For many years now, the Church in the United States has designated the third weekend of September “Catechetical Sunday” to coincide with the beginning of the new School year. 

Here is a timely quote from the national catechetical office of the US Catholic Bishops on religious education:

Catechesis is a distinct and special ministry in the Church. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church makes clear, “Catechesis is intimately bound up with the whole of the Church’s life . (Read more…)

The Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, which will be celebrated on Monday, September 14th, has roots in the historical triumph of Christianity. It commemorates the fourth-century discovery of the True Cross by Saint Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine. Yet, more than this historical event, the feast celebrates the ultimate triumph of the Cross itself. A symbol of execution and shame was transformed into the source of our salvation.

Just as Christ embraced his Cross, we too are called to accept the burdens and sufferings in our own lives, not with despair, but with faith and hope. (Read more…)

We know that everyone has a birthday. The Bible doesn’t say anything about Mary’s birth, but we know that she was born. Like all parents, Mary’s parents — we call them Joachim and Ann — probably took one look at their newborn daughter and knew that she was special.

Joachim and Ann loved God very much, and they were filled with gratitude to God for the gift of a child. They raised Mary as a child of God, teaching her to love and serve God. (Read more…)

Yesterday, August 29th, we celebrated the martyrdom of St. John the Baptist. The drunken oath of a king with a shallow sense of honor, a seductive dance and the hateful heart of a queen combined to bring about the martyrdom of John the Baptist. The greatest of prophets suffered the fate of so many Old Testament prophets before him: rejection and martyrdom. The “voice crying in the desert” did not hesitate to accuse the guilty, did not hesitate to speak the truth. (Read more…)

Pope Pius XII established this feast in 1954. But Mary’s queenship has roots in Scripture. At the Annunciation, Gabriel announced that Mary’s Son would receive the throne of David and rule forever. At the Visitation, Elizabeth calls Mary “mother of my Lord.” As in all the mysteries of Mary’s life, she is closely associated with Jesus: Her queenship is a share in Jesus’ kingship. We can also recall that in the Old Testament the mother of the king has great influence in court. (Read more…)

Yesterday, August 15th, the church has always held to the belief that Mary was assumed, body and soul, into a heavenly state, even though the belief was not declared as dogmatic until 1950. The early church had a robust tradition of revering relics from the saints of the day, and their complete lack of relics from the Mother of Jesus was seen as evidence of this Marian belief. The celebration of the event as a feast dates back to the fourth century in the East and the seventh century in the West. (Read more…)