McGrath Institute Blog

Editorial note: This blog is the second in a six-part series featuring our free Lenten resource, "A Scriptural Pilgrimage to Christ Through Lent," written by Lenny DeLorenzo.

“May we bear the wounds of your Son, for through his body he gave us life.”

That’s a hard prayer to pray, but that’s what the Church instructs us to pray on Wednesday morning in the second week of Lent. Who could possibly beg to receive wounds? We are much more comfortable praying to be relieved of our wounds. And yet, the wounds of Christ are the source of healing for our own wounds. To accept his wounds is to be healed of ours.

Editorial note: This blog is the first in a six-part series featuring our free Lenten resource, "A Scriptural Pilgrimage to Christ Through Lent," written by Lenny DeLorenzo. 

In the center of Notre Dame’s campus is a statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The words “Venite Ad Me Omnes” are engraved on the pedestal beneath the figure of Christ with outstretched arms. This is the Son of God who descended from the Father to become one with us. He went all the way down to the bottom of who and what we are, all the while beckoning: “come to me, everyone.”

For the first time, the universal Catholic Church will have the option to celebrate the memorial of the Blessed Virgin of Loreto on December 10. This past October 7, the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, Cardinal Robert Sarah announced that Pope Francis had decreed that the celebration should be inscribed on the Roman Calendar as an optional memorial. 

There is a rich tradition in the Church surrounding guardian angels that goes far beyond the image of a tiny angel perched on one shoulder, opposing the devil perched on the other. Though guardian angels were not given an official feast day until Pope Paul V declared it one in the early 1600s, the Church’s teaching on guardian angels is rooted deeply in both Scripture and Tradition.