Author Archives: Guest

Heaven Begins Now: Elizabeth of the Trinity

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Young Elizabeth

Next month the Catholic galaxy will become a little brighter as the Church receives a new cluster of saints. Among the holy handful will be just one woman, a French Carmelite considered by Pope Saint John Paul II to be one the most influential mystics of his life.

Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity was born as Elizabeth Catez, “Sabeth” to her friends, in 1880. She was a hot-tempered child with sometimes “furious eyes” whose father died while she was young, forcing her mother to move Sabeth and her younger sister from their home in Dijon to a smaller second-story flat. From her window, little Sabeth could look down into the garden of the Carmelite convent. Read the rest…

A Mom on Mount Carmel

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Along_Camelback_Mountain_trail_September_2008I took a fascinating online class on the nature of Mystical Theology in the Church this Spring. What precious time I could carve out from my busy life as a mom six, I spent delving into the works of St. John of the Cross and meeting a new friend, a little Carmelite mystic named Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity, often called a “spiritual sister” to St. Therese, the Little Flower. Late at night, huddled on the couch while the household slept, I read about the ascent of Mount Carmel, the famous allegory used by St. John of the Cross to describe the spiritual life, the journey of the soul’s toward union with God.

Our professor asked us to write our final paper on our own journey on this mystical mountain. He challenged us to reflect on how we could embrace the self-renunciation necessary to climb closer to the summit. After a few days of mulling this over mounds of laundry and miles of carpooling, here is what I came up with:

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The Two Synods and the Exhortation that Followed Them

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Amoris Laetitia is very much a document of the two synods from which it sprung.
Mary Jo Anderson

In this Oct. 20, 2014, file photo, cardinals gather in the Synod Hall at the Vatican. Church experts say synods should get more input from lay faithful. (CNS photo/Maria Grazia Picciarella, Pool) See SYNOD-BISHOPS-LAY Feb. 18, 2016.

In this Oct. 20, 2014, file photo, cardinals gather in the Synod Hall at the Vatican. Church experts say synods should get more input from lay faithful. (CNS photo/Maria Grazia Picciarella, Pool)

There has been great frenzy the last several days following the presentation of Amoris Laetitia (“The Joy of Love”), Pope Francis’ post-synodal exhortation on the family. The quick take is this: it’s a draw. That collective exhale heard around the world last Friday was the sound of a pause before the next round—maybe in the next pontificate. The orthodox and progressive camps are looking at a glass half-full but also half-empty. Meanwhile, canon lawyers have a collective headache.  Read the rest…

Synod Diary: Denials, Affirmations, and Promises

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Originally posted in The Catholic World Report

The circuli minori release their reports, and eyes turn toward the synod’s final document.

Cardinals Scola and Kasper talk after event marking 50th anniversary of Synod of Bishops at Vatican

Cardinal Angelo Scola of Milan, Italy, talks with German Cardinal Walter Kasper after an event marking the 50th anniversary of the Synod of Bishops in Paul VI hall at the Vatican Oct. 17. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

Vatican journalists were greeted this morning in the Vatican press office with an emphatic denial that Pope Francis has a benign brain tumor. The report, from the Italian national newspaper Quotidiano Nazionale, contained titillating details, such as a hushed helicopter ride from Vatican City to Tuscany where a Japanese surgeon is reported to have met with the Holy Father. A second denial was published on the Vatican website. Read the rest…

Synod Diary: The New Minority

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Originally posted in The Catholic World Report

Timothy Cardinal Dolan summed up the Synod’s fuzzy focus on peripheral issues to the point of creating a New Minority—faithful Catholic families who also struggle against the riptide of secularism

Cardinals Timothy M. Dolan of New York and Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, vice president, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, leave the opening session of the Synod of Bishops on the family at the Vatican Oct. 5. (CNS photo/Paul Haring) Read the rest…

For the Woman Who Wasn’t There: To All the Moms who Watched Philly From Afar

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When we welcomed Pope Francis into our country, I’m sure many of you moms, like me, dreamt of traveling to be with the crowds who were there to celebrate, listen, and pray with the pontiff. Of course, for most of us, it never got further than a fleeting, wishful thought. Read the rest…