The nine commandments

Yesterday was Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. The world has received many blessings through God’s Chosen People, the greatest of which is, of course, the mind-opening knowledge that there is one God. Among the other gifts the Almighty has given us…

Pope Benedict’s Lebanon Voyage (1292)

Middle East scholar Father Samir Samir on the Holy Father’s trip and the ‘Arab spring.’ Pope Benedict XVI visits Lebanon Sept. 14-16, arriving in the Middle East region at a time of bloody internal conflict in Syria and simmering tensions between Israel and Iran.

Personal and spiritual solidarity

How time flies. It was just a few years ago that this column reported on the Missionary Oblate Partnership (www.OblatePartenrship.org). Having begun in 2004 with a handful of participants, it is today an organization that comprises over 75 members in the United States and Europe!…

Mary Assumed

Every religious culture has its own jargon. Some expressions have pulled loose from their religious moorings and entered our common lexicon. I think of “mecca,” “nirvana,” and “kosher.” Catholicism is no exception. You don’t have to be a believer to call someone “Mother Teresa” or…

Healing for Northern Ireland

Readers will be moved by the following comments delivered by Bernadette Canning recently at a parish Mass in Wilmington, Delaware, attended by 17 Irish teenagers and their American host families.

Essentials for Our Journey with Christ

After nine years as pastor of St. Ambrose Church in Albion, Rhode Island, the Father Bernard A. Healey recently was reassigned to the East Greenwich parish of Our Lady of Mercy. Following is his final homily at St. Ambrose, a tribute to the parish and…

Why us?

Following is a reflection on the readings for July 14-15 liturgies, composed by Deacon Richard Montalto of the Archdiocese of Baltimore. The readings are available in full on the web site of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops – www.usccb.org.