A message from the Apostolic Penitentiary on March 20 announces the granting of special indulgences for the victims of COVID-19. The Apostolic Penitentiary, formerly called the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Penitentiary, is a dicastery of the Roman Curia and is one of the three ordinary tribunals of the Apostolic See. It applies to those…
Let us tell him what is in our minds and ask him to intercede for us! St. John Eudes was born on a farm in northern France. He was 79 years old when he died, and with all he accomplished, at the end of his live he was living only in the next county. During…
These stories will put our momentary fast from the Body and Blood of Christ into perspective. With dioceses around the world canceling public Masses for weeks to come, many Catholics are already feeling starved for the Eucharist. When the world is fighting a global pandemic, it seems that the Mass would be more necessary than…
We heard Matthew’s Gospel on Ash Wednesday–an invitation to Lenten traditional practices: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. As we do every year, the parish invites us to deepen our prayer life and particularly using the booklets available at the back of the church and discover and pray the Stations of the Cross alone or with a…
A couple of weeks ago, I decided to move a TV from one room of my house to another. There were cable outlets in both rooms, so I just unplugged the TV from one room, lugged the TV to the other room and plugged in the cable from that room. What could go wrong?! Of…
In 2005, I had the privilege of visiting the Jordan River in the land of Palestine, the site of today’s reading. The Jordan is not a wide river like the Mississippi – you can’t take boats on it. It’s perhaps better described as a stream or a creek, maybe 50 feet wide at most. For…
Fr. Gerard Lecomte, CJM The feast of the Holy Family is a relative newcomer on the calendar, first observed in 1921 on the Sunday within the octave of Epiphany and then in 1969 moved to the Sunday within the octave of Christmas. First and foremost, this Sunday is part of the Christmas season. In the…
I don’t know if you saw it in the news, but an elderly woman in France recently had a small painting assessed that had been hanging on the wall between her kitchen and living room. It had been in the family for years and she thought it was a nice icon. It turns out that…
For the last several weeks, we’ve been following Jesus as he journeys from Galilee to Jerusalem to face his final days. As we heard last week, as soon as he gets to Jerusalem, he encounters opposition from the religious authorities, as they attempt to trap him into an untenable position so he can be labeled…
Fr. Gerard Lecomte, CJM Pope Leo I (400–461), also known as Saint Leo the Great, was Bishop of Rome from 440 to when he died in 461. Recently, Pope Benedict XVI said that Leo’s papacy “was undoubtedly one of the most important in the Church’s history.” He is known for having met Attila the Hun in 452…