How, in the first 3 centuries Anno Domino, did Christianity spread? How did the knowledge of Jesus Christ pass from twelve of His followers and their families and friends to people all around the Mediterranean and beyond? How – despite sporadic and then systematic persecution – did an estimated 10% of the population of the […]

(Feast Day ~ October 3) The task of a judge is to weigh evidence, to hear arguments for and against a case, to rise above the narrow limitations of his own background and experience, and to make impartial and fair decisions regarding the truth of the matter before him. This is a tremendous responsibility and […]

(Feast Day ~ October 2) The Church always holds before us the reminder of the celestial beings, the angels. We celebrate the feast of the Holy Guardian Angels on October 2. The secular world is also concerned with angels. Movies and television shows portray angels doing good deeds and making rescues. However appealing these portrayals […]

(Feast Day ~ October 1) Christians have always invoked the prayers of the saints, especially in times of crisis. Often, an apparition of a saint or angel, or possession of relics, has provided comfort and encouragement in perilous times for individuals, cities, or even whole nations. Since the time of our national tragedy, September 11, […]

(Feast Day ~ October 1) We Christians believe, as did our Jewish ancestors, that God is working in history to bring about his plan for mankind. Whether slowly and “in the fulness of time”, or in a sudden, miraculous event, God’s purpose for us is being made known. Our free will allows us to cooperate […]

(Feast Day ~ September 30) St. Jerome provides us with a wonderful example of how God can raise fallen, imperfect man to sainthood, when that man cooperates with the working of the Holy Spirit in his life. Jerome spent his lifetime struggling with his natural tendencies to be argumentative, sarcastic, and conceited; he spent the […]

(Feast day ~ September 30) We live in an age of entertainment, bombarded by “reality” TV shows and fast-action, high-tech Hollywood films. The lives of many of the saints of the church, however, reveal more real adventure than anything in the popular media, and these stories offer us not entertainment but glimpses of the path […]

(Feast Day ~ September 28) The description of Wenceslas as “good” in the English carol “Good King Wenceslas” is an accurate one. In the difficult period when the people of Bohemia were slowly accepting the Christian faith, Wenceslas provided his people with an example of true devotion to Christ. After his untimely death, he was […]

(Feast Day ~ September 27) At every Mass, we hear a recitation of the names of the holy martyrs of the early church who intercede for us: Linus, Cletus, Clement, Sixtus, Cornelius, Cyprian, Lawrence, Chrysogonus, John and Paul, Cosmas and Damian, and of all thy saints, through whose prayers grant that in all things we […]

Stories of “love triangles” are usually found in Hollywood movies and romance novels. But there is at least one such story that we find in the lives of the saints of the Church. In the years before St. Constantine became Emperor, Christians were subjected to everything from suspicion and derision to torture and murder. Young […]