Graduate Leaving Home? Our Lady Understands the “Empty Nest”

The beauty of the month of May is reflected not only in nature but also in its dedication to Our Lady and in recognition of our earthly mothers. Additionally, it is the traditional time of great rejoicing as colleges and universities across the country celebrate commencement ceremonies.
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Servant of God Chiara Corbella Petrillo: Shining a Light on the Sanctity of Life

I love the Saints.  I love that the Church gives them to us, raises them up so that we can see what holiness looks like lived out in this life.  I love that they point to something better, brighter.  What we see in shadows, little hints in the sacrament of the everyday, the heavenly saints behold in full glory.  Here in the shadowlands we strain for a pale shimmer of heavenly sunrise, while they stand in full sun.

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The Grunt Padre: A Holy Week Journey Toward Sainthood

As a Lieutenant in the U. S. Navy Chaplain Corps, Father Vincent Capodanno finally reached a much-anticipated goal, arriving in Vietnam during Holy Week, 1966. While he couldn’t know it at the time, stepping onto Vietnamese soil initiated his journey to his own personal passion, his own way of the cross, at the same time that the Passion of Jesus was being commemorated.

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Saint Joseph: Celebrate Him, Celebrate His Feast!

As a devout Jew and a man of deep faith, Joseph of Nazareth would have been highly familiar with the Scriptural promises of a Messiah. While he surely prayed for His coming, the humble carpenter never could have foreseen the crucial role he himself would play in the daily life of this Messiah for whom he longed.

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Pray for an Ember! Holding Our Tongues through Lent and Beyond

Then I said, ‘Woe is me, I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips’…Then one of the seraphim flew to me, holding an ember which he had taken with tongs from the altar. He touched my mouth with it. ‘See,’ he said, ‘now that this has touched your lips, your wickedness is removed, your sin purged.’” (Isaiah 6:5 – 7)

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Following a New Path – When God Changes His Mind

When it comes to following God’s will, the most challenging task can be figuring out just what His will is. Of course, prayer is a vitally important tool in this discernment process. Best case scenario: we ask God to disclose His plan for us, and circumstances fall into place, quickly and effortlessly, to lead us in the right direction.

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