recession In comments yesterday on the flagship BBC news program Today Row

A Jewish day began at one sundown and ended at the next sundown Thus Jesus death day ends at sundown as does any preparation of the body for burial this is counted as day one Buried by sundown of day one Jesus body cannot be further ministered to on day two because that day two is a S

A man of God came to me he had the appearance of an angel of God terrible indeed He said to me You will be with child and will bear a son The boy shall be consecrated to God from the womb until the day of his death

Today toward the end of the funeral Mass for Avery Dulles at Saint Patrick rsquo s Cathedral after the long procession of priests had filed out the front doors onto Fifth Avenue followed at last by Cardinal Egan there was then a hushed pause A beat or two of empty time and then suddenly from n

Former Fordham president, associate editor at America and longtime friend and colleague of Avery Cardinal Dulles, delivered the homily at the Mass of the Holy Eucharist in honor of the late cardinal.

This afternoon at 2 00 the Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated by Edward Cardinal Egan archbishop of New York for Avery Cardinal Dulles SJ nbsp in the great space of St Patrick rsquo s Cathedral nbsp In addition to the Dulles family his Jesuit brothers religious and clergy from around

Snow has fallen this past week throughout Minnesota and more will be falling tonight and tomorrow and the next day In Minnesota we are not dashing through the snow - this is appropriate for one horse open sleighs but not most cars We are however dashing through Advent or at least I am One

The buzz about Caroline Kennedy being appointed to the New York Senate seat Hillary Clinton is vacating is everywhere The front page of the papers talk radio and of course Chris Matthews can scarcely contain himself though so far no reports of shivers up his leg But the coverage has so far

Behold the days are coming says the Lord when I will raise up a righteous shoot to David as king he will reign and govern wisely he shall do what is just and right in the land In his days we shall be saved we shall dwell in security This is the name they give him the Lord Jesus our savior

Over one hundred Catholic sisters sponsored by the National Coalition of American Nuns have written to the Vatican s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith nbsp in support of Roy Bourgeois the Maryknoll priest or former Maryknoll priest depending on his status who participated in a women

Cardinal Avery Dulles, S.J.'s. lecture on hope, given a few weeks after the attacks on Sept. 11.