It was one of those chilling moments I was seated across from my parish priest who had just gotten back from an extended ldquo time away rdquo mdash yet unexplained When I mentioned my interest in a more disciplined prayer life perhaps to buy a breviary mdash the standard daily book of prayers
How many times have we mumbled our way through the Nicene Creed giving not a second thought to our firm vocalized belief in the revolutionary proposition that there shall be a ldquo resurrection of the body rdquo after death and not simply some vague new life for our immortal soul How often p
Road to Perdition begins and ends with a young boy looking out over Lake Michigan. His voice-over narration in the opening shot leads the way to the lengthy flashback that provides the story line of the film. The camera, however, stares out over the faceless waters with him, as though pondering his
If there is one Scripture passage that seems to define Catholicism it is the Petrine promise of Mt 16 16-20 Matthew supplements Peter rsquo s confession that Jesus is the Christ Mk 8 29 by the more solemn affirmation ldquo You are the Christ the Son of the living God rdquo and adds extraor
Though Matthew stresses that the primary mission of Jesus was to the ldquo house of Israel rdquo in today rsquo s Gospel a non-Jewish woman draws him to a more universalistic vision Narrated by both Mark 7 24-30 and Matthew this story of courageous faith and boundary-crossing challenges the c
In the 1989 film National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Aunt Bethany (played by Mae Questal), the aunt of family patriarch Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase), travels to the Griswold family home in Chicago to celebrate Christmas. Clark asks Aunt Bethany, whose hearing is failing, to say grace before
In Toronto, Pope Urges Youth to Follow Christ, Transform WorldCapping a week of prayer and celebration by more than 500,000 Catholic youths, Pope John Paul II urged the church’s younger generations to follow Christ and transform a world torn by hatred and terrorism. He also asked them to keep