Tagged: Pope Francis

Vatican Museums Spiral Staircase

Homily

Running in Circles or Climbing the Circular Staircase? – Homily for the First Sunday of Advent – Year A

Today marks the beginning of another liturgical year. It’s Advent, that time of joyful preparation. But so often, rather than marking a period of peaceful preparation, Advent marks the beginning of the season of stress and worry. Will I survive Black Friday? Will the gift arrive in time? Where do we spend Christmas? Will the flight be delayed? Will the pass be snowed in? Will I get what I want? What do I wear to the Christmas party? At the very time of year we are invited to...

Baptism Homework from Pope Francis

Spirituality

A Strange and Wonderful Thing Happened to Me Today

But first a little background: Back in September, I read about some homework that Pope Francis gave to his audience: look up the date of your Baptism. He was making the connection that the Church is our mother: “The day of our Baptism is the day of our birth in Church, the day our Mother Church gives us birth, how beautiful.” I have to admit that I didn’t know the date of my own Baptism, so I made it a point to dig out my Baptismal certificate and...

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...

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,...