Jesus regularly challenged his followers, inviting them to put the kingdom first by denying themselves and taking up their cross. Jesus...

The Descent of the Spirit, Gustave Doré, ca. 1880. Jesus makes a startling statement at the Last Supper: “It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you” (Jn 16:7). What could be better than Jesus’s presence alongside us? Only his presence within us, made possible by his gift of the Holy Spirit! The Spirit, who Jesus calls the Counselor (advocate or helper), will lead his followers, movi

Photo by Photo Nic on Unsplash How is wine related to charity? Although we may think of consuming wine as something simply pleasant and enjoyable, Jesus used it as an image of his sacrifice. He asked his disciples, “Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?” (Mt 20:22). This cup of his passion took shape during the Last Supper, when we offered his own blood to establish the new covenant. He then hinted that he would continue to share this cup after his Passion: “I sha

Nativity, Fra Angelico, ca. 1395-1455. The world does not think like God. If we were to plan how to stage the most important moment in history, it might involve a great military victory or a stunning natural occurrence that would catch everyone’s attention. How did God choreograph the moment that fundamentally changed human life? With a babe, lying hidden a manger, surrounded by barn animals. This miraculous birth, which went unnoticed by most of the world, signaled a new beg

Pope Benedict XVI. Photo by Thomas Serafin/CNA This February will mark nine years since the historic renunciation of Pope Benedict XVI. Joseph Ratzinger would have gone down in history as a great theologian without his rise to the chair of St. Peter, although through his papal ministry he became a teacher of the world. The power of Benedict’s writing speaks for itself, though his life also witnesses to the power of truth and service. Peter Seewald, who edited many interview b

Photo by William Warby on Unsplash Without God, our sense of human dignity quickly erodes. Although we tend to equate civilization with an increase in wealth and comfort, its real health stems from genuine human flourishing, which arises much more from the interior life. The 20th century was a time of great material progress, yet it also witnessed a terrible interior collapse. Perhaps it was precisely this material progress that led to such a large scale and systematic destru

As we wrestle with how to hand on the faith, knowing that we are facing a general breakdown in its transmission, we can point to some things that clearly work. First and foremost, we know that parents have “paramount” and unparalleled importance in the faith lives of their children, one that “trumps every other influence,” as the sociologist Christian Smith demonstrates in his latest book, written with Amy Adamczyk, Handing Down the Faith: How Parents Pass Their Religion to t

We are born to die. This inevitable fact could lead to fatalism, although, more often, we simply fall into denial. We avoid thinking about death and stigmatize it as the greatest evil. If this world is all we have, then death would be the greatest evil, although life itself would become futile, a temporary illusion — grasping pleasure as it slips through our fingers. For a Christian, however, we are born to live. The inevitability of death remains even though it loses its ter

In the Eucharist, we possess the greatest gift. Within it, Jesus gives us his entire self — body, blood, soul, and divinity — to be consumed under the appearance of bread and wine. But, as the saying goes, with great gifts comes great responsibility. To receive the fruits of this gift, we need to prepare ourselves and then live our lives in accord with it. If we approach the Eucharist unworthily, we not only offend God but also harm ourselves. Even Hollywood can see that on o

Dante shown holding a copy of the Divine Comedy, next to the entrance to Hell, the seven terraces of Mount Purgatory and the city of Florence, with the spheres of Heaven above, in Domenico di Michelino's 1465 fresco. This year we celebrate the Year of Dante, marking 700 years since the poet’s death on September 14, 1321. It is fitting that Dante died on the day when we commemorate the triumph of the Holy Cross, as he narrates the drama of salvation as it plays out concretely

Madonna and Child with the Young St. John the Baptist, Sandro Botticelli, circa 1468 Ugliness is a spiritual problem. If beauty manifests the perfection and splendor of something, ugliness distorts it, corrupting what it is meant to be and blinding us to its true reality. A tree struck by lightning or blighted with disease is ugly. A building sculpted with cement, with little light or elegance, depresses us. The ugliness of most modern art disturbs us and does not uplift our

Rarely do I find myself looking to modern Hollywood for morality tales, either on screen or in headlines. And yet, every once in a while, a film is released that draws on truths incorruptible by CGI and modern mores. The latest film to do so is The Green Knight , in theaters this summer after years of production delays. It’s no coincidence that the film contains questions about virtue that we might consider to be old-fashioned, considering it is based on an Arthurian legend o

Photo by Fred Kearney on Unsplash How would you know if you were being brainwashed? When something plainly false — contrary to common sense and right reason — is so constantly forced on you and you are not allowed to question it, it’s a good indication. This is the nature of ideology: imposing a position without truly establishing it or allowing it to be criticized. We have seen that something clearly opposed to the basics of scientific fact, such as the nature of sex as male

Featured image: St. Joseph, Terror of Demons, Bernadette Carstensen, 2020, consecrationtostjoseph.org. The Year of St. Joseph points us to Jesus’ adoptive father, Joseph, as the essential model for fathers. Joseph not only manifests genuine masculinity, he also images God’s own fatherhood, as Pope Francis makes clear in his apostolic letter, Patris Corde : “In his relationship to Jesus, Joseph was the earthly shadow of the heavenly Father: he watched over him and protected hi

happy child dreams of traveling and playing with an airplane pilot aviator in outdoor in the summer You don’t have to be a doom and gloomer to see that things are unravelling very quickly in our country. Two metrics are enough to prove the point: a drastic decline in the marriage and birth rates and the recent news that church-going Christians are now a minority within the U.S. Although William Butler Yeats wrote with the First World War and the 1918 flu pandemic in the backg

The Church has had a rocky relationship with the modern world, to say the least. It’s all the more difficult that contemporary culture arose largely in opposition to the Christian culture of the Middle Ages, putting the Church on the defensive. The Second Vatican Council sought to reset these relations through greater openness and dialogue, although in the decades following the Council, a wave of confusion swept over the Church. The Church opened her windows, following the in

Featured image: The Annunciation, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo , c. 1660 Where would we be without our mothers? We wouldn’t be! Father Gregory Cleveland, OMV, shares a beautiful quote from Cardinal Mindszenty on the importance of motherhood: “The most important person on earth is a mother. She cannot claim the honor of having built Notre Dame Cathedral. She need not. She has built something more magnificent than any cathedral—a dwelling for an immortal soul, the tiny perfection

CORDOBA, SPAIN - MAY 27, 2015: The Holy Family painting in church Convento de Capuchinos (Iglesia Santo Anchel) by unknown artis of 18. cent. Joseph — son of David, husband of Mary, the humble builder, and adoptive father of the Messiah — stands as one of the greatest saints in the life of the Church. Throughout history, we, as members of God’s family, have realized more and more the crucial role that Joseph plays as “the wise steward the Lord has placed over his household” (

“Are you saved?” This is something you might hear after the doorbell rings. “What does that even mean?” you might wonder, as you think of what to say in response. The door-to-door evangelist would tell you that Jesus died to forgive your sins and if you believe the truth of that statement, you will be saved. That is an important part of salvation but by no means the full account. To be saved is not simply to have your sins forgiven or to be given a ticket to heaven, because G

Once, an editor of The Times newspaper asked G.K. Chesterton, “What is wrong with the world?” Chesterton, the great master of common sense and wit that he was, responded: “Dear Sir: I am. Yours, G.K. Chesterton.” “I am.” There is starting honesty and humility in recognizing that the world’s problems rest in the heart, and not ultimately in any of the great social, political, or economic forces on the outside. It is the problem within the heart that causes those exterior trou