McGrath Institute Blog

On the feast of St. Nicholas, it’s customary among Christians to give gifts to loved ones, in anticipation of the greater gift-giving to come at Christmas, and to honor the Myran bishop and his unfailing generosity to those in need.

As our gift this year, I’d like to share a playlist I curated several Advents ago, featuring music to mark this beautiful season. 

Thirty years ago, we stood with Ray Kinsella in an Iowa cornfield, where we heard a voice say for the first time, “If you build it, he will come.” Hailed by sports and cinema enthusiasts alike as one of the greatest baseball movies of all time, Field of Dreams has consistently moved audiences precisely because it’s about so much more than baseball. It’s about hearing, accepting, and sharing a call. It’s about perseverance in uncertainty and adversity. But more than anything, it’s about reconciliation.

This past Saturday, tens of thousands of people crowded into St. Peter's Square in Rome to celebrate as Pope Francis canonized five new saints. Read on to learn about their remarkable lives.

October is the month of the Rosary, and as the Church celebrates Our Lady of the Rosary today, I find myself reflecting on how this prayer has shaped my life of faith. Inevitably, my mind returns to my childhood, to praying the Rosary with my family.