Spirituality
Readings of the Holy Mass – Third Sunday of Ordinary Time
Read or listen to the readings before Mass with these resources from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, using the New American Bible, Revised Edition.
On the sacraments: Confirmation
A new catechetical series of stories on the Catholic sacraments by our partner Catholic News Service continues with a focus on confirmation, which strengthens the grace received at baptism.
Anointing with holy oil: Consecration and promise, from Moses to Jesus
The use of sacred oil, or chrism, in the sacrament of confirmation recalls a rich spiritual tradition with deep roots in both the Old and New Testaments.
Confirmed in college
At a large, secular university, a confirmation class dropout sensed the emptiness in worldly pleasures -- and the Holy Spirit's call to come home to the church.
Confirmation strengthens our identity as children of God
Baptism and confirmation are closely linked, but not interchangeable. While both impart grace, confirmation strengthens the believer as an active participant of the church's apostolic mission.
A deluge of divine grace
Water, as both life giver and destroyer, appears often in the Scriptures and a little too much in our lives lately, reflects Gina Christian. The Lord is very much in the midst of the floods of our lives.
In God’s plan of salvation, we each have a unique role and a common response
Christ calls all of us to discipleship in a number of ways, writes Msgr. Joseph Prior. While we each play a different part in God's plan, we all begin by humbly listening to the Lord, then answering with open hearts.
Readings of the Holy Mass – Second Sunday of Ordinary Time
Read or listen to the readings before Mass with these resources from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, using the New American Bible, Revised Edition.
In prayer ‘you play hard,’ so ‘challenge the Lord,’ pope says
Courage is needed to stick one's neck out in pursuing and confronting God with one's prayerful appeals, Pope Francis said at daily Mass. "If prayer isn't courageous, it isn't Christian."
Dispensation from Lenten abstinence is easy, isn’t it?
Whether a priest or bishop may allow parishioners to eat meat on say, St. Patrick's Day, during Lent is a more complicated issue than one might think, writes Father Ken Doyle in his weekly Q&A.