What are priests to do in a pandemic? Much fewer things than they would ordinarily do. But the one thing they must do is to keep doing the one thing which only they can do. They cannot abandon the sacraments.

Temptations indulged, temptations resisted. On the first Sunday of Lent we heard about the devil’s tempting of Adam and Eve in the garden, to catastrophic effect, and the devil’s tempting of the Lord Jesus in the desert, to salvific effect.

We celebrate this week — Feb. 8 — the feast day of one of the most remarkable saints of recent times, the slave girl who became a beloved religious mother. St. Josephine Bakhita was born 150 years ago (the date is uncertain, perhaps 1869 or 1870) but is a saint for today’s world of Islamist persecution and human trafficking.

KANYAKUMARI, TAMIL NADU, INDIA -- A new year is upon us, which comes first a new day. At Kanyakumari each new day is marked with festivity.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, KERALA, INDIA -- This Advent marks the 50 anniversary of the liturgical reform — the “novus ordo” or “new order” of Mass — after the Second Vatican Council.

The 2019 federal election blew an ill wind toward religious believers in Canada.

Pope Francis reminded the newest cardinals that the “readiness of a cardinal to shed his own blood (is) signified by the scarlet colour of your robes.” For one of them it was not a reminder but a memory.

In a few weeks, his many admirers will celebrate the 30th priestly anniversary of Fr. Paul Pearson of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in Toronto. 

YORBA LINDA, CALIF. -- The Apollo space program was heavy on Scripture in its great public moments. In the live television broadcast on Christmas Eve 1968, the three astronauts read from Genesis 1:1-10: “In the beginning God created….”

Detailed knowledge of our liturgical rites is sometimes derided as arcane or obscure. It’s true that sometimes liturgical matters are arcane and obscure. But in the liturgy lie lessons which teach us about important matters which are neither obscure nor arcane. Thus it is good to know the ins and outs of such matters.