The verb assume has several meanings Its primary meaning is take up which is precisely the sense intended in today s celebration of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary As we pray in the Preface to the Eucharistic Prayer Today the virgin Mother of God was taken up into heaven We ce

If preaching the Gospel is a vocation it seems odd that little attention is paid to its potential in candidates for the priesthood Can he do the studies is the first question that tends to come to mind meaning the whole panoply of academic philosophy and theology that will engage him for six o

As regular readers of The Good Word know one of our frequent contributors is Father Richard Leonard an Australian Jesuit who splits his time between the Jesuit Theological College in Australia and the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome If you d like to hear more from Father Leonard be s

This Sunday is the nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Daniel Harrington writes about faith and hope Sunday s reading from Hebrews he notes contains the only explicit definition of faith in the Bible Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen Dianne

A well known short story dating from 1916 is Franz Kafka s Metamorphosis In it the protagonist Gregor Samsa wakes up one morning and finds that during the night he has been somehow transformed into a cockroach This story became one of the defining pieces of the Twentieth Century a period who

For those interested in one more take on the reinstatement of the Latin liturgy Commonweal has posted the first of four articles in their upcoming issue about the change The title says it all-- A Step Backward Author Rita Ferrone points out some striking problems such as the exclusion of women