Theologian or Song Lyric? Take the Quiz!
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Our Lady of Where? 6 Marian Apparitions You Probably Didn’t Know About
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You know the Marian apparitions of Guadalupe and Lourdes, Fatima and the Miraculous Medal, but the Blessed Virgin Mary has appeared many other times and in many other places. Here are some approved apparitions you may not have heard of. Our Lady of Laus In May 1664, seventeen year old Benoite Rencurel saw a
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Benedict XVI is Pretty Much the Theological Equivalent of Batman
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Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, whose baptismal name is Joseph Ratzinger, turned ninety years old on Sunday, April 16, 2017 (Easter Sunday this year)! Pope Emeritus Benedict recently released his much-anticipated last book, Last Testament: In His Own Words, with Peter Seewald . If you are so inclined, you can find my review of the book on Catholic Exchange.
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You Won’t Believe the Papal Relics We Have!
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What are relics? Relics are any body part (sometimes the entire body), blood, possession, piece of clothing, or pieces of cloth touched to the remains of a saint and popes are those cool dudes who take their role as servant of the whole Church from St. Peter and Christ’s edict to him. There’s two “classes” of
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6 Super Cool Chairs the Popes Have Used
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Popes have to sit in a lot of different chairs and in different places. Here are 6 of the coolest papal chairs (and some are relics, too!) we could find. 1. Papal Throne This is the chair the current pope usually sits on while in the Vatican and is located in the apse of
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Like Learning? Here’s the Unsung Heroes of Catholic Schools Week
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Happy Catholic Schools Week, everyone! In honor of this great week, let’s explore some of those who have helped shape what Catholic schools are today. Saint John Baptist de La Salle Saint John Baptist de La Salle founded the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools and was an innovator in the field of education.
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Here’s 31 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About St. Brigid of Ireland
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Saint Brigid of Ireland, whose feast day is February 1st, led a fascinating life. Here’s several facts we bet you didn’t realize yet: 1. Brigid was born in Ireland in 450 AD 2. She was a disciple of St. Patrick, who baptized her parents, then her. 3. Brigid’s father was a pagan and
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12 Reasons You Should Start Studying St. Augustine Immediately
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St. Augustine walks in the panoply of the greatest saints of the church. Saints like Thomas Aquinas, Benedict, and of course the Blessed Mother. His influence remains even 1600 years after his death and doesn’t seem to be waning in the least. Aurelius Augustinus was born in Thagaste in AD 354. After a youth full
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Are these not some of the most stunning chalices you’ve ever seen?
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Remember back to that scene in “Indian Jones and the Last Crusade” when Indy (played by Harrison Ford) was forced to pick the “true” Holy Grail from several shelves of Chalices to save the life of his father? Donovan (played by Julian Glover) drinks from the wrong one and dies, whereas Indy picks the correct one and gains
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Even More Catholic Facts That Will Make You Look Like The Smartest Person Ever (#9 cracked the editor up)
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Our faith is always challenging us to look deeper and go “further up and further in.” No matter how much you may know, there are always more things to discover. That’s the beauty of investigation and discovery and if we are not learning each and every day, we are wasting our potential and not using
The Unexpected Story of the Christmas Truce of 1914
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It is true that on December 7, 1914, Pope Benedict XV suggested a temporary hiatus of the war for the celebration of Christmas. The warring countries refused to create any official cease-fire, but on Christmas the soldiers in the trenches declared their own unofficial truce. During World War I, on and around Christmas Day 1914,
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10 Times Catholic Dogma DIDN’T Change When People Thought It Would
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Church teachings change, right? Hey, the Catholic Church modernized with Vatican II, so it’s bound to happen again, especially since Pope Francis is so progressive. Right, eh? Wrong. The Church teachings that change are non-dogmatic traditions like wearing chapel veils or not eating meat on Fridays. Doctrine develops slowly over time, which means that the teachings on the
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10 Times The Desert Fathers Mastered the Comment Box
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Recently, I found myself remarking that things in the Catholic blogosphere have been getting so bewilderingly toxic that I could literally post nothing but the text of the Nicene Creed and reasonably expect at least three people to reply something like “Just like a LIBERAL/CUCKSERVATIVE. Your AGENDA is RUINING the Church! !!” I was half-joking
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10 Biblical Names of Jesus and their Pivotal Meanings
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In Luke 1, Gabriel told Mary to call her son Jesus, which means “God saves”. Throughout the Bible, we are also told of Jesus’ many other names, along with their meanings. Here are a few. 1. The Word John 1 gives us this profound name of Jesus. John explains that from the beginning of
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The Early Church Fathers Said WHAT?! — Things You’ll Never Believe, but Should
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If we don’t know where we came from and who went before us, we feel lost and end up seemingly drifting in the wind wherever it takes us. We need a foundation, on a “Rock”, or at least on a steady barque, in order to make it through the storms of the world. Without these
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11 Historical Facts You Probably Didn’t Know about the Hail Mary, but Should
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1. A devotion to the Hail Mary prayer can be traced to the 1100s. Abbot Baldwin, the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1184 wrote about a devotion to the ‘Hail Mary’ prayer and said, “To this salutation of the Angel, by which we daily greet the most Blessed Virgin, with such devotion as we may, we
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The Man Who Founded California-Book Review
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After I opened the envelope which contained the book, The Man Who Founded California, The Life of Saint Junipero Serra, by M.N.L. Couve de Murville, Archbishop Emeritus of Birmingham, England (Ignatius Press), I was so excited to learn more about this saint who brought so many native Californians to Christ. Immediately, I flipped through the 130
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Unsung Heroes of the Catholic Church in the United States
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Most of us are probably familiar with the contributions people like St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and soon-to-be-canonized Junipero Serra made to the Catholic Church in America. It is also well known that the colony of Maryland was founded as a haven for English Catholics (the patriarch of Maryland’s founding family, the Calverts, had been removed
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10 Historical Periods in the Church Worse Than Today
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It is very easy for us to fall into the trap of believing that our age is some how special or much worse compared to previous ages. From the standpoint of world history, the last Century was the bloodiest on record, that seems to be undeniably true. But what about in Church History? The Synod on the
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