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Once while commenting on Jesus’ teaching that “the truth will set you free,” Venerable Fulton Sheen said, “It is easy to find truth.” He quickly added, however, that “it is hard to face it, and harder still to follow it.”

In his letter to the Romans, St. Paul tells us, “The Gospel is the power of God for salvation” (1:16). This simple verse is rich in meaning. When Paul says “the Gospel,” he means the proclamation of what God the Father has done for us in the Person of His Son, Jesus of Nazareth, born of the Virgin Mary.

When we think of health care in America lately, at the top of our concerns is the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the leadership of President Trump, we saw a mobilization of government and the private sector unlike anything since World War II (see ProLifePresident.com), and we witnessed medical history being made by the development of vaccines in record time.

In 1996, I was a newly ordained priest at a parish in Philadelphia. There, I met a little girl named Sarah. She was 10 years old, with long dark hair and the biggest blue eyes I had ever seen. Most of her time was spent at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia because a virus had damaged her heart. She loved rainbows and had made drawings of them in crayon. They were taped to the walls of her hospital room. For six months, the entire parish prayed for Sarah’s recovery.

Unlike the rest of material creation, human beings are self-conscious, thinking beings invested with the capacity for free choice.

The Christian life depends upon multiple things that work together to draw us closer to God. Beginning with Baptism, we receive the gift of God’s grace to assist us on our journey through life.

“She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn” (Luke 2:7).

Among Catholics, A phenomenon has taken place across the United States in recent months as COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted to varying degrees in different dioceses and geographical locations. What is this phenomenon? Low Mass attendance.

“Things have a price and can be for sale, but people have a dignity that is priceless and worth far more than things.” – Pope Francis

Church tradition tells us that parents are the primary educators of their children even in matters of religion. It pertains to the parents to do the day-to-day job of forming the minds of their children regarding those things which they are to believe regarding the Catholic faith. The goal of parenting is for the child to reach the age of majority with an adequate knowledge of his Catholic faith and the sufficient virtues to lead a Catholic life.

“God is our refuge and our strength, an ever-present help in distress. Thus we do not fear, though earth be shaken and mountains quake to the depths of the sea” (Ps. 46:2).

Pope St. John Paul II provided Holy Mother Church with a great corpus that inspired, reaffirmed and evangelized Catholics in an era when everything seemed up for revision. Since then, the Church has moved forward with the New Evangelization, which isn’t so different from the first.

“Faith Seeking Understanding” is a phrase attributed to St. Anselm. It asserts succinctly the nature of the search of truth under the light of faith, which emphasizes our yearning to understand more perfectly — to see, as much as is possible, the truth about the human person, his life, and eternal destiny.

September 11, 2001 changed a lot of people’s lives. For Ronac Mamtani, a senior in college about to launch his financial career at a firm across the street from the Twin Towers, that day crystalized for him his desire to help others and inspired his pivot to a future in medicine.

In southern Poland, as World War II was beginning in early September 1939, a man named Franciszek brought his wife and two little daughters to the town of Kalwaria Zebrzydowska near Krakow where the Franciscans ran a Marian shrine.

Easter is the feast of life, the feast of Christ’s victory over death. Upon coming out of His own grave, Jesus did not only overcome His own death; He overcame yours, mine, and the entire kingdom of death.

I am the pastor of a parish that lays in the shadow of the United Nations building on the East Side of Manhattan. Our church is open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to Friday. We have two daily weekday Masses — one in the early morning, and one at lunch hour.

“[A]t the root of all evangelization lies not a human plan of expansion,” says Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, “but rather the desire to share the inestimable gift that God has wished to give us, making us sharers in His own life” (Ubicumque et Semper).

Choosing what to wear for Mass one morning, I asked the sacristan why he had chosen a vestment that was rather cheap in design and fabric. He replied that it would be more comfortable. Comfort has become the criterion for dress and for manners in general.

Anyone who knows me – just ask my staff at HLI – knows I eagerly look forward to the season of Christmas and the wondrous, life-giving message it brings every year. While many do everything possible to celebrate Christmas, they often do so at the expense of why it is worth celebrating.