Faith

Overcoming a globalization of indifference

February 16, 2015

Editor’s note: over the coming weeks, Fr. Thomas Rosica, CSB, will offer a series of biblical reflections on Lent. On Ash Wednesday the Church begins her great Lenten journey with Jesus on the road to Jerusalem. For centuries, Lent has been a very intense spiritual journey and experience for the followers of Jesus Christ.

Sealed with a kiss: The religious history of X and O (Commentary)

February 14, 2015

When I was a young girl, my mother taught me to add “x” and “o” — a kiss and a hug — after my signature. So deeply embedded was this English-language tradition that it never crossed her mind that these symbols had anything to do with religion. I never thought about it myself until she passed away a few years ago and I found myself emitting streams of “x’s” and “o’s” like a binary love code in the countless emails that consume much of my daily life.

Seamlessness and diversity

January 18, 2015

You have heard it said that a stitch in time saves nine. I know how to thread a needle and have done so many times. I have even sewn a button on my shirt and on occasion sat at a sewing machine, but a tailor I am not.

In Christmas messages, patriarchs lament peoples' suffering, offer hope

December 27, 2014

BEIRUT - Catholic patriarchs of the Middle East lamented the suffering of their people in violence-wracked areas and offered words of hope while calling for prayers for their safety.

’Tis the season to set an example and reach out

December 23, 2014

I remember this scene from childhood. A couple of days before Christmas I came back home from delivering papers, and was surprised to see my mother standing in the snow-packed driveway, bundled up against non-stop snowflakes and the December chill.

Christmas on the edge

December 23, 2014

The great adventure continues with amazing sights under the Northern Lights in the Christmas season. My own adventures and travels are too many to put into one short Christmas letter. However, I will share a dog rescue story as the Christmas story has some four-legged creatures, too. There were cattle lowing, donkeys braying and probably a dog or two at the first Christmas in the manger of Bethlehem, where Jesus was born of Mary.

A Fr. Raby Christmas

December 23, 2014

Editor's note: for nearly 50 years the late Msgr. Thomas Raby penned his The Little World of Fr. Raby column for The Catholic Register. The following, Christmas lights in September, is a Msgr. Raby classic, along with one of the Christmas poems he wrote annually.

The candy cane’s Christian origins — fact or fiction

December 23, 2014

The candy cane has been a Christmas treat and tradition for so long that no one is completely sure of its origin. In lieu of a history as solid as the hard candy itself, myths and legends have popped up in its place, including a tale that ties every aspect of its existence to Christianity.

Innocence recovered in Jesus

December 23, 2014

The following is the Christmas message from Archbishop Paul- André Durocher, president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. As I write this Christmas message, barely a week has gone by since Remembrance Day, a day marked by the still fresh memory of the recent assassinations of two members of the Canadian Armed Forces. This year, Christmas in Canada will take on a different shading, muted and somber, because of these events which have saddened our hearts and our spirits.

God took on what is ours to give us what is His

December 23, 2014

The following is the Christmas message from Archbishop Luigi Bonazzi, papal nuncio to Canada. We are just at the threshold of Christmas, a great event which — if we welcome it — is capable of changing our lives. A story by Tolstoy which I learned and owe to Pope Benedict XVI helps me to share the light and life that springs from Christmas: