Salt + Light, a leader in Catholic media, has today launched This Side of Eden, a feature-length documentary that presents a poetic, compelling and richly intimate portrait of the Benedictine Monks of Mission, BC, in the days of Holy Week and the Easter Triduum. The documentary acts as a powerful portal into the world and ...read more

Pope Benedict has repeatedly urged the universal Church to encourage and support Christians in the Holy Land. One way to do this is financially through the collection traditionally taken up on Good Friday. A letter from the prefect of the Congregation for Eastern Churches Cardinal Leonardo Sandri was released Monday calling on the faithful to ...read more

It’s the perfect Lenten reading: Jesus of Nazareth – Holy Week: From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection.  The followup to Pope Benedict XVI’s first volume on our Lord is now available.  Catholic News Service’s Cindy Wooden and John Thavis offer a review. To download Flash Player please click here ...read more

“Quid est veritas?” I will never forget that line, “What is truth?”, from the movie The Passion. I remember quoting it constantly among friends. We were fascinated by the line delivery by the actor who played Pilate. …And perhaps we were looking for the truth. I recalled all this recently when reading parts of Pope ...read more

The Church certainly does her share of proclaiming saints. If you think about it, it’s an amazing act of faith–the Church, by Her relationship to the Holy Spirit is able to confidently announce that a soul is in Heaven. If we recall  St. Luke’s account of the good thief on the cross adjacent to Jesus; ...read more

Who killed Jesus? From the Gospels, we know that he was crucified directly by Roman soldiers. But those who want to attribute blame for his death have drawn in a wider pool of suspects: Judas Iscariot, Pontius Pilate, the Jewish people, and all of humanity. The question of Jewish culpability in “deicide” is particularly charged, ...read more

So far we’ve looked at sin and at the reasons why the Sacrament requires that we confess to a priest. I know some of you still struggle with that. Perhaps going through the ritual will help a bit. Remember that every Sacrament has a ritual – but the Sacrament is not just the ritual. In ...read more

Last time we looked at sin: mortal sin and venial sin and the reason why we continue sinning even after Baptism. We all have a tendency to sin called concupiscence and so that’s why we need Grace to help us bring those disordered appetites into proper order. And I don’t think most people have a ...read more

So far we’ve had a brief look at Sacraments (Parts 1, 2, & 3) in general and more specifically at Baptism. Let’s continue with the Sacrament of Reconciliation. This is the Sacrament that we all called “Confession.” It is sometimes referred to as the Sacrament of “Penance,” as well. Remember that all Sacraments make Christ ...read more

As we’ve said many times, the Easter Triduum is the peak of the liturgical calendar.  The Triduum — and Holy Week — also provide some excellent homilies and messages to reflect upon.  You may want to check out the following: Pope Benedict’s Urbi et Orbi Message and Blessing: “The Church is the people of the ...read more