It has been twenty years since the Catholic Church officially permitted the use of altar girls at Mass. While extending this permission for girls to serve, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (CDWDS) was also careful to state that: “The Holy See wishes to recall that it will always be…
Many Catholics have witnessed or read about Masses gone wild: polka Masses, life-size scary puppet Masses, and probably worst of all, Los Angeles Religious Education Congress closing Masses. In these extreme cases, it is clear that there is something fundamentally wrong with how the organizers understand the Mass. Yet even some sincere, faithful Catholics wish…
If you build something truly beautiful, the people will come of their own accord. So it was for the tenth annual Festival of Lessons and Carols at St. John Cantius Church in Chicago, which – in the presence of Most Reverend Joseph N. Perry, Auxiliary Bishop of Chicago – saw an enthusiastic and capacity crowd.…
Today marks the last official business day of 2014 for 1P5. For the next two weeks, we’ll be spending time with family and friends, offering the final penances of advent and enjoying the graces and feasting of Christmas, catching up on our reading (and sleeping), and making plans for the new year. It’s been a…
I’ve quipped that I know I’m truly Catholic because I anticipate the St. Andrew prayer novena as part of our Advent season while still cleaning up Thanksgiving dishes. I have found rote recitation of prayers written by others to be a precious part of my life. Prescribed prayers, even when spoken (or during difficult times,…
Russia today is vengefully returning to international politics after temporarily receding after the collapse of the Soviet empire. Moscow is lashing out with tenacious diplomatic and military support for the brutal regime in Syria that has butchered more than one hundred thousand Syrians to crush a civil war. Moscow too is militarily dismembering neighboring Ukraine…
Clare Short, author of the Catholic blog Faith in Our Families, has published an open letter to Pope Francis. She writes: I have supported you and defended you many times this year. Even when I was unsure of exactly what it was you were saying – I always gave you the benefit of the doubt and…
Men’s faith formation has been a pet project of mine for the last half of my 26 years as a priest. Among many things, I ‘ve wanted us men to rediscover the treasury of Catholic devotions. If men are going to be the spiritual leaders of their own domestic church, we simply must explore these…
The Rorate Mass takes its name from the opening words of the Introit, which comes to us from Isaiah 45:8: “Rorate, caeli, desuper, et nubes pluant justum, aperiatur terra, et germinet Salvatorem.” “Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the just: let the earth be opened and bud forth a…
On today’s episode: Advent – you’ve heard that it’s penitential, but why? Do you pay it any attention? Also: the connection between the end of the liturgical year and the beginning of the new one, and the way Advent prepares us not just for Christ’s Incarnation, but the coming of the Antichrist and the…
[powerpress] On today’s episode: Advent – you’ve heard that it’s penitential, but why? Do you pay it any attention? Also: the connection between the end of the liturgical year and the beginning of the new one, and the way Advent prepares us not just for Christ’s Incarnation, but the coming of the Antichrist and…
