A forum of Catholic Thought

Every baby brings his ownJaymie Stuart Wolfe

''Every baby brings his own loaf of bread." That's the proverb Father Tom Dilorenzo used to tell me whenever we were expecting another child. That was a frequent occurrence for about a decade. ...

Faith, Hope, and RecoveryMaureen Crowley Heil

A few years ago, I wrote about the Nambuma Boys Primary School in the Archdiocese of Lilongwe, Malawi. Thanks to generous donors to the Pontifical Mission Societies (TPMS), the school had just built two ...

Straighten the pathScott Hahn

Our God is coming. The time of exile -- the long separation of humankind from God due to sin -- is about to end. This is the good news proclaimed in today's liturgy. Isaiah in today's First ...

Sacrosanctum Concilium general principles -- sacraments and sacramentalsFather John F. Baldovin, SJ

The third chapter of the constitution is devoted to reforms pertaining to the other sacraments and to sacramentals -- those rituals which do not have a sacramental character (e.g., blessings) but are ...

The battle is real: A guide for spiritual warfareDr. R. Jared Staudt

For decades, we tried canceling the devil, refraining from talking much about him, or bothering much with him at all. Catholics thought they could get by without exorcisms, relegating them to the superstitious ...

Away from Ordinary TimesLucia A. Silecchia

There is no Advent as short as those that come in the years like this, when Christmas falls on a Monday. When the fourth Sunday of Advent is also Christmas Eve, there seems to be -- and, indeed, there ...

Questions on baptismal recordsJenna Marie Cooper

Q: My cousin is getting married soon and will need to obtain a copy of her baptismal certificate for inclusion in the pre-nuptial enquiry. As a newborn baby, it wasn't clear if she would survive and ...

Give the Gift of Hope to the MissionsMaureen Crowley Heil

Advent is a season of preparation, a time to begin anew spiritually and ready a home for the Christ Child in our hearts. Our culture, however, pulls us in other directions and we find ourselves faced ...

Watch for himScott Hahn

The new Church year begins with a plea for God's visitation. "Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down," the prophet Isaiah cries in today's First Reading. In today's Psalm, too, ...

General principles of Sacrosanctum Concilium, especially the MassFather John F. Baldovin, SJ

The second chapter of the constitution turns to the Eucharist in particular. This chapter reaffirms a number of the theological and pastoral principles set out in the first chapter, among them the richer ...