National Vocational Awareness Week

This Sunday begins National Vocation Awareness Week here in the United States. It is an opportunity to remind ourselves of the need to pray for vocations to the priesthood, permanent deacons, religious life, and married life. People do not just decide to become priests or religious, it is the result of feeling drawn to the life and the work. It is born from a growing faith and love of Christ and the Church and the conviction that service to the Church through this vocation will not only bring joy but also better the lives of others who are drawn to Christ. (Read more…)

All Saints’ & All Souls’ Day

The second full month of autumn begins with the Solemnity in honor of All Saints: those we know through the church’s official process of canonization, and those who may be known only to God who lived lives of great faith, hope, and love. 

The earliest saints were more or less universally acclaimed, particularly those who were martyred. The formal process that is observed today goes back only to about the 10th century.  Since the Church formally recognizes only a fraction of those who are truly saints in eternity, All Saints’ Day gives us the opportunity to honor those who do not have an official day on the Church’s calendar. (Read more…)

World Mission Sunday

Catholics throughout the world are invited to recommit themselves to the Church’s missionary activity through prayer and sacrifice by observing World Mission Sunday on October 20th. Instituted for the whole Church by Pope Pius XI in 1926, it is traditionally celebrated on the next-to-last Sunday each October.

Today, let us join our brothers and sisters around the world who gather at the Lord’s Table to celebrate, with great joy, our common vocation as missionaries. Our prayers and concrete gestures of solidarity will help build local churches across the globe. (Read more…)