One Catholic Life Blog

Pope Francis at General Audience

Spirituality

Pope Francis on Living Holy Week

In his first general audience, Pope Francis challenges us to “go out of ourselves”: “Living Holy Week is always going deeper into God’s logic, into the logic of the Cross, which is not first and foremost a logic of sorrow and death but one of love and the self giving that brings life. It is entering into the logic of the Gospel. Following, accompanying Christ, staying with him when he demands that we ‘go out’: out of ourselves, out of a tired and habitual way of living the...

8th Grade Conclave

Catholic Education / Teaching

Our 8th Grade Conclave Makes the News

I didn’t get a chance to post about this earlier, but before Pope Francis was elected we held our own conclave in the eighth grade. Two local media outlets covered the story, and unlike the conclave in Rome, we let them in for a peek. Here’s an excerpt from the story in our local paper, along with video coverage: Before Jorge Bergoglio was selected as the new pope Wednesday, students at All Saints Catholic School held their own conclave. They came dressed in red capes. Some were made...

The Court Jester

Family / Movies

10 Great Family Movies You and Your Kids Probably Haven’t Seen

Catholic film critic Steven Greydanus gives his list of ten movies kids probably haven’t seen that are well worth their (and your) time: Kids today are lucky if they know the likes of The Wizard of Oz, The Song of Bernadette, Singin’ in the Rain, The Sound of Music, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Babe and The Iron Giant. Lots of good stuff there (though older movies may require adult mediation to help kids adjust to the slower rhythms of the Golden Age). But what’s really off the beaten path for kids today? What have most kids...

Liturgy

Pope Francis Goes to Jail to Wash Feet

From Whispers in the Loggia: In a sudden announcement this morning from the Holy See, Pope Francis has yet again turned Vatican protocol on its head – shredding the earlier plan of beginning the Easter Triduum in St Peter’s Basilica, the new pontiff has instead opted to go to a juvenile prison in Rome to celebrate Holy Thursday’s Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper, at which he’ll wash the feet of 12 inmates. The opening chapter of the church’s most sacred moment of the year, while the rite...

Pope Francis Preaches

Spirituality

We Must Not Be Afraid of Tenderness – Pope Francis’ Inauguration

A few moments and words from Pope Francis’ Mass of Inauguration earlier today: Pope Francis Descends Popemobile to Bless Disabled Man Before Mass Begins Pope Francis – Homily at Mass of Inauguration Please, I would like to ask all those who have positions of responsibility in economic, political and social life, and all men and women of goodwill: let us be “protectors” of creation, protectors of God’s plan inscribed in nature, protectors of one another and of the environment. Let us not allow omens of destruction and death...

Glory Days

Homily

Glory Days – Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Lent – Year C

Some of you may know a Bruce Springsteen song from 1984 called “Glory Days.” In the song, Springsteen sings about a group of middle-aged friends sitting at a local bar longing for “the good ol’ days,” the glory days. The days when you could blow a fastball by a hitter. The days when all the boys’ heads would turn when you walked by. The glory days. You can imagine these friends sitting together drinking, maybe unhappy with the way their lives have turned out, frustrated at unfulfilled dreams,...

Disneyland Castle

Friends / Homily

Of Kingdoms and Happy Places – A Funeral Homily

Today I gave my first funeral homily. I never expected it would be for someone so close. To my colleague and friend, Mary Feezell. Readings: Wisdom 3:1-6 2 Timothy 4:7-8 Mark 10:13-16 Some people call it “The Happiest Place on Earth.” Others call it “The Magic Kingdom.” Anyone who knew Mary, or who looked at the memory table as we walked in, knows that Mary loved Disneyland. If Mary wasn’t telling you about the trip she just took to Disneyland, she was telling you about the next trip...

Jean Valjean

Books and Reading / Homily / Movies / Spirituality

Les Misérables and the Transfiguration: Homily for the Second Sunday of Lent

The Academy Awards are this weekend, and normally they don’t hold much interest for me, but this year I’m pleased to say that one of my old friends is nominated for a major award. I’ve been teaching the novel Les Misérables for almost twenty years and it has become a steady companion to me each Lent as the eighth graders and I read it at this time every year. The latest movie of the novel is a film version of the Broadway musical starring Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway,...

Prayer is like a child crying

Prayer / Spirituality

Like a Child Crying Tearfully for Its Mother: St. John Chrysostom on Prayer

This morning’s second reading from the Office of Readings is a beautiful meditation on prayer by St. John Chrysostom. It’s easy to forget that prayer is an orientation of the heart more than a specific act in time, but St. John reminds us that authentic prayer colors every moment of every day: Prayer and converse with God is a supreme good: it is a partnership and union with God. As the eyes of the body are enlightened when they see light, so our spirit, when it is intent...

Ceramic Squirrels

Homily

Homily for the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C

I wonder how many of us have hidden in the back corner of the storage closet somewhere, a collection of wedding gifts that didn’t quite match our personalities. The set of ceramic squirrels, that yogurt maker, the 3D picture of horses? We welcomed the gifts graciously, and then promptly put them away. Maybe we bring them out when the people who gave them to us comes to visit, but then they goes back in the closet and continue to collect dust. In the gospel today, the young newlyweds...

J.R.R. Tolkien

Books and Reading / Theology

The Purpose of Life According to J.R.R. Tolkien

In 1969, Camilla Unwin, daughter of publisher Rayner Unwin, asked J.R.R. Tolkien to help her with a school project by giving an answer to the question, “What is the purpose of life?” After a fairly lengthy letter, Tolkien gets to the heart of his response: “So it may be said that the chief purpose of life, for any one of us, is to increase according to our capacity our knowledge of God by all the means we have, and to be moved by it to praise and thanks.”...