It’s always a nice confirmation when the Pope says the same thing you’ve been trying to say. (Maybe he read my blog from last week?) Last Wednesday, Pope Francis’ General Audience Address was titled, God’s Justice is Mercy. You can listen to the Vatican Radio report here: In short, Pope Francis is eloquently making the ...read more

mer·cy noun: mercy; plural noun: mercies Compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one’s power to punish or harm. jus·tice noun: justice; plural noun: justices Just behavior or treatment. The quality of being fair and reasonable. Last week we learned why Pope Francis declared this year to be the Year of Mercy. ...read more

With Pope Francis’ changes to the Holy Thursday liturgy last week, I was reminded of a conversation I had with a young man during the Christmas holiday. He was visiting from Europe and was expressing concern about where Pope Francis seems to be taking the Church. He said that among his circle of friends and acquaintances ...read more

Tomorrow is the beginning of the Week for Prayer for Christian Unity. This special week has been taking place for almost 110 years and is celebrated around the world between the Feast of the Confession of Saint Peter on January 18 and the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul on January 25. It’s very ...read more

Two weeks ago we looked at why we need mercy and last week we reflected on Don Francisco’s beautiful song, “Adam, Where Are You?” Last week  we also saw what the Church teaches about Original Sin: Once we were in a state of Original Grace. Original Sin is the state of deprivation of that state, ...read more

Among the many topics discussed in our recent 2015 Year in Review program was the highly anticipated and much debated Synod of Bishops part two, on the vocation and mission of the family today. It was easily the biggest news story in the Catholic world last year, and could very well carry over into 2016. That’s ...read more

Last week we saw that the reason why we need mercy is because we are sinners. St. Paul tells the Ephesians, “we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead ...read more

So far we’ve looked at two things that must be present for mercy to take place, we’ve seen the direct relationship between mercy and love and forgiveness. We’ve also looked at why we are being invited to “walk through the door” of mercy this year. This week and next, as we celebrate Christmas and the beginning ...read more

Recently, as we prepare for Christmas, I read a reflection that said that we are living times of mercy. It said that we are living the promise that God made to Abraham – this was God’s proposal to our human condition: To give us his mercy. And as a response to God’s promise, Mary said ...read more

Last week, I explained how asking a simple question like how we should care for the environment led us to ask many more other questions, from looking through the creation narrative in the Book of Genesis, to discovering that our desire to learn about created things begins with a sense of wonder. Sr. Damien Marie ...read more