All Souls falls during a time of year when many religions are thinking about death. It is a period when ancient agricultural societies were preparing for the change of the seasons from summer to winter. Pagans believe this is a time when there’s a thinning of the veil between the land of the living and Read more
This coming year will mark the five-hundredth anniversary of Martin Luther’s posting of his 95 Theses onto the door of the collegiate church of Wittenberg, traditionally regarded as the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. It has been a cause of some concern and consternation for many Catholics to have learned that there will be Catholic Read more
(RNS) Pope Francis leaves on Monday (Oct. 31) for an overnight trip to Sweden, a historically Protestant country that today is one of the most secular in the world. The visit is to mark the start of observances of next year’s 500th anniversary of the Reformation, which traditionally dates from Oct. 31, 1517, when Martin Read more
There’s only one word to describe the images coming out of Syria as the conflict advances: apocalyptic. Aleppo, once Syria’s largest city and once known as its jewel, sits in rubble, but more tragically so do its people. “The cradle of civilizations and the birthplace of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, the Middle East has become Read more
Who was Brother Salomon Leclercq ? Born in Boulogne-sur-Mer on November 14, 1745, Guillaume-Louis-Nicolas Leclercq entered the novitiate of the Brothers of the Christian Schools (Lasallians), where he took the religious name of Brother Salomon and eventually became Superior-General. Following the promulgation of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, which gave the state control over the Read more
How many people do you know who can give you a technical description of photosynthesis and quote from Ludwig Ott’s Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma? Dr. Stacy Trasancos (stacytrasancos.com) is one such person, accomplished in both science and theology. A native of Texas, Trasancos’s love of nature and insatiable curiosity led her to eventually earn a Read more
Dear Sister, Is there a best time to pray, given all the activities each day holds for me—working at my job and caring for and being with my family makes a very full day? Also, I’m not fully awake first thing in the morning and already mighty tired by the time I lay my head Read more
“It is the very pursuit of happiness that thwarts happiness.” In September 1942, Viktor Frankl, a prominent Jewish psychiatrist and neurologist in Vienna, was arrested and transported to a Nazi concentration camp with his wife and parents. Three years later, when his camp was liberated, most of his family, including his pregnant wife, had perished Read more
In his apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia, Pope Francis used St. Paul’s “hymn to love,” taken from his First Letter to the Corinthians, to offer several pieces of advice on how to keep one’s marriage strong throughout the years, based on true love. “Love is patient, love is kind. love is not jealous or boastful; it Read more
For most of its life, the reef was the world’s largest living structure, and the only one visible from space. It was 1,400 miles long, with 2,900 individual reefs and 1,050 islands. In total area, it was larger than the United Kingdom, and it contained more biodiversity than all of Europe combined. It harbored 1,625 Read more