Certain memories linger in our hearts with special clarity. For me, a long-ago Holy Saturday that marked the day before my reception into the Catholic Church is one of those.
Lent
Posted inFaith, Of Many Things
As Notre Dame burned, America watched with sorrow
The day before this issue went to press, we watched on our newsroom monitors the devastating fire at the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris.
Posted inFaith, Faith in Focus
What Rome’s station churches teach us about Easter
The liturgies of Lent and Easter, like the churches themselves, are built upon the conviction that the resurrection changes everything.
Posted inFaith, Faith in Focus
On Good Friday, remember that Jesus understands you
Jesus understands not only our bodily suffering, but also our spiritual suffering, in these feelings of abandonment. He was like us in all things, except sin. And he experienced all that we did.
Posted inFaith, Lent Reflections
What if we didn’t wait until the last moment to trust the Lord?
We might find the quiet peace of genuine trust if we surrendered our willfulness early and often, rather than as a last resort.
Posted inFaith, Lent Reflections
Jesus transforms “the cup of horror and desolation” into the cup of our salvation
The cup of submission, of suffering, of death itself becomes the vessel not of our punishment or of God’s wrath, but of our salvation.
Posted inFaith, News
Detroit-area Catholics permitted to eat Muskrat on Fridays in Lent
A long-standing permission allows local Catholics to eat muskrat “on days of abstinence, including Fridays of Lent.”
Posted inFaith, Faith in Focus
What Holy Thursday demands of every Catholic
The lesson I take from Jesus’ washing of the feet is this: I do not decide which lives have value and dignity; God does.
Posted inFaith, Lent Reflections
Sooner or later, each of us has a Gethsemane moment
I was deeply moved by a visit to the Garden of Gethsemane and to the Church of All Nations that is accessible through the garden.
Posted inFaith, Faith in Focus
Pilgrimage—like the sacraments—is all about the details
Couldn’t it be apple juice instead of wine? Isn’t it the principle that matters? It could, of course, but then we would lose everything.