The main option for the “Blessing of Animals” comes from the Book of Blessings (which is available in your nearest sacristy as well as from Liturgical Press). The blessing is composed of ...

Bathsheba is sometimes misrepresented as the woman who committed adultery with King David, although from the story in 2 Samuel 11-12 it appears that David either seduced her or even raped her. In the original ...

I consulted the website for the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, and from their list of Catholic schools, I counted 46 whose names are Marian in character. Most of these are schools ...

My knee-jerk response to this was no, because that’s what the good sisters told me in Catholic school thirty years ago. But I did a little research, and found that it’s not quite as ...

Certainly there are Old Testament passages that portray a harsh God that many of us would find difficult to accept. For example, God smites the Egyptians and indiscriminately strikes down their firstborn in Exodus, or ...

Mary never had the stigmata (miraculous wounds or pain that correspond to the physical suffering of Christ) . She certainly suffered great emotional pain; Simeon said as much during the Presentation of the infant ...

Mark’s gospel is sometimes called “the gospel with no Christmas and a shaky Easter” because it tells us nothing about Jesus’ birth, and the oldest manuscripts we have of the gospel ended at 16:8a: The ...

We don’t know how old Jesus was historically when he died. Luke’s gospel tells us “Now Jesus was about 30 years old when he began his ministry” (Lk 3:23). This is the only allusion to ...

As someone who lost two dear friends on that dreaded day of September 11, 2001, I know how incredibly painful it must be for anyone to consider forgiveness for those who carried out the violent ...

Does your workplace have a dress code? If so, remind your employee that when she was hired she agreed to follow it. Review the dress code with her during her performance evaluation or ...

In the 3rd edition of the Roman Missal, the Penitential Rite has now become the Penitential Act. In this reconciliatory action, there are a couple of very noticeable changes to the Confiteor (the old ...

No, the Hail Mary is not a part of the Catholic Mass. That said, I have been to a few Masses where the priest inserts a Hail Mary at the end of his homily (this ...

You are correct in noting that our Sunday lectionary cycle revolves around the synoptic gospels of Matthew (year A), Mark (year B) and Luke (year C) yet we don’t have a year dedicated to reading ...

Regardless of how much you search and how closely you read the text, you won’t find an account of what we know of as the sixth station of the cross, Veronica wiping the face of ...

Imagine that an opposing team’s player found your team’s playbook and wanted to share it with his teammates. Would that help you to answer your own question? The eighth commandment (do not bear ...

In the Mass, the entire gathered assembly celebrates together with the priest (or prayer leader). Since the whole community celebrates together, the term “celebrant” is not the best way to describe the role ...

First of all, congratulations on the new job. Second, it’s a bit hard to answer the question as I’m not entirely sure where your discomfort lies. Does it lie in the fact ...

Mel Gibson took some “creative license” in his movie, including making the unfortunate connection you mention here. John’s gospel recounts a story of a woman, unnamed, who is caught in the act of adultery (Jn ...

Your coworker’s marital status is actually insignificant – the fact that you describe your behavior as “leering” suggests that it has gone beyond appropriate admiration and become an expression of lust. How can you ...

In the apostolic constitution Munificentissimus Deus, Pope Piux XII wrote that  Mary, “having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.”  Thus the Assumption, a long-standing tradition of the Church, was ...