Reorienting ourselves to the slower pace of Advent...
Sr. Theresa Aletheia Noble
When I think of the Advent of my childhood, I think of melted wax rolling down my finger. The texture of red construction paper. The glimmer of the rhinestones that my siblings and I put on red paper hearts every time we did a kind deed. The smell of homemade flour ornaments that we put on our Jesse tree. Advent seemed so much simpler in my childhood...

This forgotten Fatima letter reveals Sr. Lúcia's ‘holy ambition’ for the Rosary...

Modesty is a direction, not a line...
Fr. Matthew Schneider
I get frustrated when I see this seemingly endless discussion in certain Catholic circles about how women should dress. How long should the skirt be? Are skinny jeans appropriate? How much cleavage is allowed? I also remember my sisters describing shopping for wedding dresses and the saleswoman assuming they were Mormons because they didn’t want a strapless gown or too much cleavage...

This Advent, start with the Baby...
Simcha Fisher
Most years, we hear our priests gently (or irritably) reminding us that it’s still Advent! Not Christmas! Not Christmas yet! Stop with the “Merry Christmas,” because the Baby hasn’t been born yet! So we’ve tried hard to keep Advent as a separate season: joyous anticipation rather than celebratory blow-out. It’s hard to hold off when the rest of the country is already whooping it up...

The mystery of Mozart's Requiem...

This is what preserving and reviving Catholic tradition in art looks like...

Abortion extremism persists, despite rejection by voters...
Victor Gaetan
Last Wednesday, in Albuquerque, NM, a pro-life pregnancy center sponsored by Project Defending Life, a Catholic ministry, was burglarized and set on fire. The arsonist ignited the altar and pews in the onsite Holy Innocents chapel, then set a rack of anti-abortion pamphlets ablaze. The Federal Bureau of Investigations is investigating the incident as a potential hate crime...

When my husband ignores me for his smartphone, I call on Mary...

Like St. John the Baptist, you are a preparing prophet to bring others to Christ...

“Computer geek” takes one more step toward sainthood...
Philip Kosloski
On Thursday, November 24, 2016, Cardinal Angelo Scola closed the diocesesan phase in the canonization process for Carlo Acutis, a 15-year-old Italian boy who died in 2006 of leukemia. He was a well-loved teenager who devoted himself to prayer and daily Mass as well as computer programming, film editing, website creation, editing and layout of comics...

“I want to build a church so beautiful that even the hardest heart will be moved to prayer”...
Fr. Dwight Longenecker
The language of beauty is universal. It transcends all cultures, socio-economic divisions, and educational divides. It transcends age, ethnic, racial, and gender categories. So, for example, someone with a degree in art history who has visited the great churches of Europe may well enter our church and say, “Ahh, I see you have been inspired by the sculptures of Ghiselbertus and the architecture of the Romanesque...

Here are some Constitutional plot twists Hollywood should consider...

The impoverished faith of the San Diego diocese...
Phil Lawler
How would you feel if, after struggling to make ends meet for most of your life, you learned in your old age that you were the rightful heir to an enormous fortune, but your father had never told you about that inheritance? You would feel terribly betrayed, wouldn’t you? In the Diocese of San Diego, young unmarried couples who are living together and older couples living in a second civil union are now being encouraged to come to the church...

If religious freedom is for anyone, it must be for everyone...

Major anniversary for an American classic: The 'It's a Wonderful Life' arguments roll on...

Chef Peng Chang-juei, inventor of General Tso's Chicken, dies in Taipei at age 98...

Your brain is optimized for efficiency, which means you can't always believe your eyes...