The feast of the Immaculate Conception is a public holiday in Italy and most of Europe. When I lived there as a student, December 8th was always a special day because it was a holiday, because it reminded me that Advent had indeed begun, and because it was also the day for a special gathering with ...read more

I have to be honest – while I grew up in an environment where devotions to Mary were very common – my Parish was “Our Lady of Guadalupe” – I didn’t ever really develop a special devotion to Our Lady. In fact, even calling Mary, “Our Lady” or “Our Blessed Mother,” seems a bit weird ...read more

Pope Benedict XVI is calling on the faithful to pray for China. Speaking at today’s General Audience, the Holy Father says because of restrictions and pressures on the Church by China’s communist government “Christ is living his passion” there. He says that Chinese Catholics want unity with the universal Church, and with the Successor of ...read more

May is the month of Mary. That got me thinking about a Marian feast which we celebrate not in May, but in March — the Solemnity of the Annunciation. Those who’ve been to Israel, know that in Nazareth, in the Church of the Annunciation, the place where reportedly the Angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, in ...read more

The coming of the Lord can have no objective other than to teach us to see and love events, the world, and everything that surrounds us with the very eyes of God. The Word-become-a-child helps us to understand God’s way of acting, so that we will be capable of allowing ourselves to be transformed increasingly ...read more

It’s an interesting idea. Perhaps some would fear it borders on – at the very least – disrespect, if not sacrilege: Mary, tired after nearly 2000 years of immersing herself in other people’s prayers, finds a quiet home, owned by a quiet woman, and kicks of her Nikes to stay for awhile. But this idea ...read more

Had you asked me when I was a little boy, what Mary, the Mother of God, looked like, I would’ve said that she’s dark skinned, pregnant, wears a rose coloured dress with blue-green cape and has the sun’s rays shining out of her (or from behind her). On her cloak there are the constellations, she ...read more