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

Quote of the Day

"Integral human development presupposes the responsible freedom of the individual and of peoples: no structure can guarantee this development over and above human responsibility…Only when it is free can development be integrally human; only in a climate of responsible freedom can it grow in a satisfactory manner."

--Pope Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate, no. 17

Quote of the Day

"If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under."

--U.S. President Ronald Reagan

Quote of the Day

"In the banquet of our life – we might say – at times we realize that the wine is missing: that we lack the strength and many things. It happens when the worries that plague us, the fears that assail us or the overwhelming forces of evil rob us of the taste for life, the exhilaration of joy and the flavour of hope. Take note: in the face of this lack, when the Lord gives, He gives in superabundance. It seems to be a contradiction: the more that is lacking in us, the greater the Lord’s superabundance. Because the Lord wants to celebrate with us, in a feast without end."

--Pope Francis, Angelus Address, January 19, 2025

Quote of the Day

"The 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence will fall under President Trump's second administration. I know from my service on the 1776 Commission, during his first administration, that he will wish to celebrate it with a loud voice and a full throat. May we all go from strength to strength in recovering the meaning of that document and restoring the Constitution that enabled us to make America great in the first place."

--Larry P. Arnn, Imprimis, November 2024

Reflection for Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God

"In Christ, God has truly come into the world, he has entered into our history, he has set his dwelling among us, thus fulfilling the deepest desire of human beings that the world may truly become a home worthy of humanity. On the other hand, when God is put aside, the world becomes an inhospitable place for man, and frustrates creation’s true vocation to be a space for the covenant, for the 'Yes' to the love between God and humanity who responds to him. Mary did so as the first fruit of believers with her unreserved 'Yes' to the Lord....

"Dear brothers and sisters, today we praise the Most Holy Virgin for her faith, and with Saint Elizabeth we too say, 'Blessed is she who believed' (Luke 1:45). As Saint Augustine said, Mary conceived Christ by faith in her heart before she conceived him physically in her womb; Mary believed and what she believed was came to be in her (cf. Sermon 215, 4: PL 38, 1074). Let us ask the Lord to strengthen our faith, to make it active and fruitful in love. Let us implore him that, like her, we may welcome the word of God into our hearts, and carry it out with docility and constancy."

--Pope Benedict XVI, Homily, March 27, 2012