On December 8, the Catholic Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. ...read more

Over the years, I haven't done much to prepare for Christmas apart from buying presents and attending the occasional Advent retreat. ...read more

St. Barbara is a saint and martyr (circa +235) venerated in Christianity, specifically in the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. ...read more

Welcome back to Advent. It’s been waiting for you. That season of longing, of hope, of light piercing the dark, like a candle in a cave or a flashlight in a tunnel. ...read more

This past August I met hundreds of thousands of your contemporaries from all over the world who converged on Lisbon for World Youth Day. ...read more

For many of us, war may feel like something that only happens far away. We think of wars that happened long ago in history books, or in distant lands from which we feel far removed. ...read more

It’s humbling to write a book about humility. It’s hard to talk about, too. How can you say, “I’m proud to be humble” or “Fall in line behind my shining example of humility”? As a Yiddish proverb teaches, “Too humble is half proud.” ...read more

The recently concluded World Youth Day in Portugal (August 1-6, 2023) included a number of ecumenical and interreligious experiences, opportunities, and lessons that garnered praise and criticism in Catholic and non-Catholic circles alike. ...read more

This has truly been a World Youth Day of words. While the main theme prompts us to reflect on the verbs "to arise" and "to go with haste," many other words jumped out at me as well. ...read more

The theme for World Youth Day, Lisbon 2023 came from the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke: “Mary arose and went with haste” (1:39). ...read more