Today the Catholic Church celebrates the Queenship of Mary, a feast day often misunderstood by non-Catholics and even Catholics themselves.
The primary reason is that folks mistakenly believe that Catholics worship Mary and that we hold her equal with Christ. That’s absolutely untrue. We worship only (more…)
Did you know that the Catholic Church was established in Korea by the laity? Until recently I’d assumed that Korea had been evangelized by religious who were sent by their orders to bring the Faith into mission territory. Not so, as you’ll find out in my latest column for Aleteia, Read more
Church of the Dormition in Jerusalem, where Mary was assumed into heaven.
As we celebrate the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, I’m taken back to my time in the Holy Land, and especially to my visit to the Church of the Dormition in Jerusalem. The church has traditionally marked the place at which Mary “went to sleep” and was then assumed, body and soul, into heaven.
I remember the exceptional peacefulness of the site, in particular the lower church in which there’s a life-size statue of the Blessed Mother as she may have looked at her falling into sleep, or dormition. Kneelers surround the statue, and as I knelt there, I could sense the sadness of the (more…)
This past Wednesday, August 6, I posted the link to my latest column for Aleteia about Mary’s Gourmet Diner, a privately-owned establishment in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The owner, Mary Haglund, allows (I mean, allowed) her employees to offer a 15 per cent ‘praying in public” discount to patrons who stop to give thanks for their meals before digging in. The employees offered the discount at their own discretion and to no particular religious denomination. The point was to encourage folks to be thankful for the (more…)
Some folks are embarrassed to pray in public. The story of Mary’s Gourmet Diner may change your mind. Here’s my latest at Aleteia: The Diner Receipt that Went Viral Don’t be embarrassed to pray quietly in public while we still have that right.
Most of us will get the Assumption right off the bat, but how many of us can guess any of the several others? We traditionally think of May as the Month of Mary, or October as the month of the Rosary. But August? A Marian month? You’ll be surprised. Find Read more
Regardless of where on the globe we live, we all are closer to the Christians suffering in Iraq than we think. They are our brothers and sisters in Christ, and we’re one in him with them. In that respect, we suffer with them. I write about this in my newest Read more