I love Advent. I love counting the days to Christmas, but this year I feel like I have been counting down the days to Advent. It’s all because of those little changes to the language of the Mass. About a year ago, I mentioned to my children that the Mass was going to change. The eldest ...read more

Fr. Geoffrey Angeles is the composer of one of the three new Mass settings commissioned for Canada, to be used with the revised Roman Missal. Many of you have already been singing Fr. Angeles’ Mass. Here he is in a conversation with S+L’s Pedro Guevara-Mann at the meeting of the National Council of Liturgical Music ...read more

The following is Pope Benedict XVI’s farewell address, as delivered at the Cardinal Bernardin Gantin International Airport. Mr President, Your Eminences, Your Excellencies, Distinguished Authorities and Dear Friends, My Apostolic Journey to Africa has now come to an end.  I thank God for these days spent among you in joy and friendship.  I thank you, ...read more

S+L’s Alicia Ambrosio had the opportunity to speak with Vatican spokesperson Fr. Federico Lombardi, SJ yesterday. Despite his busy schedule, Fr. Lombardi took the time to share some experiences about his time in Benin. He also shared a remarkable story about a little girl the Pope met. You can watch their full interview, via phone, ...read more

In another key event today in Benin, Pope Benedict formally signed the Apostolic Exhortation for Africa. The exhortation is titled “Africae Munus”, which means “The Commitment of Africa”. This text is the result of the 2009 Synod of Bishops for Africa. The document touches upon issues such as sacraments, dialogue between various religions and social ...read more

In the course of history, Popes have not been known for hosting press conferences. But on special occasions, such as apostolic voyages, Pope Benedict takes the time and effort to answer some of the many questions he receives from reporters who travel with him as part of his entourage. This happened again today during the ...read more

On November 27th, the First Sunday of Advent, the new Roman Missal goes into effect. Apart from finding out what parts of the Mass will change, we dig deeper and find out how our liturgical celebration is enriched by the new translation. So we went straight to the source and invited the experts. We engage ...read more

“Take your shoes off and leave them here. Proceed through this door. Leave your clothes, all your clothes in one of these shelves. Go through the shower. Wash well. On the other side you will find clean socks and coveralls. I’ll meet you on the other side.” With those words Wally, our faithful cameraman and ...read more

Before I begin to untangle myself out of this noodle soup I’ve cooked, can I draw your attention to a comment (see comments at the bottom of the blog post) that came from Jason Gennaro — Jason makes an excellent comment that every definition about Marriage has to include God in it. So true. In ...read more

A couple of weeks ago I posted an entry titled: What If I Was Miss California – and I wondered how I would answer if I was asked the same question she was asked, on national television. The question is: Do you believe every State (in the U.S.) should legalise same-sex marriage? My response would ...read more