Catholic Faith Corner

• Thanksgiving for Nature
  This week as we thank God for our lives, our family, our home, our country, and so on, let’s not forget to thank God for the beauty and wonders of Earth. And let’s renew our efforts to protect our planet home. Someone noticed that the same letters are in HEART and EARTH. For your reflection,…
• Quiet Prayer: Enjoying God’s Presence
  God speaks to us through various things. Lately I’ve heard his voice recommending a new way of praying in material I have read. In particular, the book Pray to Your Father in Secret by Jean Lafrance has prompted me to change my style of praying during my morning meditation. For years I spent this time…
• Afterlife in Purgatory: The Poor Souls
  When I was writing a textbook series, one day a Jewish employee of the publisher called with an odd question. He asked, “How do you spell Poor Souls? Is it pour, poor, or pore?” Purgatory is pretty much a Catholic belief. In the Creed, we pray that we believe in the Communion of Saints. This…
• Be Like Children
  Last week a Sister who succumbed to Covid asked me to teach her PSR class of first graders at a nearby parish. Although I hadn’t taught for decades, the class went well. When I suggested praying that their teacher would get better, one boy said, “Can we kneel?” So we all did, and I managed…
• Wisdom from the Saints, Our Friends in a High Place
  In honor of the Feast of All Saints (the day after Hallowed Eve), I’m offering eighteen of their words of wisdom. The saints are our heroes. They lived life successfully and show us how to do it. One of my favorite lines comes from St. Turibius, archbishop of Lima, Peru: “Christ called himself the truth…