It is easier to use an uplifting language, to fulfill certain positive precepts, to reject certain pleasures, than to...
Reflections
Part 2: Episcopal Message Resurfaces
Highlights from Part 2 of a truly prophetic forgotten document published by the U.S. Catholic Bishops more than a quarter-century ago.
Contemplation: The Challenge of Modern Times
This post originally appeared on ssvpusa.org Blessed Frédéric and his friends founded the Society in 1833 in answer to...
Faith: an Act of Will • A Weekly Reflection with Ozanam
Dear friend, you are continually heading out on long and fatiguing journeys that are dangerous to your health (your health has already been severely tested). Bear with me as I express my concern. You say you are seeking to create new sources of interest for yourself...
The Ascension: What Mother Seton Found in the Sky
What does the Ascension of the Lord mean for the world and for our own lives? The answer can be found in the faith journey of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, who kept her gaze firmly fixed on Jesus, through time and eternity.
Mother Deafness – It’s Real!
Mothers might have saved Stanford University a lot of money. Most mothers already know instinctively when “mother deafness” manifests itself in their teenagers.
Reflecting on Haiti: A Vincentian Perspective on Justice and Agency
In Haiti, the echoes of gunfire are as common as the cries for help. The Caribbean nation, marked by a history of upheaval and disaster, now faces an era dominated by gang violence and political instability.
A Vincentian View: A Time for Retreat
One of the Pilgrimage Festivals of Judaism is Shavuot. It translates into English as “weeks’ and thus is sometimes called the “Feast of Weeks” as it marks the seven weeks (the “week of weeks”) between Passover and the feast. In Greek (and English), the translation...
Are You Looking Up or Around?
A late 19th-century artist, James Tissot, graphically posed a question for us. In his depiction of the Ascension, he asks, “Why do you stand looking up into heaven? (Act 1:11)
Contemplation: Under the Cross
This post originally appeared on ssvpusa.org Amélie Ozanam, Blessed Frédéric’s widow, had a brief invocation, or perhaps a motto, that she often added to notes and letters that she wrote. It was “et sub cruce, Hozanna!”, meaning “and under the cross, Hozanna!” in...
Majesty that Jesus Brings forth
Jesus has gone up to heaven and now sits at the right hand of the Majesty on high as Lord. He wants us to be as fully human and whole as he is. On the Lord’s going up to heaven, we read that “to go up” means “to go down.” This matches another text that says Jesus...
An Extraordinary Assembly
Some words that come to mind to describe our experience of the assembly: enlivening, challenging, engaging, hospitable, surprising, interesting, fulfilling, energizing, necessary, healing, messy, faithful, providential, joyful, prayerful, synodal.
