When I was a young boy praying the Rosary, the title of the fifth glorious mystery (La Coronación de la Virgen Maria como Reina del Cielo—the Crowning of Mary as Queen of Heaven) led me to visualize a beautiful woman, dressed in royal clothing and wearing a lovely crown of glowing jewels. This was not surprising, since I was formed to imagine the Virgin Mary as an angelic woman, totally beyond our...
Previously in this series: A Theology of Liturgical Evangelization: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4
In his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis argues against the notion that Islam is violent by nature:
During the season of Easter, we often hear passages that seem to establish a non-negotiable barrier between those who accept the Gospel and those who do not. In the Acts of the Apostles, we hear from Paul and Barnabas that “it was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first, but since you reject it and condemn yourselves as unworthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles” (Acts 13:...
Have you ever reached a milestone of achievement of some sort, any sort, and felt the thrill (and perhaps the relief!) at accomplishing something, but the next major challenge in your life has not yet begun? In such moments, it seems like the year seems to pause, and time seems briefly suspended, as though searching for an insight, as though laboring in vision, seeking some moment of revelation, “...
