Every priest and every consecrated religious prays the Liturgy of the Hours and celebrates or attends the Eucharist on a daily basis prays the “Our Father” at least three times a day. Those who pray five decades of the rosary add another six. This means that we pray this prayer over 1,000 times a year. The danger is it becomes so routine that we fail to really appreciate what we...
The story of St. Paul’s conversion appears no fewer than six times in the Christian Scriptures. The story is told three times in the Acts of the Apostles and is repeated in St. Paul’s Letter to the Galatians, and in both St. Paul’s First and Second Letter to the Corinthians. However, as you might expect, the details of the various stories are sometimes conflicting....
Today’s passage from Genesis 2 is a small excerpt from a story that is likely familiar to us all. It has also become a part of secular popular culture. We see characters reference it in movies and television shows, and many songs have made use of the story and its imagery. Even people who know nothing about the Bible are often familiar with it. That is how firmly it has been embedded...
Today’s reading from the Book of Job speaks of his answering God. Because of yesterday’s solemnity, we missed God’s address to Job in a storm. However, Job’s answer gives us an idea of what God said to him. “I have dealt with great things that I do not understand; things too wonderful for me, which I cannot know.” Through these words, Job displays humility...
The French influence on Giovanni Bernardone, better known as Francis of Assisi, was something of a happenstance. St. Francis was born while his father was away from home on a business trip to France. His mother had him baptized in the Church of San Rufino as "Giovanni," or John. When his father returned from a very successful business trip, he renamed his son Francesco, which can be...