Faith & Spirituality

Capuchin Poor Clare Nuns celebrate beatification of their foundress 

An icon of Blessed Maria Lorenza Longo is unveiled during her beatification in the Naples cathedral on Oct. 9. By Father Blaine Burkey, O.F.M.Cap. Archivist, St. Francis of Assisi Friary The Capuchin Poor Clare nuns of North Denver’s Our Lady of Light of Light Monastery and their benefactors and other friends are excited about the beatification of their 16th-century foundress, Mother Maria Lorenza Longo, in the Cathedral of Naples, Italy, on Oct. 9. Capuchin nuns and friars worldwide will now...

Cabrini Day: Honoring Colorado’s saintly Mother

She was an Italian immigrant, a loving servant of those in need and the very first American saint, who also happened to walk the streets...

Thérèse for 2021, a reproposal: The rediscovery of the Father

“It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” “I assure you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you!” -Jesus “The great saints have gained Heaven by their works; myself, I wish to imitate the thieves, I wish to take it by a trick…” “I ought to be distressed at sleeping [for seven years] during my prayers and acts of thanksgiving. Well, I am not distressed. I think...

Memory, Hope, and the Holy Spirit – Part III

Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash By Anthony Gallegos Anthony is a Catechetical School Instructor and the Enrollment Coordinator for Catechetical School at the SJV Lay Division. Last week I ended the blog with the assertion that  if we do not know our history, if we have lost our memory so to speak, then we will inevitably place God in the role of slave master or tyrant . The reason for this, I assert, is that God wishes to recapitulate the story of salvation history in our very own...

The importance of story: Finding our place

Christ on the Road to Emmaus, Jan Wildens, 1640s We often think of sermons today as the preaching of the doctrine, law, and living of the...

Memory, Hope, and the Holy Spirit – Part II

By Anthony Gallegos Anthony is a Catechetical School Instructor and the Enrollment Coordinator for Catechetical School at the SJV Lay Division. Last week I accused the world of having lost its memory.  This week I want to look at how the Spirit of the Lord, the Holy Spirit, preserves our memory and thereby gives us reason to hope for our future ( Catechism of the Catholic Church  paragraphs  2625 ,  2685 ,  2848 , and others). The mission of the Holy Spirit, in part, is to help humanity...

The Way of Beauty: A Path for Evangelization

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 sensibilities....

What is the Mother Teresa Center?

File photo by James Baca By Father Brian Kolodiejchuk, MC Father Brian Kolodiejchuk, MC was the postulator of the Cause of Beatification and Canonization of Mother Teresa of Calcutta and serves as director of the Mother Teresa Center in Rome. The Mother Teresa Center was founded in 2004 by the Missionaries of Charity religious family after her beatification. Its primary aim is to preserve the legacy of Mother Teresa by collecting and disseminating her written and spoken words. Our objective...

From the wilderness to the Promised Land: Learn your faith in the SJV Lay Division

One of the famous episodes in the Old Testament is the wandering of Israel in the wilderness. The descendants of Abraham, whom God...

Dreams, memories and prayer: Pope Francis on the vocation of grandparents and the elderly

“I am with you always” (Mt 28:20). Quoting Jesus at the Ascension from the Gospel of Matthew, Pope Francis shared these words when he...

How many tickets do I need to get into heaven?

(Photo: Adobe Stock) For my last day of elementary school, my entire class went to Chuck E. Cheese for a pizza party. I remember saving...

God helps us answer the question: ‘Who am I?’

Who is God? And how does his identity impact my life? These are big questions that most of us don’t think about often, if at all. But the...