This year the arrival of the feast of the Holy Family so immediately after Christmas highlights a fundamental relationship between the two truths they celebrate, almost as though the two truths are inextricably linked. The first is the reality of God’s love. At Christmas those…
Author: Dana Robinson
Sisters of Mary World Villages for Children
“Whoever removes the Cross and its interpretation by the New Testament from the center, in order to replace it, for example, with the social commitment of Jesus to the oppressed as the new center, no longer stands in continuity with the apostolic faith.” –Hans Urs…
Gaudeamus
Gaudeamus Igitur (‘therefore, let us rejoice’). Readers of a certain age – fewer and fewer to be sure – will recognize these words as the opening lyric of a drinking song popular among university students years ago. Today is Gaudete Sunday, the third of the…
The First Coming
Because she died before Pop married, my siblings and I never knew our paternal grandmother. She was something of a giant in our eyes, maybe because our acquaintance with her was limited to family lore. Born in the last quarter of the nineteenth century into…
The Abortion Survivors Network
The words “you belong” were among the opening remarks shared at the first annual, first-of-its-kind retreat to bring about further healing, relationship, and empowerment to those who have survived an abortion. For Melissa Ohden, founder of The Abortion Survivors Network and retreat host, the weekend…
Glorificamus Te
“We praise you, we bless you, we adore you, we glorify you, we give you thanks”. What does it mean to glorify God? As implied in the Gloria, that ancient liturgical prayer which contains these words, to glorify must be different than to bless, or…
Empty passports
A national news station recently reported that U.S. passports will soon list three options for citizens to identify their sex: male, female, and other. Does this decision cause anyone else to pause and wonder? Where is the limit to such self-definition? Will we soon be…
Holy Family Hospital
The following article was published in this column last year. Given the desperate plight Bethlehem now faces we reprint it here with the website of the Holy Family Hospital Foundation in Washington. Faten’s Story Faten, a Palestinian social worker from Gaza, was 33 weeks pregnant…
Berengarianism
In anticipation of her being confirmed next Spring my granddaughter’s parish provided her with an abundance of materials about the sacrament. Included among them is the YouTube link to Bishop Robert Barron’s address to the 2020 Los Angeles Religious Education Congress titled “The Real Presence…
Christendom College
The United States of America is blessed with multiple forms of Catholic academic institutions. These exist at levels progressing from elementary school, through high school, through university and graduate schools. Some are parochial, some private, and some sponsored by dioceses. In ways that vary but…