Quote of the Day

"In these four weeks of Advent, the liturgy leads us to the celebration of Jesus’ birth, while it reminds us that He comes every day in our life, and will return gloriously at the end of time. This certainty induces us to look with confidence at the future, as the prophet Isaiah invites us to do, who with his inspired voice accompanies the whole Advent journey... The Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem is presented as the point of convergence and of encounter of all peoples. After the Incarnation of the Son of God, Jesus revealed Himself as the true Temple. Therefore, Isaiah’s wonderful vision is a divine promise and drives us to assume an attitude of pilgrimage, of walking towards Christ... Advent is the propitious time to welcome the coming of Jesus, who comes as Messenger of peace to point out to us God’s ways."

--Pope Francis, Angelus Address, December 1, 2019

Quote for Thanksgiving Day

"Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks, for His kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation, for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of His providence, which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war, for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed, for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted, for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which He hath been pleased to confer upon us."

--George Washington, Thanksgiving Proclamation, October 3, 1789

Reflection for the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe

"In the crucified Jesus the divinity is disfigured, stripped of all visible glory and yet is present and real. Faith alone can recognize it: the faith of Mary, who places in her heart too this last scene in the mosaic of her Son's life. She does not yet see the whole, but continues to trust in God, repeating once again with the same abandonment: “Behold, the handmaid of the Lord” (cf. Lk 1:38).

"Then there is the faith of the Good Thief: a faith barely outlined but sufficient to assure him salvation: “Today you will be with me in Paradise” . This “with me” is crucial. Yes, it is this that saves him. Of course, the good thief is on the cross like Jesus, but above all he is on the Cross with Jesus. And, unlike the other evildoer and all those who taunt him, he does not ask Jesus to come done from the Cross nor to make him come down. Instead he says: “remember me when you come into your kingdom”.

"The Good Thief sees Jesus on the Cross, disfigured and unrecognizable and yet he entrusts himself to him as to a king, indeed as to the King. The good thief believes what was written on the tablet over Jesus' head: “The King of the Jews”. He believed and entrusted himself. For this reason he was already, immediately, in the “today” of God, in Paradise, because Paradise is this: being with Jesus, being with God."

--Pope Benedict XVI, Homily, November 21, 2010

Quote of the Day

"We are called to follow the example of the Master, who revealed the immensity of his love on the cross... Indeed, the persecution of Christians does not only happen through mistreatment and weapons, but also with words, that is, through lies and ideological manipulation. Especially when we are oppressed by these evils, both physical and moral, we are called to bear witness to the truth that saves the world; to the justice that redeems peoples from oppression; to the hope that shows everyone the way to peace."

--Pope Leo XIV, Angelus Address, November 16, 2025

Reflection for the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls)

"God is the true wisdom that never ages, the authentic wealth that never corrupts, the happiness to which every man aspires in the depths of his heart. This truth, that passes through the Wisdom Books and re-emerges in the New Testament, comes to fulfillment in the existence and teaching of Jesus. In the perspective of Gospel wisdom, death itself is the bearer of a healthy teaching because it forces us to look reality in the face; it pushes us to recognize the transience of that which appears great and strong in the eyes of the world. In the face of death every reason for human pride vanishes and instead what seriously matters comes to the fore. Everything comes to an end, every one of us is passing through this world. Only God has life in himself; he is life. Ours is a life of participation, given ab alio, thus a man can gain eternal life only because of the particular relationship that the Creator himself has established with him. But God, on seeing man distancing himself from him, made a further step, he created a new relation between himself and us, of which today's Second Reading speaks. He, Christ, 'laid down his life for us' (1 Jn. 3:16)."

--Pope Benedict XVI, Homily, November 3, 2008

Election Watch 2025: Virginia Makes History

by Justin Soutar

Next week, we the people of the Commonwealth of Virginia will elect a female governor for the first time in the nearly 250-year history of our state. This unprecedented and interesting two-woman gubernatorial race pits our popular black Republican Lieutenant Governor, Winsome Earle-Sears--a Jamaican immigrant, Marine veteran, mother, small business owner, first black female state delegate and lieutenant governor, and patriot--against corrupt white former CIA agent and three-term Democratic Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger. We will also elect a new lieutenant governor and cast votes for attorney general, state senators and state delegates. 

Virginia's off-year election contest is drawing national attention because the results will be widely interpreted as indicating the relative strengths or weaknesses of the Republican and Democratic Parties nationwide one year after Republicans swept the White House and Congress and one year before the next elections for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. In many respects, Virginia is a microcosm of the United States as a whole, so any major shifts in the balance of power in Richmond will serve as a barometer for the political weather to expect in the national 2026 elections.

Historically a reliably Republican state, Virginia was unfortunately bought out by the Democratic political machine in 2008 and has voted for every Democratic presidential candidate since then thanks to massive Democratic spending on election advertising and widespread voter fraud in the Commonwealth. However, the illegitimate Democratic occupation of Virginia has never been completely secure, and it has remained a battleground state. In 2009, just one year after Obama carried the state, we handily elected a Republican governor, Bob McDonnell, and the following year Republicans regained control of the U.S. House of Representatives. Again in 2021, the year after Biden carried Virginia by ten points, we elected a Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin, as well as a Republican lieutenant governor and attorney general, and the year following that, Republicans again reclaimed the House. 

What will happen in the Commonwealth next week? There are three main possibilities: 1) Republicans may retain the three statewide offices and the House of Delegates and regain a majority in the State Senate; 2) Democrats may seize all three statewide offices, retain control of the State Senate, and take over the House of Delegates; 3) a mixed result, with minor adjustments to the current configuration, several close and disputed elections, Democrats seizing one or two statewide offices, and each political party celebrating some victories. The Democratic cartel is spending massive amounts of money--some of it from George Soros and the Chinese Communist Party--in a major attempt to reclaim control of the statewide offices, which may seem to favor option 2 and to render option 1 very unlikely. However, Virginia, like the nation as a whole, remains deeply divided politically, so option 3 is probably the most likely outcome. And Donald Trump only lost Virginia by a few points last year, so Republicans may yet manage to pull off a general victory.

This author fully expects Winsome Earle-Sears to win the gubernatorial election, for many reasons. The Republican Party in Virginia is growing stronger, better organized and better funded due to the continuing Trump effect. Millions of Virginians are very happy with the Republican leadership of Governor Glenn Youngkin, Lieutenant Governor Sears, and Attorney General Jason Miyares these past four years on a wide range of issues from abortion to education to taxes to illegal immigration, and these people are energized and turning out in huge numbers to vote Republican. Winsome's traditional values of common sense, hard work, freedom, family, and faith resonate with and represent the average Virginia voter. She has run an excellent grassroots campaign, fundraising aggressively, communicating effectively, and clearly exposing Spanberger's corruption, radicalism, and anger. She will win a significant share of the black vote. Winsome has been tied or very close to Spanberger in the polls since August despite her opponent's two-to-one fundraising advantage. And finally, Governor Youngkin has taken steps within the past two years to clean Virginia's voter rolls and ensure the integrity of our elections. 

Virginia will make history next week, and Republicans and their supporters will have much to celebrate!

Copyright © 2025 Justin D. Soutar.

Quote of the Day

"Beginning with Abraham, the faith of each of his sons represents a constant leaving behind of what is cherished, familiar, and personal, in order to open up to the unknown, trusting in the truth we share and the common future we all have in God. We are all invited to participate in this process of leaving behind the well-known, the familiar. We are all invited to turn toward the God who, in Jesus Christ, opened Himself to us, "breaking down the dividing wall of enmity" (Eph. 2:14) in order to draw us to Himself through the Cross."

--Pope Saint John Paul II, Rise, Let Us Be on our Way (Warner Books, Vatican City/Milan/New York, 2004), p. 213

Quote of the Day

Landing of Columbus at the Island of Guanahaní, West Indies by John Vanderlyn (1846)

"The underlying motive of Columbus' historic voyage was the conversion of those who did not know Christ as the living Son of God who became the Son of Mary. His favorite prayer, said in Latin, was 'Jesu cum Maria sit nobis in via', which means 'May Jesus with Mary be with us on the way.' For Columbus this way meant both the voyage through time into eternity and the voyage in time to bring Mary's faith in her divine Son to a still unbelieving world."

--Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J., Christopher Columbus: The Catholic Discovery of America (Eternal Life, 2012), p. 15

In Defense of the Two-State Solution

by Justin Soutar

As a freelance writer who has been following the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from a Catholic perspective for twenty years, it’s heartbreaking to watch what is now happening in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian Territories, especially Gaza, as the dangerous radical Zionist ideology unleashes its destructive power against hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians and the historic Christian community in the Holy Land continues to dwindle toward extinction. No less disturbing is the hard-heartedness of well-intentioned American conservative politicians, TV and radio commentators, magazine editors, and citizens who, blinded by their wholehearted support for Israel, cannot see the naked evil of radical Zionism or the havoc it is wreaking in the Holy Land and the surrounding Middle East.

Radical Zionism is the fundamental root cause of the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Without the existence and activity of this century-old ideology and movement, no such conflict would have arisen and persisted so stubbornly. The radical Zionists’ trademark crime of seizing Palestinian property outside Israel’s internationally recognized borders, evicting or killing its owners and tenants, and handing it over to illegal European Jewish settlers has instigated and fueled the conflict while provoking occasional wars between Israel and surrounding Arab nations as well as radical “Islamic” terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians by a handful of Palestinians. In this vicious circle of injustice perpetuated by Israeli and Palestinian extremists, radical Zionists bear greater responsibility, as they initiated the cycle of violence and consistently kill and displace far more innocent people than the radical “Muslims” do.

The radical Zionist ideology and movement were founded by a handful of non-religious European Jewish intellectuals who settled illegally in British-occupied Palestine in the early 1900s, often forcing native Palestinians off their ancestral lands in the process. An offshoot of the mainstream (that is, peaceful and legitimate) Zionist movement, which led to the creation of the modern nation of Israel in 1948 and has generally dominated its politics since then, radical Zionism has much in common with the better-known twentieth-century ideologies of Nazism and Communism: it is fundamentally atheistic, secularist, utopian, racist, violent, and genocidal. Its ambitious goal is to expand Israel’s territory until it includes all of the land that was part of the ancient biblical Kingdom of Israel, which stretched from the Nile River in Egypt to the Euphrates River in present-day Iraq, and to create therein an earthly paradise reserved exclusively for European Jews. The radical Zionist ideologues have used, are now using, and will continue to use any and all means necessary to achieve this goal of restoring the “Eretz Yisrael” (“Greater Israel”), including anti-Palestinian propaganda and economic warfare; the Israeli electoral process; mass forced displacement of Palestinian Muslims, Christians, and Jews; illegal immigration and settlement of Palestinian land; bribery; intimidation; terrorism; arbitrary arrest and detention; military invasion, occupation, and annexation; and mass murder.

In their blissful ignorance of radical Zionism, American conservative commentators cite radical “Islam” as the greatest threat to peace in the Middle East. From the perspective of the radical Zionists, this common misconception conveniently deflects public attention from the elephant in the room. Radical Zionism is the more dangerous of the two ideologies because its followers are more widespread, more professional, better organized and trained, better funded, more secretive, more determined, and more violent. Its adherents in Israel, the U.S. and Europe range from headline-grabbing settler-terrorists to behind-the-scenes intelligence operatives to politicians in business suits. Their visibility, activities, and locations may differ, but they are united in a single purpose: to make the dream of the Greater Israel a reality. The radical Zionist movement of the twenty-first century wields an international terrorist organization of greater reach, destruction, and effectiveness than any radical “Muslim” terrorist network, and it is operating virtually unchecked.

The success and influence of the radical Zionist settler movement has waxed and waned through the years depending on various political, diplomatic, social, cultural, and economic factors. Concomitantly, the methods used to illegally acquire Palestinian land parcels and the number of illegal settlements have fluctuated significantly over time. For much of its existence, the movement was limited to small and scattered groups of European Jewish illegal immigrants living permanently in Palestinian territory with the knowledge, if not always the approval or permission, of the Zionist council or the Israeli government. Israeli leaders unsympathetic to radical Zionism have attempted to halt illegal settlement construction altogether, which allowed the peace process to move forward. On the other hand, during those occasional periods when the radical Zionists managed to gain control of the Israeli government and military, illegal settlement construction boomed, provoking further violent conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.

We are in such an unfortunate period now. Following the murder of more than 1,000 Israeli civilians by terrorists from the violent wing of Hamas in October 2023, radical Zionists cunningly played on Israeli citizens’ fears of additional attacks to seize full control of the Israeli government and armed forces. The recent pattern of official Israeli statements and actions clearly indicates the current government’s aggressive and unconditional support for the radical Zionist movement and betrays its genocidal intentions. The current Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is a lifelong radical Zionist who committed terrorist attacks against Palestinian civilians in his youth. His regime is dramatically accelerating the process of establishing the Greater Israel through forced displacement and slaughter of the Palestinian people. The killing of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians and the expulsion of one million more from Gaza is just the tip of the iceberg. Building the Greater Israel will require the unilateral annexation of all Palestinian territory and, eventually, parts of nearby Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Egypt; the obliteration of priceless Jewish, Christian, and Muslim holy sites; the massacre of several million innocent Palestinian and other Arab civilians; and the forced displacement of many millions more Arabs into nearby countries and areas. In other words, genocide, a regional war, cultural destruction, and a massive refugee crisis are in the offing, to say nothing of the environmental and economic devastation the war will inevitably cause. These regional hostilities will expand into a world war if the international community intervenes decisively to stop the radical Zionists from founding the Greater Israel, just as it did eighty-plus years ago to prevent the Nazis from establishing the Third Reich.

In the violent conflict of the last two years (not a “war,” properly speaking, as wars are fought by nation-states, such as Russia and Ukraine) between “Islamic” terrorists from the radical wing of Hamas and the radical Zionist-controlled Israeli military, approximately 3,000 innocent Israelis and 65,000 innocent Palestinians have been killed. It is clear from the outrageously disproportionate nature of the casualties—more than twenty Palestinians for every Israeli—which ideology is bloodier, yet American conservative commentators do not sound the alarm about the dangers of radical Zionism, dismissing factual reports of Palestinian genocide by Israel out of hand, blaming radical “Muslim” terrorists for the Palestinian refugee crisis, and denouncing criticism of Israeli policies as “anti-Semitic”. Whenever an Israeli civilian is killed, these commentators speak and write all about it; but when a Palestinian civilian is killed by violence or starvation, they remain silent or mention it in passing, seeming not to notice or care. Are Israelis and Palestinians not both children of God? Has the Creator not equally endowed them with inalienable rights?

During the twentieth century, Turkey slaughtered its Armenians, Germany killed its Jews, and Pakistan butchered its East Bengalis, to mention just a few modern examples of ethnic cleansing. Yet in most cases, the genocidal tyrants were defeated, often at the cost of a bloody war, and the victim peoples survived to realize their dream of self-determination. In the case of the East Bengalis, the independent nation of Bangladesh came to birth on India’s east-central border. The good of natural law ultimately triumphed over the evil of ideology. Taking a lesson from history, this author predicts that the Palestinian people will survive the current genocide and return to their homeland to establish the independent nation that is rightfully theirs.

In 1948, after careful and extensive research, the recently founded United Nations Organization, led by the United States, approved the establishment of the modern nation of Israel with specific borders and with the understanding that within ten to twenty years, a modern nation of Palestine would be established alongside it. Unfortunately, due to the persistent and outsized influence of the radical Zionist ideology, modern Israel has always illegitimately claimed and occupied various portions of territory beyond its internationally recognized borderlines, and the birth of the Palestinian nation has been delayed indefinitely. Meanwhile, demographic shifts during the past eight decades have only strengthened the Palestinian position. The number of Palestinians during this time has grown rapidly, leading to a high population density in the Palestinian Territories, while the number of Israelis has increased quite modestly by comparison. So if anything, the borderlines drawn by the UN in 1948 are considerably more generous to Israel than they were almost eighty years ago.

It has been the position of the Holy See for decades, which this author shares, that the long-proposed two-state solution, with two independent nations of Israel and Palestine existing side by side within internationally recognized borders and the historic Old City of Jerusalem in a special international zone, is the only way to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and bring real and lasting peace to the Middle East. There can be no peace without justice, and there will be no justice for the Palestinian people until the radical Zionist ideology and movement are defeated. Let us pray daily for the conversion of the radical Zionists and of those well-intentioned commentators whose ignorance and silence allow the evil of radical Zionism to grow more powerful with each passing day.

Copyright © 2025 Justin D. Soutar.

Quote of the Day

"In silence there is collaboration between man and God. The depth of the human soul is God's house. We will be able to let God act by keeping the most perfect interior silence. And it is possible for us to find this silence by being attentive to the voice of silence. Even in a hostile environment, we can find God in ourselves if we seek to listen to the silence that he impresses on our soul."

--Cardinal Robert Sarah, The Power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise (Ignatius Press, 2017), p. 58

Quote of the Day

"Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina was, in the history of the Church, one of the composers who most contributed to the promotion of sacred music, for «the glory of God and the sanctification and edification of the faithful» (Saint Pius X, Motu Proprio Inter Plurimas Pastoralis Officii Sollicitudines, November 22, 1903, 1), in the delicate and at the same time passionate context of the Counter-Reformation. His solemn and austere compositions, inspired by the Gregorian canon, closely unite music and liturgy, «both giving prayer a sweeter expression and fostering unanimity, and enriching the sacred rites with greater solemnity» (Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilum, 112)."

--Pope Leo XIV, Address to Participants in Cardinal Domenico Bartolucci Foundation event, June 18, 2025

Quote of the Day

"The greatest obstacle in the apostolate of the Church is the timidity or rather the cowardice of the faithful."

--Pope Saint Pius X

Quote of the Day

“Happy the soul to whom it is given to attain this life with Christ, to cleave with all one’s heart to him whose beauty all the heavenly hosts behold forever, whose love inflames our love, the contemplation of whom is our refreshment, whose graciousness is our delight, whose gentleness fills us to overflowing, whose remembrance makes us glow with happiness, whose fragrance revives the dead, the glorious vision of whom will be the happiness of all the citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem."

--Saint Clare of Assisi

Quote of the Day

"The way in which this 'wasteful' sower throws the seed is an image of the way God loves us. Indeed, it is true that the destiny of the seed depends also on the way in which the earth welcomes it and the situation in which it finds itself, but first and foremost in this parable Jesus tells us that God throws the seed of his Word on all kinds of soil, that is, in any situation of ours: at times we are more superficial and distracted, at times we let ourselves get carried away by enthusiasm, sometimes we are burdened by life’s worries, but there are also times when we are willing and welcoming. God is confident and hopes that sooner or later the seed will blossom."

--Pope Leo XIV, General Audience, May 21, 2025

Quote of the Day

"But if you are sheep, rest assured that the Lord will defend you from the wolves. Be humble. He asks us to be like this, to be meek and with the will to be innocent, to be disposed to sacrifice; this is what the lamb represents: meekness, innocence, dedication, tenderness. And He, the Shepherd, will recognize His lambs and protect them from the wolves. On the other hand, wolves disguised as lambs are unmasked and torn to pieces... If I want to be the Lord’s, I have to allow Him to be my Shepherd; and He is not the shepherd of wolves, He is the shepherd of lambs, meek, humble, kind as the Lord is."

--Pope Francis, General Audience, February 15, 2023

Quote of the Day

"A nation of well informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the region of ignorance that tyranny begins."

--Benjamin Franklin

Reflection for the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

"It is indeed haste, so present in our lives, that very often prevents us from feeling compassion. Those who think that their own journey must take precedence are not willing to stop for another. But here comes someone who is actually able to stop: he is a Samaritan, hence a person belonging to a despised people ...Religiosity does not enter into this. This Samaritan simply stops because he is a man faced with another man in need of help. Compassion is expressed through practical gestures... because if you want to help someone, you cannot think of keeping your distance, you have to get involved, get dirty, perhaps be contaminated; he binds the wounds after cleaning them with oil and wine; he loads him onto his horse, taking on the burden, because one who truly helps is willing to feel the weight of the other’s pain; he takes him to an inn where he spends money, 'two silver coins', more or less two days of work; and he undertakes to return and eventually pay more, because the other is not a package to deliver, but someone to care for. Dear brothers and sisters, when will we too be capable of interrupting our journey and having compassion? When we understand that the wounded man in the street represents each one of us. And then the memory of all the times that Jesus stopped to take care of us will make us more capable of compassion. Let us pray, then, that we can grow in humanity, so that our relationships may be truer and richer in compassion. Let us ask the Heart of Jesus for the grace increasingly to have the same feelings as him."

--Pope Leo XIV, General Audience, May 28, 2025

Quote of the Day

"I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free.... [S]uch persons of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States.... And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God."

--Abraham Lincoln, Emancipation Proclamation, January 1, 1863

Quote of the Day

"When he [Jesus] says he has manifested God's name and that he will manifest it further, he is not speaking of some new word that he has communicated to men as a particularly felicitious designation for God. The revelation of the name is a new mode of God's presence among men, a radically new way in which God makes his home with them. In Jesus, God gives himself entirely into the world of mankind: whoever sees Jesus sees the Father (cf. Jn. 14:9)."

--Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth--Part Two: From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection (Ignatius Press, 2011), pp. 91--92

Quote of the Day

“Tribulations, if we bear them patiently for the love of God, appear bitter at first, but they grow sweet, when one gets accustomed to the taste.”

--Saint Philip Neri

Quote of the Day

"It is the Risen Lord, present among us, who protects and guides the Church, and continues to fill her with hope through the love 'poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us' (Rom 5:5). It is up to us to be docile listeners to his voice and faithful ministers of his plan of salvation, mindful that God loves to communicate himself, not in the roar of thunder and earthquakes, but in the “whisper of a gentle breeze” (1 Kings 19:12) or, as some translate it, in a “sound of sheer silence.” It is this essential and important encounter to which we must guide and accompany all the holy People of God entrusted to our care."

--Pope Leo XIV, Address to Cardinals, May 10, 2025

Quote of the Day

"The Guardian of the Redeemer taught Jesus the carpenter's trade, but above all he set him the most valuable example of what Scripture calls the 'fear of God', the very beginning of wisdom, which consists in religious submission to him and in the deep desire to seek and always carry out his will. This, dear friends, is the true source of blessing for every person, for every family and for every nation."

--Pope Saint John Paul II, Homily, May 1, 2000

Reflection for the Octave of Easter

"All too often we look at life and reality with downcast eyes; we fix our gaze only on this passing day, disenchanted by the future, concerned only with ourselves and our needs, settled into the prison of our apathy, even as we keep complaining that things will never change. In this way, we halt before the tomb of resignation and fatalism; we bury the joy of living. Yet tonight the Lord wants to give us different eyes, alive with hope that fear, pain and death will not have the last word over us. Thanks to Jesus’ paschal mystery, we can make the leap from nothingness to life. 'Death will no longer be able to rob our life'(K. Rahner), for that life is now completely and eternally embraced by the boundless love of God. True, death can fill us with dread; it can paralyze us. But the Lord is risen! Let us lift up our gaze, remove the veil of sadness and sorrow from our eyes, and open our hearts to the hope that God brings!"

--Pope Francis, Homily, April 16, 2022

Reflection for Holy Week

"According to rabbinic theology, the idea of the covenant--the idea of establishing a holy people to be an interlocutor for God in union with him--is prior to the idea of the creation of the world and supplies its inner motive. The cosmos was created, not that there might be manifold things in heaven and earth, but that there might be a space for the 'covenant', for the loving 'yes' between God and his human respondent. Each year the Feast of Atonement restores this harmony, this inner meaning of the world that is constantly disrupted by sin, and it therefore marks the high point of the [Jewish] liturgical year....

"Jesus' prayer [at the Last Supper] manifests him as the high priest of the Day of Atonement. His Cross and his exaltation is the Day of Atonement for the world, in which the whole of world history--in the face of all human sin and its destructive consequences--finds its meaning and is aligned with its true purpose and destiny."

--Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth--Holy Week: From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection (Ignatius Press, 2011), pp. 78--79

Quote of the Day

"A first call to conversion thus comes from the realization that all of us are pilgrims in this life; each of us is invited to stop and ask how our lives reflect this fact. Am I really on a journey, or am I standing still, not moving, either immobilized by fear and hopelessness or reluctant to move out of my comfort zone? Am I seeking ways to leave behind the occasions of sin and situations that degrade my dignity? It would be a good Lenten exercise for us to compare our daily life with that of some migrant or foreigner, to learn how to sympathize with their experiences and in this way discover what God is asking of us so that we can better advance on our journey to the house of the Father."

--Pope Francis, Message for Lent 2025