How one unexpected vision, a tiny chapel and a lot of grace revealed our vocation and deepened our love for Christ. The Portiuncula Chapel at the Franciscan University of Steubenville was key in Meg and Ryan's love story. (Photo courtesy of Franciscan University of Steubenville's Facebook page) By Meg Stout   How my husband, Ryan, and I came to meet and marry is like something from the Old Testament: providential encounters, prophetic words and even a dream. At 18, I went off

From nihilism to radical ideologies, many young men are searching for purpose — and not finding it. (Photo: Unsplash, edited) So, what is going on with young men these days? I know, every generation in recent memory has asked the same question. Those young hooligans with their leather jackets. The hippies with their psychedelic vans. The weirdos in the parachute pants. But those young men, for the most part, seemed to grow up to marry and become productive members of society.

(Photo: Lightstock) Opposites attract, like puzzle pieces that fit together. And yet in most marriages I know of (including mine), we discover over the first decade that we couldn’t be more different. Sometimes it becomes hard to remember what brought us together in the first place! The answer is there, but often it must be rediscovered. Along the way, the differences, miscommunications and disappointments can threaten to destroy our marriages. I speak as a woman to one of ou

(Photo: Wikimedia Commons / Fair Use) Those who remember the epic pontificate of St. John Paul II may recall a tall, handsome layman with well combed, iron-grey hair, dressed in a black business suit, white shirt, and black tie, following the clerical members of the papal household into St. Peter’s Square on many great occasions, or carrying an umbrella over the Pope’s head when it rained. That same man is at center stage in photos of the assassination attempt of May 13, 1981

Why the Great Commission still applies to married couples. Mission brought Alli and Tanner to the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis, IN, in July 2024. (Photo provided) Leaving staff as a campus missionary with FOCUS was a difficult transition. I absolutely loved evangelizing students at the University of Colorado Boulder, and I didn’t want my zeal for souls to fizzle out. I was determined to continue living on mission, even if it would look different. My fiancée w

(Photo provided) In his letter to the Ephesians, St. Paul describes the ideal of a Christian husband, writing, “For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the Church, his body, and is himself its savior […] Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her” (Ephesians 5:23, 25).   This image of Christ as the head of the Church is often evoked to properly explain his relationship to her — and of a husband to his wife.   But

Ecce Homo (Behold the Man) by Caravaggio, c. 1605. (Photo: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons) It’s easy to take things that we’re used to doing for granted. Lent’s just one of those Catholic customs that come around every year as the liturgical year moves through its cycles. But if we actually think about why we practice it, it may help us to get more out of it. I’d like to explore the “why” behind it to help us be more intentional in how we enter into Lenten practices thi

(Photo: Pexels) The “ Melian Dialogue ,” from Thucydides’ classic History of the Peloponnesian War , is the foundational text of the Realist school of international relations theory. It’s 416 B.C., and the island-statelet of Melos has remained neutral in the war between the local superpowers, Athens and Sparta. A diplomatic delegation from Athens goes to Melos and demands that the Melians join Team Athens. The Melians decline, first citing principles of justice. The Athenians

A confessor's perspective on love, dignity and the gift of self. (Photo: Lightstock) By Father Daniel Ciucci Pastor, Most Precious Blood Parish, Denver There are few better opportunities for a societal pulse check than the confessional. The Fifth Commandment, in particular, manifold in its application, covers everything from drunkenness, reckless driving, gossip and physical violence, to the withholding of forgiveness, the clutching onto bitterness and the like. Recently, how

What Genesis really teaches about sin, power and marriage (Photo: Lightstock) “Your desire shall be for your husband, and he will lord it over you.” Genesis 3:16   I think of all the beautiful aspects of the Genesis account of paradise, the one I perhaps envy most is the perfect relationship between man and woman. (I know, walking with God in the cool of the afternoon seems like a pretty good gig, too.) We have talked about how God created them specifically for each other , a

Timothy Cardinal Dolan processes into Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan in 2021. (Photo courtesy of Cardinal Dolan's Facebook page) There’s a steak house on East 50 th  Street in midtown Manhattan, to which Cardinal Timothy Dolan and I would sometimes walk for dinner after a pre-prandial or two in his sitting room. The restaurant was less than a block away from the residence of the archbishops of New York, and the walk would ordinarily take two or three minutes. Wi

Part Two: Why evangelization begins with personal conversion and encounter with Jesus Christ. (Photo: Lightstock) By Tanner Kalina My dad loved baseball, but he had no experience actually playing the game. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but it didn’t bode well for my Major League aspirations as a kid. The proper mechanics for hitting a ball had to be imparted to me by other men. Same thing with throwing and fielding. I had to find other sources to help me advan

(Photo: Unsplash) P.D. James’ detective novels, featuring Inspector Adam Dalgliesh of New Scotland Yard, are every bit as gripping as those penned by Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Edith Pargeter (who wrote as “Ellis Peters” when creating the Cadfael Chronicles ), and Ann Cleeves. Yet my favorite work by the woman who was honored with a life peerage and died in 2014 as Baroness James of Holland Park is her dystopian look into a world of global infertility, The Children o

Entering the Special Year of St. Francis through poverty, death and joy in Christ St. Francis of Assisi in His Tomb , 1630/34 by Francisco de Zurbarán (Spanish, 1598–1664). Oil on canvas. Milwaukee Art Museum. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain) With our coattails nearly brushing the closing Jubilee Doors, Pope Leo has proclaimed a Special Year of St. Francis of Assisi . From January 10, 2026, to January 10, 2027, the faithful who, along with the usual sacraments, unde

(Photo: Lightstock) Organizations spend an estimated $160 billion annually in the U.S. and more than $366 billion globally on leadership development programs. Yet only 25% of organizations and 11% of executives believe their leadership initiatives are effective, according to research from the Brandon Hall Group and McKinsey. I believe leadership training often misses the mark, not because it emphasizes skills, competence or emotional intelligence — all of which matter — but b

(Photo: Denver Catholic design) Volunteering in the Pro-Life movement in the 1990s, I remember praying for the overturning of Roe v. Wade as if it would immediately end the abortion problem in the United States. As a high schooler, it seemed like a simple enough solution. Roe v. Wade caused the mess, so getting rid of it should take care of things. But now, after Dobbs v. Jackson, what has actually changed  in the last three and a half years?   Even though abortion is now res

“Have no fear! Trust in the Lord.” Pope Leo XIV waves at a massive, jubilant crowd gathered on St. Peter’s Square for the Regina Coeli on Sunday, May 11, 2025. (Photo: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA) Back in the day, when the New Yorker  set the standard for literary elegance among serious American journals, writers were driven to distraction by the fanatical fact-checking characteristic of the magazine’s gimlet-eyed editors. But the old New Yorker  ain’t what she used to be. Evidence is

Insights from Behold Your Child's ministry to support grieving parents. (Photo: Lightstock) Studies estimate that one in every five pregnancies ends in the loss of a child, whether through miscarriage, stillbirth or infant mortality. That’s a significant number, yet most mothers and fathers suffer this loss alone because it is difficult to talk about, and the stages of grief are not linear. There can also be a stigma around early loss, so many don’t share openly that it is so

(Photo: Lightstock) During my morning prayer, I was reading 1 Corinthians 13 when I was struck by the verse that says, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood” (1 Corinthians 13:12). The Ignatius Study Bible notes that ancient Corinth manufactured polished bronze “mirrors.” Although known for their excellent quality, the reflected image was nonetheless hazy and indistinct

Jimmy Lai's 2025 Christmas card featured a moving confession of faith amid suffering. (Courtesy photo) In a 1974 address to a group of lay Catholics, Pope Paul VI noted that "Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses" — an acute observation he later reiterated in his spiritual testament, the 1975 Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi  (Announcing the Gospel). That witnesses can be m