Bestselling novelist Michael O’Brien returns to the theme of people of faith striving to find their way through a condition of societal collapse during the rise of new dimensions of totalitarianism.
In this scenario, set in the near future, all of North America is plunged into a maximum crisis as basic communications and other services suddenly and inexplicably fail. As the tension mounts, a disparate group of people come together from several directions, apparently by coincidence, many of them strangers to each other, some very young, whom their rescuers call “our pied piper children.”
Moved by grace and dreams, they leave behind all securities and endure numerous alarming trials as they follow the thread of inspiration, seeking refuge in the mountains of British Columbia. Their choice to proceed in blind faith will bring about unforeseen consequences that are fully revealed only in the distant future.
LTFH, Sewn Hardcover, $21.95
“A harrowing and compelling tale — not unlike the classic 1984 or Booker Prize Winner Prophet Song — of a future that feels impossibly foreign while within reach. Yet O’Brien’s tale differs from the traditional dystopian genre by offering an unbreakable thread of hope. An epic and gripping adventure!”
— Katherine Reay, Author, The Berlin Letters
“Michael O’Brien has become the greatest storyteller of our times: he urges his numberless readers to confront the expanding Babylon of today.”
— Kevin Wells, Author, The Hermit
“A haunting vision of societal collapse, yet with rays of hope shining on every page. A tale of faith under fire, where noble characters cling to their deepest beliefs despite overwhelming opposition.”
— Fr. Michael Brisson, Author, Death in Black and White
“Set in a future in which technology is a thing of the past, O’Brien’s novel shows that the first things will indeed be the last things because they are the permanent things. Great storytelling that weaves together prophecy, mystery, time with eternity.”
— Joseph Pearce, Author, Tolkien: Man and Myth
Other Novels by Michael O’Brien
May-June 2025
THE JUBILEE 2025 | PILGRIMS OF HOPE
Catholics Journey to Hundreds of US Jubilee Pilgrimage Sites
This new series for 2025 celebrates the year of jubilee
GARY GATELY
Our Mother Mary, The First Disciple
As missionary disciples, we find our way to Jesus through Mary
CARDINAL JOSEPH W. TOBIN, CS s R
LIVING THE CATECHISM
Essentials for learning and practicing the Catechism of the Catholic Church
PUBLICATIONS STAFF
The Life of Saint Carlo Acutis: From Coding to Canonization
Follow the first millennial saint’s journey to sainthood
SCRIPTURE SCOOP
Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul
WILLIAM A. ANDERSON, DMIN, PhD
Mary, The Mother of Jesus
to Mary helps us discover and embrace the mystery of Christ
Let It Be
Look to the Blessed Mother when seeking God’s will in your life DAVID WERNING
KINDNESS CALENDAR
2025
Useful suggestions to help you grow and live out your faith
MIKE MCANDREW, CS s R
Everybody’s Grandma A faithful woman’s two consuming passions reveal the secrets of life
Moms and Dads
origin of two special days
May–June Columnists
Scott Czarnopys (“Face to Face”) is married to his beautiful wife, Arley, and has two children, Haven and Daxton. He is an elementaryschool principal serving in his fourteenth year at Saint Patrick School, a thriving semi-rural Catholic school in the Grand Rapids area of Michigan.
Fr. Peter D. Hill, CSsR (“Plain Talk”), is a Redemptorist missionary who has served as parish priest of Holy Cross Roman Catholic Church, Santa Cruz, Trinidad and Tobago; director of Holy Redeemer Retreat House, Dominica; and formation co-director at North American Redemptorist Formation House in San Antonio, Texas.
Fr. Michael McAndrew, CSsR (“Padre Migrante”), has served for thirtyplus years in Redemptorist Hispanic ministry initiatives, youth ministry, bilingual parish missions, and farmworker ministry. He works with the Catholic Migrant Farmworker Network, directed a Campesino ministry, and recently published a book with Liguori Publications: Walk With My People: A Life in Migration Ministry (828720).
Br. Raymond Pierce, CSsR (“The Lighter Side”), is a native of Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. His ministry is storytelling via email. Every week, he sends “Morning Smiles” emails of humor and personal stories to nearly 1,000 senior citizens.
Fr. Thomas M. Santa, CSsR (“A Word from the Publisher”), was named president and publisher of Liguori Publications in January 2024, his second assignment as the company’s leader. Professed as a Redemptorist in 1973, his ministries have included retreat work and writing reflections for the Scrupulous Anonymous newsletter.
Tim and Julie Smith (“Kitchen Table Gospel”) have been professional music ministers in the Phoenix area for more than thirty-five years. They have written and recorded dozens of music collections, including liturgical music, theater music, children’s music, and bilingual music, and their songs have been published in multiple hymnals.
Adam Tran-Chung (“Social Media Perspectives”) is a student of the Redemptorists and is studying philosophy at St. John’s University in New York City. He is an accomplished concert pianist and organist and enjoys composing liturgical music. He is interested in exploring how social media can be used as a tool for evangelization.
Vinita Hampton Wright (“Redemptive Living”) worked in religious book publishing for more than three decades. She is retired and continues to write, edit, and present retreats and workshops on creativity, writing, and prayer. She works as a spiritual director in Northwest Arkansas.
Mary shows us by her words and example how we should love and serve others, our sisters and brothers in Christ.
CARDINAL JOSEPH W. TOBIN, CSSR
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Liguorian is named after our founder and patron saint, St. Alphonsus Liguori (1696–1787), Doctor of the Church, bishop, patron of confessors, moral theologian, prolific writer, pastoral theologian par excellence, and founder of the Redemptorist Congregation. It is in his spirit and inspired by the charism he shared with us, “With him there is plentiful redemption for all,” that this magazine and all pastoral educational products of Liguori Publications proudly claim we always strive to be Catholic, Pastoral, Trusted. To learn more about the Redemptorists, visit Redemptorists.com
A Catholic Memory or Two
Memories of growing up Catholic are pretty much a mixed bag. Some Catholic faithful have very positive memories. Others, including members of my own family, have memories that they find unpleasant. And it is not only my family and the people close to me who have a mixture of memories. On numerous occasions, I can recall popular celebrities sharing with their audiences that they are Catholic, followed by stories that illustrate their Catholicism. Sometimes, their stories are sad, but often they are happy and even humorous.
The comedian John Mulvaney tells a story about returning to Christmas Eve Mass with his mother after not having gone for a few years—a fact he had not shared with her. He was unaware that, during his absence, the responses to some parts of the Mass had changed. The priest greeted the people with, “The Lord be with you,” and John responded loudly and enthusiastically, “And also with you,” only to discover that the response was now, “And with your spirit.” In a single instant, his mother knew that he had not been attending Mass. His hidden truth was revealed without him even knowing that the revelation was upon him.
The popular play Late Nite Catechism (1993), a oneperson comedy written by Vicki Quade and Maripat Donovan about a fictional Catholic nun, was also illustrative of this point. The show was in the form of participatory theater, where the audience was in “Sister’s” class, and the memories and antics played out in real time. The result of the back-and-forth between performer and audience sustained this theatrical performance for almost twenty-five years. Evidently, people like to recall and remember at least some of their experience of “growing up Catholic.”
FR. THOMAS M. SANTA, CSsR
Evidently, people like to recall and remember at least some of their experience of “growing up Catholic.” The popular play Late Nite Catechism (1993), was illustrative of this point.
My own “growing up Catholic” memories would not make much of a stage presentation, but they are nonetheless important to me. One such memory is from St. Alphonsus School in Grand Rapids, Michigan, around May 1962, when a drama began to unfold. Someone, a faithful and obedient student in the fourth grade, was to be chosen to place a crown of flowers on the head of the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary that was in the front yard of the Dominican Sisters’ convent. All the fourth-grade students, whether they were willing to admit it or not, wanted to be chosen for the honor—and if not as the person who performed the actual crowning, then certainly as part of the “court” that was assembled for the event.
I do not remember if I was chosen or not. I have a vague recollection that I had something to do with the event, but I might have this memory confused with the memory of being chosen to be the little drummer boy in the Christmas pageant. Regardless, it is still a memory. Along with this memory are the facts that St. Alphonsus School is no longer there, the Dominican convent is now a subsidized assisted-living facility, and the statue of the Blessed Mother has been moved across the street, beside the church. A single memory sure packs in a lot of history!
This issue of Liguorian is centered around a traditional Catholic theme for the month of May: we celebrate the Blessed Virgin Mary. All of the authors who were
invited to submit a feature article have reflected on Our Lady and how she has inspired them in their own spiritual journeys. First among these authors is Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, CSsR, the Cardinal Archbishop of Newark, New Jersey. His reflection on Mary, the first disciple, is particularly poignant. It is effectively complemented by David Werning’s article, which looks at the unique role of the Blessed Mother in the economy of salvation. I hope you enjoy both of these wonderful reflections.
In this issue, we also celebrate the canonization of Carlo Acutis. The article’s title, From Coding to Canonization , is a reference to some of the talents that he used in service to the Lord. The first truly millennial saint, Carlo was born in 1991. During his short life, he became an inspiration to so many people. This article will help you understand something about his life and why he is a saint for this age. The article is also available in our publication Catholic Update, a four-page insert intended for parish bulletins or distribution to parishioners in other ways.
I continue to be thankful for each of you and your continued support of Liguorian and of our larger Redemptorist mission . It is so important to us that you are part of our readership. As we craft the magazine for each bi-monthly issue, we try our best to present authors who will enable you in your spiritual journey and encourage you to persevere in that journey. As always, we are Catholic, Pastoral, and Trusted. You can depend on that.
Once you have finished reading your issue of Liguorian , please consider sharing it with someone else. Also, remember that you can encourage your friends and family to subscribe, or you can let them know how to subscribe to our free digital issues—no strings attached! Your help is appreciated. A
I continue to be thankful for each of you and your continued support of Liguorian and of our larger Redemptorist mission.
To sign up for the free digital edition of Liguorian magazine, send an email to Liguori@liguori.org.
In you, O Mary Full Of Grace, every creature rejoices, the choir of the angels, the human race. Sanctified temple and spiritual paradise, glory of virginity, God took flesh from you, and he who is our God from all time became an infant. In your womb, he made his throne and made your womb vaster than the heavens. In you, O Full of Grace, every creature rejoices; glory be to you.
HYMN FROM THE BYZANTINE LITURGY
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Dear Liguorian Editor,
Imagine my surprise when I received the latest issue of Liguorian and read “Why the Cross?” (March-April 2025). Regarding St. Mary Magdalene, it reads, “She is the only person present at the two most significant locations of the entire gospel narrative: at the cross on Good Friday and then at the empty tomb on Easter, where she is the first of our Lord’s followers to arrive.” Were not Jesus’ mother, Mary, and his disciple, John, witnesses at the foot of the cross?
Sincerely,
Mrs. Sonia D. (via email)
Editor’s response: The author’s intended message is that Mary Magdalene was the only person at BOTH the cross and the empty tomb. We could have made that clearer. Of course, St. John was also at both the cross and empty tomb, although he arrived only after Mary Magdalene reported to him and Peter that the tomb was empty. Thank you for being such a discerning reader and for taking the time to share your thoughts with Liguorian.
Dear Liguorian Editor,
Fr. Gribble is so right about God surprising us (“Discovering God in Unusual Places,” March-April 2025). I appreciate his reminder to trust that God will show up. Our job is to keep our eyes and hearts open so we recognize him.
Lyn L. (via email)
Dear Liguorian Editor,
When I read about Dona Vado’s fivehour trip up a river so she could receive holy Communion, I felt humbled (“The Truth of the Real Presence,” MarchApril 2025). And a little embarrassed. I complained about our parish’s Mass times changing. I wish I could reach out to [Dona Vado] to thank her. I won’t be complaining again.
Chris H. (via email)
Dear Liguorian Editor, I laughed out loud (twice!) when I read “The Lighter Side” in the last Liguorian (MarchApril 2025). Thank you to Brother Raymond for sharing his humor in every issue of Liguorian. I used to read that page first, but now I save it as a treat—like dessert. We need a good laugh these days.
Tim U. (via email)
The Chapel of the Holy Cross in Sedona, Arizona, displays one of the largest and most stunning sculptured crosses in the country. (PHOTO COURTESY OF TIM AND JULIE SMITH)
Dona Vado (left), with her sister and Fr. Patrick Keyes, CSsR, in front of São Francisco Chapel, under construction.
Across America, Catholics are embarking on holy pilgrimages of hope, repentance, reconciliation, and renewal this jubilee year. The jubilee year is a rich, 725-year-old Church tradition that normally comes every quarter-century and traces its roots to Old Testament jubilees observed by Jews as a time of forgiveness and a reminder of God’s providence and mercy.
Hundreds of American jubilee pilgrimage sites— cathedrals, basilicas, local and national shrines, monasteries, parish churches, Catholic retreat centers, even cemeteries—have been designated by bishops. By visiting them, and meeting other conditions, Catholics can obtain extraordinary gifts of God’s mercy known as plenary indulgences , which erase the punishment for sins.
Additionally, tens of millions of Catholic pilgrims are expected to visit Rome during the jubilee year. There, they can receive plenary indulgences by passing through “Holy Doors” at St. Peter’s Basilica and other basilicas and churches in the Eternal City and meeting the other conditions for plenary indulgences established by the Vatican. These conditions include detachment from sin; a firm resolve to avoid, detest, and reject sin; confession; holy Communion; and prayer for the pope’s intentions.
The US jubilee pilgrimage locations include a rich mix of holy sites, including grand cathedrals such as the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC, the largest Catholic church in Jubilee 2025 | Pilgrims of Hope
Catholics Journey to Hundreds of US Jubilee Pilgrimage Sites
North America, featuring stunning mosaics and chapels honoring the Virgin Mary; the National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Emmitsburg, Maryland, honoring the first American-born saint; and the outdoor Cross in the Woods Catholic Shrine in Indian River, Michigan, home to the world’s largest crucifix, with the figure of Christ standing 28 feet tall from head to toe and his outstretched arms spanning 21 feet.
Dioceses with pilgrimage sites are celebrating Jubilee 2025 with Masses, candlelight vigils, processions, retreats, recitation of the rosary, Stations of the Cross, eucharistic adoration, spiritual exercises, discussion groups, and a wide variety of other liturgical and catechetical events.
Reflecting on Pope Francis’ theme for Jubilee 2025, “Pilgrims of Hope,” Bridgeport, Connecticut, Bishop Frank J. Caggiano said at a January 12 jubilee Mass at the Basilica of Saint John the Evangelist in Stamford, “Hope gives us eyes to look upon the horizon of heaven as our one true desire and to do whatever is required so that we might faithfully walk that path to eternal glory…. There is not a person in this church who has not come laden with his or her own sins. The jubilee asks us to go upon our knees and to seek the forgiveness of the Lord, who has come as light to free us from the chains of sin, and to use these months to draw ever more close to the Lord…. By doing that, my friends, we will cleanse ourselves, so that you and I—who bear the light of Christ in the power of his Holy Spirit from the day of our baptism—may show it ever more purely to the world.” A
The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC, is the largest Catholic church in North America.
PHOTO: THE BASILICA OF THE NATIONAL SHRINE OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
Catholics begin a procession outside St. Paul Cathedral in Pittsburgh after Bishop David Zubik celebrates the opening Mass of Jubilee 2025 on December 28, 2024. PHOTO: CATHOLIC DIOCESE OF PITTSBURGH
Our Mother of Hope
Isaw an Instagram reel with the caption, “Life doesn’t come with a manual. It comes with a mother.” The reel depicts different scenarios in which people are either seeking their mother’s help to solve a problem or calling their mother to share good news. The reel’s message is that Mom will save the day or rejoice with her children because that is what good mothers do.
I recognize that we all have different relationships with our moms. However, in this reel, it was touching to see the hope that people placed in their moms. Whatever happened, good or bad, they knew they had a mother to call on.
I could not help but think of the words of the Memorare: “Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thine intercession was left unaided.”
We, too, have a mother we can call on at any time because although our faith life doesn’t come with a manual, it certainly comes with a Mother! The Blessed Mother is always ready to assist us in our times of need, and we remember her in this jubilee year, especially under the title of Our Mother of Hope.
But what does it mean to have hope, and how can we practically live hope every day? We might first look at Mary’s own life. Her “yes” to God at the annunciation wasn’t just a momentary decision; it led to a life built on trust, surrender, and faith in God’s promises. From the beginning of her journey, Mary demonstrated that true hope isn’t simply wishful thinking or a positive outlook. It is deep and abiding trust that God is in control, even when life doesn’t make sense.
FR. PETER D. HILL, CSsR
We can call on our Blessed Mother at any time.
Mary’s example teaches us that hope is about surrendering our plans to God. This surrender is not about passivity or resignation—it’s about actively trusting that God’s plan is far greater than anything we can imagine. Whether in our families, among friends, at work, or in school, we may face moments of doubt or fear. Yet, if we take a page from Mary’s life, we can learn to embrace the unknown, even in difficulty. When we encounter challenges, our first instinct might be to try to control the situation. But hope asks us to look to Mary, who relinquished control and trusted God. Hope says, “I don’t know how this will work out, but God is in control, and he will guide me through it.” This doesn’t mean we stop working hard or striving for better outcomes, but we do so with the understanding that the ultimate results are in God’s hands.
As we live out the days of this jubilee year—with the theme “Pilgrims of Hope—let us remember that, whatever life throws at us, it doesn’t come with a manual, it comes with a Mother. May we never hesitate to call on our Mother of Hope. A
Our Mother Mary The First Disciple
AS MISSIONARY DISCIPLES, WE FIND OUR WAY TO JESUS THROUGH MARY
CARDINAL JOSEPH W. TOBIN, CSsR
During the month of May, we pay special reverence to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church and the first missionary disciple of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Mary shows us by her words and example how we should love and serve others, our sisters and brothers in Christ.
The Madonnina, commonly known as the Madonna of the Streets was a painting by Roberto Ferruzzi (1854–1934).
Mary’s response when confronted with any difficulty, great or small, was to trust in God’s providence. Despite her fundamental orientation to contemplative prayer (“treasuring these things in her heart”), Mary is never indifferent or uncaring. In fact, frequently, her response is to act without hesitation, trusting that the Holy Spirit will be responsible for ensuring that the outcome conforms to God’s will.
Mary’s contribution to evangelization and the Church’s missionary outreach can be illustrated in a story from my days of service to my Redemptorist community. One of my most important responsibilities as a religious superior was to visit my brother Redemptorists in countries located throughout various parts of the world. On one such visit, I traveled to Zahle, a small city in a very fertile valley in eastern Lebanon. Christian families had once farmed there, but the terrible bloodshed of a civil war in the 1980s had led them to
retreat behind the walls of Zahle, leaving the fields to their Muslim neighbors.
My community had a presence there—Christ the Redeemer Center for Reconciliation, the first Christian center outside the safety of the city. When I arrived, my brothers asked if I would meet with an imam who was the religious leader of the local Muslim community. Someone had been machine-gunning a cross that stood outside the Christian center, leading my brothers and the members of the local Christian community to fear for their safety.
I agreed to meet with the imam to see if he would intervene on behalf of the center, and a meeting was arranged. The local imam was a solemn young cleric who spoke Arabic. I talked with him in my schoolboy French, and a translator present helped us have a conversation.
The imam’s first words were the creedal formula of the Islamic faith: “There is no God but God, and Muhammed is his prophet.”
I replied with the customary response: “Peace be upon him.” The imam then said, “But I will speak with you because of Miriam (the Virgin Mary).”
Some years before, he explained, he had visited a family who frequented his mosque and were having a serious problem. As he drove out to this family’s home, he was quite perplexed about what he should say or do to help this family. To distract himself, he turned on the radio. The radio was tuned to a Christian station, and the date was August 15, the solemnity of the Assumption. When he heard the name “Miriam,” which is mentioned more often in the Holy Quran than in the Bible, he decided to ask her to help him. He turned off the radio and prayed to Miriam. By the time he reached the family’s home, he knew what the solution was and what he would say.
The imam told me that this experience had touched him so deeply that he named his youngest daughter Miriam.
MARY’S INFLUENCE IS POWERFUL. WHEREVER SHE IS HONORED AS A WOMAN OF STRENGTH AND COMPASSION, PEOPLE GATHER AROUND HER, SEEKING HER PROTECTION AND CARE.
Every Wednesday, at least 100,000 devotees flock to the National Shrine of Our Mother of Perpetual Help at Baclaran, Philippines.
The imam listened attentively to the concerns of the Christian people, and he promised to help. I later shared this story with a young Shiite woman from Lebanon whom I met in Rome. She recognized this young cleric as someone who was very influential. She was amazed at my experience, and she said to me, “If this imam says you are his friend, your Redemptorist brothers are safe.”
Mary’s influence is powerful. Wherever she is honored as a woman of strength and compassion, people gather around her, seeking her protection and care.
My Redemptorist community has seen firsthand Mary’s influence as an instrument for evangelization throughout Asia. In Manila, for example, more than 120,000 people gather in our church every Wednesday to participate in the Novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Help. Most parishes in the Philippines have this novena to Our Lady, and her image can be seen on taxicabs, on buses, and in other places.
In my travels for the Redemptorist community, I saw similar crowds (50,000 people in Mumbai and comparable crowds in other cities), but the most intriguing experience I had was in Singapore. There, “only” 30,000 people came on Saturday to Our Lady’s shrine, but half of them were not Christians. When I asked some of these people from many different faiths why they were there, they looked at me incredulously and said, “We have to speak with the Merciful Lady.”
The Archbishop of Singapore told me that, in his experience, every adult catechumen in his archdiocese, without exception, began his or her journey to the Christian faith through this novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Help—illustrating the truth of the old spiritual adage that as missionary disciples, we find our
2025 // Liguorian.org
way to Jesus through Mary.
Mary’s outreach inspires all missionaries. Her song, the “Magnificat ,” makes it clear that God does wondrous things— lifting up the lowly, feeding the hungry, and dismissing those who believe themselves to be self-sufficient and refuse to use their wealth and power for the benefit of their more vulnerable brothers and sisters.
As we continue our joyful celebration of this Easter season and prepare ourselves for Pentecost Sunday on June 8, let’s remember to honor Mary, the
TO
FR. JOEY ECHANO, CSSR
first missionary disciple of Jesus and the model for all that we do as members of his Church.A
Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, CSsR, has been the Archbishop of Newark since 2017. He previously served as Archbishop of Indianapolis and Superior General of the Redemptorist Congregation. A native of Detroit, Tobin professed vows as a Redemptorist in 1973. He currently serves on numerous Vatican dicasteries, and is a respected member of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
PREPARE OURSELVES FOR PENTECOST ON JUNE 8, LET’S REMEMBER TO HONOR MARY, THE FIRST MISSIONARY DISCIPLE OF JESUS AND THE MODEL FOR ALL THAT WE DO AS MEMBERS OF HIS CHURCH.
The Time God Gives You
In these columns as Padre Migrante, I share stories and experiences of ministry with migrant workers not only to inform readers about responding to the pastoral and spiritual needs of migrants, but to call attention to people with particular needs that limit their participation in ordinary parochial ministry.
For eleven years, I took lay missionaries on a mission trip each summer to prepare children of migrant farmworkers for their first Communion. It was during the cherry harvest in The Dalles, Oregon. The second summer, the mission team visited the bishop of the diocese, and he was impressed with the team’s professionalism. He indicated that he would like to celebrate the first Communion Mass the following year and that students over twelve years of age should also be confirmed. After telling him that we only had the youth in class for two weeks, he responded, “You only have the time God gives you. You teach them, and I will confirm them.” For the next nine years, he celebrated first Communions and confirmations of the migrants at the closing Mass of the mission.
“You only have the time God gives you” should be applied to all ministries, not just ministry with migrants. It is important that we work within the time we have to prepare people for the grace of the sacraments. This is especially important for the poor and for anyone who, for good reason, finds regular participation in Church activities a heavy burden.
For good order, religious education and sacramental preparation programs are often tied to school calendars. Yet, exceptions must be made for those unable to participate during these regularly scheduled times. Seasonal workers are common in agriculture but are also found in other occupations, such as hospitality, resort work, construction, the military, and the entertainment industry. Working in these sectors places demands on families that create a need for programs that adjust to “the time God gives you.”
Padre Migrante
FR. MIKE
M C ANDREW, CSsR
At a wedding reception, after talking about the challenges of providing sacraments for migrant farmworkers, a guest said, “Like your farmworkers, I am a migrant worker. My career is baseball. My wife and I moved often during my time in the minor leagues, a few years in the majors, coaching, and now managing a minor league team. We have had difficulty arranging for our children to receive the sacraments.” Then, he added thoughtfully, “But parishes may make exceptions more easily for us than for the migrants.”
Pope Francis called attention to the faith of the poor in the Joy of the Gospel (Evangelii Gaudium): “The great majority of the poor have a special openness to the faith; they need God, and we must not fail to offer them his friendship, his blessing, his word, the celebration of the sacraments, and a journey of growth and maturity in the faith” (EG 200). We need to be generous in welcoming people to our Church, especially those who find themselves on the periphery. A
No matter the season, God always gives us time to raise and teach children in the faith.
RUSLANA IURCHENKO / SHUTTERSTOCK
Living the Catechism
Essentials for Learning and Practicing the Catechism of the Catholic Church
In this issue of Liguorian , we will take a closer look at paragraph 489 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC ). This paragraph is in Part One of the Catechism , entitled “The Profession of Faith,” under the heading “Mary’s predestination.”
Throughout the Old Covenant, the mission of many holy women prepared for that of Mary. At the very beginning, there was Eve; despite her disobedience, she receives the promise of a posterity that will be victorious over the evil one, as well as the promise that she will be the mother of all the living (cf. Gn 3:15, 20). By virtue of this promise, Sarah conceives a son in spite of her old age (cf. Gn 18:10–14; 21:1–2). Against all human expectation, God chooses those who were considered powerless and weak to show forth his faithfulness to his promises: Hannah, the mother of Samuel; Deborah; Ruth; Judith and Esther; and many other women (cf. 1 Cor 1:17; 1 Sm 1). Mary “stands out among the poor and humble of the Lord, who confidently hope for and receive salvation from him. After a long period of waiting, the times are fulfilled in her, the exalted Daughter of Sion, and the new plan of salvation is established” (Lumen Gentium, 55).
It is not an accident that the Blessed Mother is celebrated in the Catechism as the one who has been
called, in her time and place, from a long list of faithful women. These faithful women prepared the way for Mary to become the Mother of God by holding within their hearts the promise of the Savior who was to be born. Recorded memories and stories repeated again and again in the oral transmission inform us that most young women in the covenant tradition recognized that they might be called to be the Mother of the Messiah. This tradition, this faithful waiting, played out over the passage of time that is counted not in days but in centuries. It slowly revealed the magnificent manifestation of the Spirit of God, the creative Spirit of God, until the moment arrived and the angel Gabriel came to Mary to announce to her that she was “blessed among women.” The waiting was over. The Mother had been chosen. However, the faithfulness to the call to be prepared and to live a life in anticipation of God’s grace that was demonstrated in this singular moment was never to be abandoned. Such faithful women continue to live among us this day and are examples of the life and love of God in our midst.
Such faithful women continue to live among us this day and are examples of the life and love of God in our midst.
The Catechism helps us remember the Blessed Mother at the beginning of her story and her journey of faith. This perspective is important and necessary because it helps us understand that the Incarnation of Jesus was an event that happened in a specific place, at a specific time, and to a specific woman who had been called and graced. It is very helpful to remember the humble and quiet beginnings of the story and to recognize all those who played an important role in the development of the story. So it is with us today. Each of us has a role to play. All our efforts are somehow blessed by God. We too are called to be faithful. a
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◆ DIARY OF A YOUNG JESUIT — Fr. Barry Martinson, S.J.
of a young American Jesuit’s vocation and seminary training in the early 1960s, preparing to be a missionary in Taiwan, is full of youthful optimism. It is the positive and personal story of a vocation that reveals the longing of a heart to give up everything to follow Christ and serve others as a Jesuit.
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The Life of Saint Carlo Acutis
From Coding to Canonization
Editor’s Note: This article appeared in Catholic Update, March 2025 (C2503A, Liguori Publications), and has been adapted here for Liguorian.
Carlo Acutis was born on May 3, 1991, in London to parents Andrea Acutis and Antonia Salzano. They moved to Milan, Italy, when Carlo was still a baby.
Diagnosed with leukemia as a teenager, Carlo died in 2006, when he was only fifteen. Before he died, he said, “I offer all of my suffering to the Lord for the pope and for the Church in order not to go to purgatory but to go straight to heaven.”
When Carlo was younger, his parents were not very faithful Catholics. His mother admitted that she had gone to Mass only for her first Communion, her confirmation, and her wedding. Carlo was very devout, even as a young boy, and eventually inspired his parents to attend Mass every day. His mother recalled that Carlo would say, “There are queues in front of a concert, in front of a football match, but I don’t see these queues in front of the Blessed Sacrament.” His parents weren’t the only adults inspired by Carlo’s devotion. A well-educated Hindu, Rajesh Mohur, traveled from India to Italy to find work and became employed by the Acutis family as an au pair for young Carlo. Mohur was confused by Carlo’s attention to a poor man named Mateo, who begged outside the cathedral. Once, when Mohur referred to Mateo as a “tramp,” Carlo chided him, saying, “We are all creatures of the Lord.” Together, they helped Mateo get enough to eat. Mohur was so touched by how young Carlo treated the poor with dignity—an attitude that seemed to be related to his devotion to the Eucharist—that he was inspired to request baptism. And when Mohur’s mother visited him, she also was moved to become a Catholic. ‘‘That was Carlo’s magic,’’ Mohur said. ‘‘He could convert me and my mom, too.’’
Carlo knew how to be a good friend. He defended those who were being bullied, especially children with disabilities. A friend whose parents were getting divorced became a special concern of Carlo’s, and he often invited his friend to eat with the Acutis family. Carlo was not afraid to talk about his faith with his peers. Some of his classmates testified that Carlo, during a lesson in school, once argued passionately for the protection of life from conception.
Carlo was born the same year the World Wide Web was introduced. He liked video games but allowed himself only one hour per week to play them, because he had read about children who became addicted to these games. He taught himself coding and developed a website that became a tool for religious instruction in parishes all over the world: he cataloged more than 150 miracles, presenting them in many languages. His intention was to help people realize that Jesus was truly present in the Eucharist and to encourage people to come back to Mass. This is why St. Carlo Acutis is known as the “Patron Saint of the Internet” and “God’s Influencer.”
Carlo died on October 12, 2006. His body now lies in a glass tomb in Assisi, where thousands come to pray. He is wearing a tracksuit jacket, jeans, and Nike sneakers.
Carlo Acutis became Blessed Carlo Acutis when he was beatified by Pope Francis on October 10, 2020. His canonization date is April 27, 2025, a highlight of the Jubilee of Adolescents during the Holy Year.
The Rosary: “Shortest Ladder to Heaven”
Like every Catholic, St. Carlo Acutis has three mothers: his biological mother, the Virgin Mary, and Holy Mother Church. All three have a son to be proud of. Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, once called Carlo an “apostle of the rosary of the Blessed Virgin.”
Carlo began praying the rosary when he was only four years old. He called it his “ladder to heaven.” Carlo also was drawn to those places where Mary appeared. He visited Lourdes and the Shrine of Our Lady of Pompeii, and, just a few months before he died, Carlo also made a pilgrimage to Fatima. He was fascinated by the idea that Mary would appear to simple shepherd children rather than to scholars or high-ranking Church officials.
Carlo’s devotion to Our Lady had a significant influence on his understanding of the dignity of all women and the need to value them as daughters of God, especially when he saw them treated as objects by the culture or his peers. As a teenage boy, Carlo was often confronted by some of the degrading things his classmates and the culture had to say about girls, but he refused to participate. For Carlo, Mother Mary was a model of purity and chastity in everyday life. Understanding that about her affected the way he interacted with female classmates and how he talked about girls with his friends. While Carlo had friends who were girls, he did not have a “girlfriend.” When asked, he explained, “The Virgin Mary is the only
The Journey to Sainthood
THE PROCESS OF BECOMING A CANONIZED SAINT IS RIGOROUS!
When you enter the gates of heaven, you become a saint—and people on earth won’t know a thing about it. A canonized saint is someone whom the Church officially recognizes as being in heaven and about whom the pope makes a definitive statement that he or she lived a life of extraordinarily heroic Christian virtue, was either martyred or can be personally linked to two miracles rendered by God through his or her intercession, and is worthy of veneration. Saints are not divine. They are human beings, attractive to us precisely because they are human and therefore familiar. A mother can speak to another mother, like Mary, because she feels that Mary will understand her. A father looks at Mary’s husband, Joseph, and sees that he, too, shared heavy daily burdens. Because saints are familiar and approachable, nearly every land, ethnicity, profession, and even hobby has a patron saint to turn to for aid. The saints can bring our prayers and petitions to God, and sometimes God works miracles or grants petitions through their intercession. The process toward official recognition as a saint by the Catholic Church begins five years after the person dies. While this waiting period can be waived by the pope, it is rarely done. The only recent examples are Pope Saint John Paul II and Saint Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa).
Servant of God
At least five years after the person’s death, the local bishop may open the cause, and the individual is declared a “Servant of God.” The bishop appoints a postulator, who leads an investigation into the life of the person, examining spoken and written words and eyewitness reports. Evidence is gathered and sent to Rome, where the cause is assigned a relator in the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints. The evidence is examined, and a document—called a positio— is prepared, outlining both “people evidence,” such as eyewitness accounts, and “paper evidence,” which re-examines the candidate’s trail of words. At this point, a promoter of the faith plays a key role. Once referred to as the devil’s advocate because proof of the person’s sanctity was demanded, now the approach is “prove why this person is not a saint.”
Venerable
Once the life of the Servant of God has been examined, and the pope receives the evidence that the person lived a life of heroic virtue, that person is declared “Venerable.”
Blessed
For the Venerable to be beatified— declared “Blessed”—a miracle is required. (In the case of a martyr, no miracle is required because the person’s heroic death is witness enough.) Today, that miracle is typically a medical cure. It must be proved that God healed someone who had prayed to the person for aid. (Church teaching is that candidates for sainthood and saints do not heal; God heals in response to their intercession.) Scientific and medical experts must prove that there is no explanation for the cure other than a miraculous one. As the investigation proceeds, a panel of cardinals and bishops makes a recommendation to the pope, who can accept their opinion, reject it, or return it for more study. When a pope decides to beatify a person, his or her tomb is opened, and relics are gathered. Public veneration is then permitted, although it is usually true that people have already been praying privately to the candidate for a long time.
Saint
A second miracle is required for the candidate to be eligible for canonization, or declaration of sainthood. Sainthood brings another formal ceremony and usually a broader celebration throughout the Church of the saint’s feast day, assigned at the beatification stage.
Saints are not divine. They are human beings, attractive to us precisely because they are human and therefore familiar.
Carlo Acutis became the first millennial saint.
The body of Carlo Acutis, who died in 2006, entombed in the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Assisi, Italy.
Nine Days of Prayer for Young People
A NOVENA TO SAINT CARLO ACUTIS
DAY 1
Appearances
God created mankind in his image; in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them (Genesis 1:27).
Each person on this earth presents a different face of God. Whether attractive or not by the world’s changing standards of beauty, every face is a glorious image of the unseen God.
Lord and Brother Jesus, may I show your face to everyone I meet and be a shining example of your love for this world.
Saint Carlo Acutis, pray for us.
DAY 2
Friendships
Encourage one another and build one another up (1 Thessalonians 5:11).
Many people are lonely, even in a crowd, and long for just one person to reach out to them. Be that person.
Lord and Brother Jesus, grant me the grace to be a good, trustworthy, available friend.
Saint Carlo Acutis, pray for us.
DAY 3
Family
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another…. And be thankful (Colossians 3:12–13, 15b).
So often we take for granted those to whom we owe our very lives. No one is perfect. Try to be patient with the quirks and imperfections of loved ones. And, once in a while, tell them “thank you!”
Lord and Brother Jesus, help me to love my family as they are and be grateful that they love me.
Saint Carlo Acutis, pray for us.
DAY 4
Learning
Do not be wise in your own estimation (Romans 12:16b).
There is always more to learn. We can learn even when the subject is of no interest to us, or the teacher is not gifted, or we’re tired or hungry or distracted. We can always learn!
Lord and Brother Jesus, open my mind to be curious about this wonderful world and inspired to make this world better.
Saint Carlo Acutis, pray for us.
DAY 5
Technology
Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect (Romans 12:2).
Our screens can be instruments of connection or of isolation—means of engaging with the wisdom of the ages or sources of distraction, temptation, and immorality.
Lord and Brother Jesus, help me live this one precious life on earth and become the person I was created to be.
Saint Carlo Acutis, pray for us.
DAY 6
Healthy Habits
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you…? Therefore, glorify God in your body (1 Corinthians 6:19–20).
Our bodies are gifts from God, and caring for them requires planning: making preparations to eat healthy food, scheduling enough exercise and rest, and knowing how to respond when tempted to unhealthy behavior.
Lord and Brother Jesus, grant me the strength to lead an energetic life, avoid that which is harmful, and be a good example to others.
Saint Carlo Acutis, pray for us.
Continued on page 22.
Carlo Acutis (right) pictured with a childhood friend.
DAY 7
Dating
The Miracles
DAY 8 Church
DAY 9
of Carlo Acutis
Future
Two verified miracles are required for canonization
Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, virtue with knowledge, knowledge with selfcontrol, self-control with endurance, endurance with devotion, devotion with mutual affection, mutual affection with love (2 Peter 1:5–7).
Young people often feel a kind of urgency when it comes to relationships. Some feel lonely or fear being alone forever. Physical urges are often intense and seem to have a life of their own. Building a healthy, long-lasting relationship requires conscious effort and time.
Lord and Brother Jesus, help me to grow in faith and be a person who thinks of the well-being of others, especially those with whom I seek a special relationship.
Saint Carlo Acutis, pray for us.
We must consider how to rouse one another to love and good works. We should not stay away from our assembly, as is the custom of some, but encourage one another, and this all the more as you see the day drawing near (Hebrews 10:24–25).
We are not always aware of it, but we need our faith community, and our faith community needs us. We’re not supposed to go it alone. Jesus created a community of disciples, and only in our prayer together do we understand what it is to live a holy life, to serve others, and to build the kingdom.
Lord and Brother Jesus, thank you for your Church. Forgive me when I have chosen to ignore your community and help me to faithfully pray, confess my sins, and receive the gift of the Eucharist.
Saint Carlo Acutis, pray for us.
If it is displeasing to you to serve the Lord, choose today whom you will serve.… As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord (Joshua 24:15).
Every day, we make choices. And those choices form our future. Whom we serve today is likely to be whom we will serve tomorrow. Make good choices today.
Lord and Brother Jesus, live in me that I may choose what you would choose, be who I was intended to be, and become the person God created me to become.
Saint Carlo Acutis, pray for us.
Material was adapted from “Understanding the Canonization Process” by Christopher M. Bellitto, Liguorian May-June 2011, and Dare to Be More: The Witness of Blessed Carlo Acutis by Colleen and Matt Swaim, Liguori Publications (828553). “Nine Days of Prayer for Young People: A Novena to Saint Carlo Acutis” by Paige Byrne Shortal.
The Miracles of Carlo Acutis
TWO VERIFIED MIRACLES ARE REQUIRED FOR CANONIZATION.
First Miracle Matheus Vianna, a little boy born in Brazil in 2009, suffered from a rare condition called annular pancreas. He vomited continually, and the only food he could tolerate was a vitamin-protein shake. In 2013, at four years old, Matheus weighed only 20 pounds and was in constant pain. The same year, Catholic priest Fr. Marcelo Tenorio, a friend of Matheus’ family, began praying for Carlo Acutis’ beatification and received a relic from Carlo’s mother. Fr. Tenorio held a Mass and prayer service in his parish, inviting Catholics to attend and ask for Carlo’s intercession for healing. Matheus, his mother, and other family members attended, and little Matheus prayed that he would “stop vomiting so much.” As they left the church, Matheus said he felt healed and asked for his brothers’ favorite foods: rice, beans, French fries, and steak. He was fine after eating the meal and has been able to eat normally since then. The miracle was recognized in 2020, and, on October 10, 2020, Carlo Acutis was declared Blessed.
2025 // Liguorian.org
Second Miracle On July 2, 2022, a young woman from Costa Rica named Valeria fell off her bike in Florence, Italy, and suffered a brain injury. After craniotomy surgery, she was placed on a ventilator, and her doctors were not optimistic that she would survive. Several days later, Valeria’s mother traveled from Costa Rica to Assisi to pray at Blessed Carlo Acutis’ tomb. She left a letter in which she described her daughter’s situation and prayed for her recovery. That same day, July 8, Valeria began to breathe on her own. Within a month, her brain hemorrhage stopped, she started speaking again, and she began rehabilitation therapy. On September 2, 2022, Valeria and her mother visited the tomb of Blessed Carlo Acutis to thank him for his intercession.A
Proximity Matters
Recently, as part of my morning prayer routine, I was listening to a reflection for men on Hallow, a Catholic meditation and prayer app. God often speaks to me and inspires me during these moments, sparking ideas that I am never quite fast enough to fully capture. I have learned to sit quietly, embrace everything that cascades through my mind, and simply allow the thoughts that hang on throughout the day to give me inspiration and motivation. On this particular morning, the meditation reader quoted C.S. Lewis from his book God in the Dock: “You can’t get second things by putting them first; you can get second things only by putting first things first.”
Throughout the week, this provocative statement came back to me, and I tried to understand what it would mean practically for me. My first thought was that we often put the cart before the horse while neglecting the basic first steps that make any process so much more efficient. How can we identify these crucial first steps? Perhaps we should consider proximity. What is closest to you, and the most reachable, are the first steps; the priorities in your life. For me, this is my wife, my children, my immediate family, and my colleagues. These are the people I encounter daily, and if I strive to live a life of meaning and to be impactful, I need to take the first steps with these people, who are in the closest proximity to me.
Too often, I am frustrated as I let myself become entangled in issues over which I have no influence. Why do I spend so much time worrying about problems that I have no ability to fix? I meet with a men’s group weekly, and I realize I’m not alone: other men also spend their time and energy worrying about foreign policy, wars, and other matters over which they have no control. To what end does such fretting take us? I have come to realize that it is nothing more than anxiety-inducing behavior and a use of energy that does not bear fruit or allow me to appreciate the immense beauty or impact the issues directly in front of me.
SCOTT CZARNOPYS
Ask God to help you identify your priorities so you can put first things first.
C.S. Lewis understood the importance of prioritizing what truly matters in life. When we dedicate ourselves to the most important things, the secondary things often fall into place. But if we prioritize what is secondary, we risk losing sight of what truly matters and may even miss out on the relationships and the work to which we are called.
Take time in prayer to reflect on proximity. Who is closest to you? Where can you have the greatest effect? What holds the most significance? Then, and only then, will the secondary things fall into place.
Pray for me, and I will pray for you! A
FIZKES / SHUTTERSTOCK
Let It Be
LOOK TO THE BLESSED MOTHER WHEN SEEKING GOD’S WILL IN YOUR LIFE
DAVID WERNING
I don’t remember when I first heard the Beatles’ song “Let It Be,” which was released in 1970. I was seven then and part of the kitchen crew that cleaned up after our family dinners every night. While we children washed, dried, and put away the dishes, we played the radio to make our chores more agreeable.
Most of the songs I heard, and their meanings, went over my very young head, but as a Catholic boy who prayed daily the Our Father and Hail Mary, I connected immediately with “Let It Be.” I remember feeling a sense of warmth whenever I heard the song because it used the same words spoken by Jesus’ mother that were so familiar to me. In my mind, I could see Mary dressed in a royal blue gown, her face caressed by starlight, as the angel Gabriel greeted her.
“Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.”
Luke
1:38
By doing what God willed for her, Mary’s cooperation with God changed the course of history.
Years passed before I learned that Paul McCartney, composer of the song, was referring not to Mary, the Mother of God, but to Mary, his own mother. Paul’s mother had appeared in a dream to him, offering him comfort during a difficult time in his life. Hence, the song. Still, McCartney was happy that others connected “Let It Be” with the Blessed Mother (as noted in Barry Miles’ biography Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now).
I still can see Mary that way, imagining what it might have been like at the annunciation. This memory from my childhood brings back feelings of comfort. But my perspective on Mary has changed as I’ve grown older. I do not reject the image of Mary at the annunciation or at the Nativity or at any moment, but I see her as a much more formidable figure than I could have imagined as a child.
When the angel Gabriel relayed God’s will to Mary that she should bear and give birth to Jesus, the Savior of the world, her response now challenges me more than it gives me comfort. Her words are the stuff of revolutions. She says, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). That is, may God’s will—not mine—be done. Ultimately, Mary would discover as she lived her words that they would bring a deep sense of peace—not the peace that the world gives but the peace of God. However, she also would discover quickly that doing faithfully what God asked her to do would bring upheaval, pain, and conflict into her life. That’s not something I appreciated as a child.
The first difficulty (that we know about) came when others could see that Mary was pregnant. We may wonder whom she told about her sit-
uation and how they reacted: belief, disbelief, worry about Mary’s state of mind? But, we know from Scripture that Joseph, who was betrothed to her, now wanted out. He wasn’t going to shame her, but he was not willing to be a cuckold, either. God intervened and made his will known to Joseph, too, and Joseph (like Mary) made an act of faith to do what God called him to do.
The rest of Mary’s life finds her in situations when she repeats her “yes” to God, when she remains with Jesus; for example, when Herod plots to kill Jesus, and the family must flee to Egypt. Or, as Mary is raising Jesus—whom she knows to be special but whom she does not always understand—when she corrects him for staying behind in Jerusalem when he was twelve years old. Jesus tells her, “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” (Luke 2:49). We can assume that her understanding deepens over the years. For example, by the time of the wedding at Cana, when Jesus is about to begin his public ministry, Mary says with confidence about her son, “Do whatever he tells you” (John 2:5).
The Christmas scenes of Mary’s life that brought warmth to me as a little boy remain cherished memories, but I see now that Mary practiced an active and courageous faith, even in the face of misunderstanding, hardship, and danger.
COTTONBRO / PEXELS
And by doing what God willed for her, Mary cooperated with him in changing the course of history. She is the luminous spark that ignited the greatest and furthestreaching revolution, for through her “yes” and Jesus’ birth, God “has thrown down the rulers from their thrones but lifted up the lowly” (Luke 1:52).
But Mary still had to face her darkest hour as Jesus’ mother: his torture, crucifixion, and death. Even if Mary held on to the hope of Jesus’ return (as he said he would) during the time between his death and resurrection, we can only imagine the thoughts and feelings that rushed through her.
I have heard it said that Mary remained faithful in all situations because she received grace from God. Who can doubt it? Indeed, how do any of us remain faithful to God if not by his grace? But regarding Mary’s fidelity, some commentators seem to suggest that obedience was easier for her or that she could not be unfaithful because she received the special grace of being conceived without original sin. That Mary received a special grace, again, cannot be doubted, but it doesn’t mean she was without freedom. Mary received God’s grace and chose freely to cooperate with it.
Such cooperation does not simply pop into our lives as we might drop a coin into a vending machine and receive a candy bar in return. Mary grew in grace; she developed her faith. She did so through her relationships. Mary had parents who
lived in a community with a shared set of values and beliefs. From the Bible, we know that Mary was a faithful Jew, well versed in Hebrew Scripture, who pondered her faith seriously. Her social milieu reinforced God as father and protector of his people, a God who is faithful to his covenant. Mary knew the stories about God’s interventions in history, some of them quite beyond the bounds of everyday events, such as Sarah and Abraham conceiving a child in old age or Moses speaking with God through a burning bush. Mary knew that she could trust God and that his care was certain, even if circumstances suggested otherwise. She placed her faith in him.
When the angel Gabriel visited her, Mary may have been startled at first, but she pivoted quickly with her faith to seek understanding. She asked the angel how this birth would come about. In other words, Mary believed God could do it; she just didn’t understand how. Once she understood through the word of God proclaimed to her, she said
“yes” immediately. “May it be done to me according to your word.”
When I consider Mary now, I admire and respect her for her faith lived daily in the ups and downs of life, and I marvel at God’s inviting his creatures to participate in his plan of salvation. If we consider Mary from a “this-world-only” perspective, then there’s not much there. At the time she lived, no one on earth outside her immediate circle even knew she existed. She led no nation, she had no financial treasure, she had no special talents or possessions that would have made her famous in her day. Yet she has directly affected every human being who ever lived on this planet by participating in the victory over sin and death of her son, Jesus. It all happened because she did what God asked her to do.
What is perhaps equally marvelous is that you and I can also participate in the salvation of the world as Mary did. We do not have to be famous or wealthy or talented. We do not have to be popular or well
positioned or powerful. That’s not to say we cannot be any of these things, but what joins us to the victory of Jesus is doing what God has asked us to do. What is God’s will in my life? What has he called me to be? If we do that, then we are actively participating in God’s salvation. The question, then, is How do I know what God wants me to do? The model is Mary. If we want to know God’s will, receive his grace, and grow in wisdom, then we need to be part of a community of faith where we can hear and ponder God’s word and where others support us in that effort. We can learn the Scriptures as she did, so that when a moment of grace presents itself, we can make our discernment with God’s words as our guide. And, when it’s time to act, we can make the same prayer of assent: May it be done to me according to your word. A
What is God’s will in my life?
What has he called me to be?
David Werning has written about the Catholic Church and faith since the 1990s.
Scripture Scoop
Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul
Sunday, June 29
Galatians 1:11–24
Saul to Paul: From Persecutor of the Church to Apostle
Saint Paul recalls the zeal of his early years within Judaism, when he persecuted the Church and tried to destroy it. He points out that he followed the Jewish practices to the letter. Yet, in the plan of God, Paul was destined to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. Because of this divine plan, he had no need for human teachers or for any direction from the Church at Jerusalem. After his conversion, he set off for an area south of Damascus, which he called Arabia He then returned to Damascus, and, after three years of prayer and reflection, he went to Jerusalem.
Paul speaks of visiting with Peter, whom he calls by his Aramaic name, Cephas. The names Cephas and Peter both mean “rock.” The visit apparently consisted of no more than just getting acquainted. Peter and Paul shared an understanding of their teachings with each other. Paul spent only fifteen days with Peter, hardly enough time for any deep lessons in faith. At that time, the only other disciple Paul met was James, the head of the Jerusalem Church (not James the Apostle), who is referred to as the brother of Jesus in the Acts of the Apostles. This reference to James as Jesus’ brother may mean that he is related to Jesus in some manner, for in Jesus’ culture, a cousin could be referred to as one’s brother.
Paul then went to Syria and Cilicia, and he describes the reaction of the Christians of Judea to his ministry. Although they did not know him personally, they had heard that he was the one who had previously persecuted the Church and
Peter and Paul shared an understanding of their teachings with each other.
was now preaching the faith. They praised God for this gift, thus showing that they accepted Paul as a true disciple of Jesus. Some of the Judean Christians would later become the ones to reject Paul’s teachings and cause him to eventually turn his attention to the Gentiles. A
Source: Liguori Catholic Bible Study, Letters to the Romans and Galatians: Reconciling the Old and New Covenants , by William A. Anderson, DMin, PhD, 2013 (821257, Liguori Publications).
Faith as Substance
Iam one of the world’s privileged. I’ve never been without housing, food, or medical care. Without constant suffering, my faith has been more of an idea—an abstraction, if you will. Of course, I have suffered through losses, lean financial seasons, mental and physical health issues, and relationship problems. But, for me and people like me, there are many built-in safety nets protecting us from despair. I’ve always had friends, family, and a faith community. I could always find what I needed.
Well, my husband died two weeks ago. We had been together for almost 34 years. But then, a massive heart attack, a few days in ICU, a couple of days back home, an ambulance run back to the hospital, and a final heart event not two days later. Grief has made me vulnerable in ways I’ve never been before.
The physical absence of one’s beloved becomes the entire landscape of the survivor’s life. C.S. Lewis once wrote, after the death of his wife, that he hadn’t expected grief to feel so much like fear. I will take it further: grief is an immense form of panic. A person is gone, and I cannot get him back. My pain is unendurable, and I can’t make it stop. I feel this desperate need to escape my very body.
And this is why faith must now be substance, and the body of Christ must do what I cannot. Because grief is physical, is all-encompassing, and has taken over my every moment, I do not experience my decades-long and much-practiced faith in any physical or emotional way. Faith has become a phantom, hiding somewhere beyond my lived reality. Any embodied recognition of my Christian life has been engulfed by the physical, mental, and emotional reality called grief. Even my spoken prayers seem to go nowhere.
Redemptive Living
VINITA HAMPTON WRIGHT
These recent days, I have been held by that entity we call the body of Christ. My only prayers have been tears and wailing; I have had to lean on the prayers of the people, the prayers of believers who love me, the Eucharist. I’ve left all the praying to the expansive body of Christ. I’ve left any comprehensible words about this loss to the reading of the Scriptures and the Liturgy of the Word.
I have allowed Christ’s body to bring me food, organize my kitchen, and help with visiting family. I have depended on Christ’s mystical, global body to hold me up, with my own will being involved hardly at all. I can speak what I believe, but my words have no weight or substance, and that is all right because Truth does not need me to hold it up or argue for its existence. An individual’s faith has room and time to falter and grow silent for a while. While my faith stays hidden in its protective space, the many members of Christ’s body carry on and keep everything moving and breathing and growing. Faith truly is the substance of our hope. A
Jim and Vinita in Germany in 2004
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR
Mary, The Mother of Jesus
JOSÉ ANTONIO PAGOLA
Marian devotion is not about looking to Mary for apocalyptic messages that threaten a world engulfed in profanity and disbelief with terrible punishments. It is not about motherly protection being offered to those who do the right penance or recite the right prayers. It is also not about fostering the piety of childlike dependency and the projection of an idealized mother image.
We can recognize Christian truth in Marian devotion by asking whether it encourages self-centeredness in believers or opens them up to God’s plan; whether it pulls them into an immature relationship with an idealized mother or pushes them to live their faith in a mature, responsible following of Jesus Christ.
Under Her Mantle
In his March 24, 2021, general audience, Pope Francis said, “Jesus extended Mary’s maternity to the entire Church when he entrusted her to his beloved disciple shortly before dying on the cross. From that moment on, we have all been gathered under her mantle, as depicted in certain medieval frescoes or paintings.”
Contemporary Mariology at its best offers Christians an image of Mary as the Mother of Jesus Christ, her Son’s first disciple, and a model of authentic Christian life.
More specifically for us today, Mary is a model of faithful acceptance of God in obedient faith, an exemplary attitude of service to her Son and solidary concern for all who suffer, and a woman committed to the reign of God, which is preached and promoted by her Son.
In these days of weary and pessimistic skepticism, Mary’s radical obedience to God and her confident hope can lead us toward a deeper, more faithful Christian life.
Turning to Mary helps us discover and embrace the mystery of Christ.
Matthew the evangelist gives us the memory of Mary and the Mother-of-Emmanuel, that is, the woman who can bring us to Jesus, God-with-us:
[The angel of the Lord said,] “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means “God is with us” (Mt 1:20–23). A
José Antonio Pagola was born in Spain in 1937. He completed his theological studies in 1962 at the Papal Gregorian University in Rome and his studies in sacred Scripture at the Papal Biblical Institute in Rome in 1963. He also studied biblical sciences at the École Biblique in Jerusalem. Pagola is a professor at St. Sebastian Seminary and at the Faculty of Theology of Northern Spain. He has dedicated his life to biblical studies and Christology and has done research on the historical Jesus for decades.
This meditation is adapted from The Way Opened Up By Jesus: A Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew by José Antonio Pagola. First published by Convivium Press. Order from CrossroadPublishing.com.
FRESCO
CYCLE
The Mother of All Believers
Pope Benedict XVI, in his encyclical Saved in Hope (Spe Salvi ), wrote,
“[Holy Mary,] from the cross you became a mother in a new way: the mother of all those who believe in your Son Jesus and wish to follow him. The sword of sorrow pierced your heart. Did hope die? Did the world remain definitively without light, and life without purpose?…
No, at the foot of the cross, on the strength of Jesus’ own word, you became the mother of believers. In this faith, which even in the darkness of Holy Saturday bore the certitude of hope, you made your way toward Easter morning.”
The Catholic Observer
Cardinal Parolin Urges Faithful to “Disarm Language” During Mass to Pray for Pope Francis
“We gather in prayer this morning for the intention of the Holy Father’s health, that he may recover and return soon among us,” Cardinal Pietro Parolin said in his homily one month into the eighty-eight-yearold pope’s stay at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital.
The diplomats had requested the Mass for Pope Francis, who marked the twelfth anniversary of his papacy on March 13, when hospital staff surprised him with a cake decorated with twelve candles, and he received hundreds of drawings, messages, and letters from around the world, many from children.
Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin celebrates a Mass to pray for Pope Francis’ health in the Pauline Chapel of the Apostolic Palace.
(PHOTO: VATICAN MEDIA)
In his homily, Parolin said, “We are called first of all to seek relation with God in others, those around us.… Charity, love for our neighbor, is the proving ground of our love for God. Charity, therefore, has priority over all other obligations, including those of worship. That is why the duty of reconciliation comes before making an offering at the altar.”
Pointing to wars “bloodying our planet,” Parolin said that diplomats know wars begin not on a battlefield but are born “in the human heart, in feelings of hatred and hostility.”
Parolin quoted the day’s gospel, from Matthew, in which Jesus warned, “You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, ‘You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.”
Gary Gately is the founder and editor of The Catholic Observer, a subscription-based newsletter. Gately, a lifelong Catholic, is an award-winning journalist who has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The National Catholic Reporter, America: The Jesuit Review, Newsweek, The Baltimore Sun, The Boston Globe, the Center for Public Integrity, CNBC.com, and United Press International. Please email news tips or suggestions to Garymichaelgately@gmail.com.
DOGE’s Dismantling of USAID Likely Violated Constitution, Judge Finds
Judge Theodore Chuang of the US District Court for the District of Maryland issued a preliminary injunction ordering DOGE not to take any further actions “relating to the shutdown of USAID,” including firing any more employees or terminating additional contracts. He also ordered DOGE to restore email and computer access to all USAID employees, including the more than 4,700 placed on administrative leave.
Chuang wrote that DOGE had likely violated the Constitution’s “appointments clause,” which requires that Executive Branch officers wielding “significant power” must be appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.
DOGE’s dismantling of USAID also likely violated the Constitution’s separation of powers , Chuang said, because it “deprived the public’s elected representatives in Congress of their constitutional authority to decide whether, when, and how to close down an agency created by Congress.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that 5,200 of about 6,200 USAID contracts, or 83 percent, had been eliminated after a six-week review. Rubio, a Catholic who had been a staunch supporter of USAID during his fourteen years as a Florida senator, said the surviving programs would be administered by the State Department.
For more than six decades, USAID-funded programs have fought famine, alleviated poverty, delivered lifesaving healthcare, provided shelter to the displaced, assisted victims of disasters,
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and fostered democracy, peace, stability, and sustainability.
The deep cutbacks in USAID programs threaten the lives of millions of the world’s most impoverished people, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and numerous other international humanitarian-aid organizations warned.
Chuang’s preliminary injunction came in a February lawsuit filed by twenty-six unnamed USAID employees challenging DOGE’s dismantling of the sixty-three-year-old agency.
CRS harshly criticized the State Department’s decision to slash more than 80 percent of USAID programs. “By ending these lifesaving programs, our government is not only neglecting our nation’s responsibility but also weakening the very foundations of peace, stability, and prosperity,” CRS said in a statement.
The State Department terminated dozens of CRS’ “lifesaving programs that will permanently cut off aid to more than 20 million people worldwide,” CRS said.
CRS, the official overseas relief and development agency of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), founded by US bishops in 1943, now serves 225 million of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people in 122 countries. It had been the top recipient of USAID funds, relying on the agency for roughly half of its $1.5 billion annual budget in 2023.
CRS also said that it has been forced to halt much of its work because USAID has not made payments for costs incurred before the agency issued stop-work orders in late January.
Read these stories in their entirety at thecatholicobserver.substack.com
New Washington Archbishop Calls on Faithful to Be “Pilgrims of Hope in a Wounded World”
Cardinal Robert W. McElroy has officially taken over as Archbishop of Washington, repeatedly stressing the moral imperative of treating desperate migrants with dignity and compassion. “God is the Father of us all, and God sees us as equal in dignity and moral worth,” McElroy said in his homily at his installation Mass on March 11, 2025, at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. “How deeply that contrasts with the world we have made.”
McElroy lamented that deep divisions based on race, gender, ideology, and nationality pervade US politics and the Catholic Church. “The poor and the migrant are daily dispossessed, and the dignity of the unborn is denied,” he told more than 3,500 people in the basilica. “We are called to be pilgrims of hope in a wounded world.”
Pope Francis appointed McElroy two weeks before President Donald Trump’s inauguration to succeed retiring Archbishop Wilton Gregory, Washington’s first African American cardinal, who had served as Archbishop of Washington since 2019.
McElroy is known as a strong ally of Francis who has vocally supported the pontiff’s stances on immigration, the environment, outreach to LGBTQ people, and “synodality,” which focuses on making the Church more inclusive and increasing lay involvement in decision-making.
The cardinal, who had been bishop of San Diego since 2015, has called for “radical inclusion” in the Church, particularly among Catholics who have divorced and remarried and LGBTQ members, and has expressed support for allowing women to serve as deacons.
Cardinal Robert McElroy takes his seat on the cathedra, the elevated bishop’s chair, while holding the archbishop’s crosier, a staff symbolizing his new position as Archbishop of Washington, during his installation Mass at the Basilica of the
PHOTO: ARCHDIOCESE OF WASHINGTON/YOUTUBE
National Shrine of of the Immaculate Conception.
A Zambian man carries sacks of wheat provided by Catholic Relief Services and partners in February 2024. (CRS PHOTO)
AROUND THE TABLE
Ingredients
Strawberries in Wine
THE FRAGRANT, VIBRANT STRAWBERRY ANNOUNCES SUMMER’S ARRIVAL (MAKES 4–6 SERVINGS)
➊ Wash and clean the strawberries, then trim the tops. Gently halve the strawberries lengthwise. Set aside or refrigerate.
➋ Pour the wine into a good-sized saucepan and add the sugar, cloves, and orange peel. Boil for 5 minutes while stirring steadily. Turn off the heat, remove the cloves and orange peel, and let the wine mixture rest for 15 to 20 minutes. Then, refrigerate until ready to serve.
➌ Place the strawberries in a serving bowl, then pour the wine mixture over the fruit. Toss lightly and serve immediately. This dessert must always be served cool. Note: If children or non-imbibing adults are around your table, serve plain strawberries with vanilla ice cream.
Who Am I?
On our driver’s licenses, there is information that some of us may not want to publicize. It may be our weight or our height or that ancient birthdate. But one line that catches my eye reads, “Corrective Lenses Required.”
As Catholic Christians, we look at everything we see in this world—creation, history, sexuality, children, culture, each other, and even ourselves—through the “corrective lens” of faith.
To know others and to be known are deep desires of all human beings. When Moses encountered the burning bush, he asked questions about God’s identity: “Who do I say sent me?” (See Exodus 3:13.) Later, Moses protests that God is making a mistake in sending Moses to speak to the people; that God doesn’t really know him: “I have never been eloquent…I am slow of speech and tongue” (Exodus 4:10). But God sees Moses for who he is and who he can become.
Maybe we should look at ourselves through the eyes of the “lover of our souls.” And I would propose that we look for examples of our “identity” in the models and mentors of our faith.
• Pope Francis, when asked, “Who is Jorge Bergoglio?”, said, “I am a sinner. This is the most accurate definition.”
• Saint Maximilian Kolbe, offering his life at Auschwitz, was asked, “Who are you?” He simply stated, “I am a Catholic priest.”
• At his execution, St. Thomas More said, “I die the king’s good servant, but God’s first.”
• Saint Joan of Arc stated, “I am not afraid…I was born to do this.”
Through the lenses of our Catholic faith, we can see clearly our identity in God.
• Saint John the Baptist knew his role: “I am not the Messiah.… I am ‘the voice of one crying out in the desert, “Make straight the way of the Lord”’” (John 1:20, 23).
• Jesus was clear about who he was and is: “I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6).
• And Mary, the Mother of Our Lord, when she was but a young maiden in Nazareth, facing an angel’s frightening proclamation, stated confidently, “I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).
It seems that a mark of true holiness is the humble trust and confidence of seeing, knowing, and naming who we are, by the grace of God. Let us pray that we, like Jesus, Mary, and all the saints, may grow to see our identity and God’s plan for us with the “corrective lenses” of our faith. A
May 1–5
Kindness Calendar
HELPFUL TIPS TO GROW AND LIVE YOUR FAITH DAILY
Jubilee of Workers, Business, and Entrepreneurs
A contract between workers and business owners calls for honesty and mutual respect. Show your appreciation for all who serve you this week.
May 6
Teacher Appreciation Day
May can be a hard month for teachers. A thank-you note or gift card will be appreciated.
May 10–11
Jubilee of Musical Bands
We celebrate all musical ensembles, honoring their work to create harmonious beauty that comforts and inspires. Work toward harmony in your family and community this week.
May 11
Mother’s Day
Thank a mother today. Pray for yours. Donate to an organization that helps mothers in need.
May 12–14
Jubilee of Eastern Churches
Worship is offered in many forms, and it is all pleasing to God. Resolve to be openminded about prayer that seems different from yours.
May 16–18
Jubilee of Confraternities
Consider joining or supporting the work of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, the Knights of Columbus, the Knights of Peter Claver, or other lay-run volunteer organizations.
May 26
Memorial Day
Pray for those who died in service, for those who lost a loved one, for those in harm’s way, and for peace. Always for peace.
May 30–June 1
Jubilee of Children, Families, Grandparents, and the Elderly
Reach out to someone who feels forgotten: an elder, a child, an overwhelmed parent.
May 31
Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Mary visited her pregnant cousin, Elizabeth. Gift an expecting mom with a meal, relieve her of a chore, or donate to a local group that helps new mothers and babies.
June 7–8
Jubilee of Ecclesial Movements, Associations, and New Communities
Catholic parishes are sometimes so large that an individual might feel lost or invisible. Consider joining a prayer group or service organization in your parish where you can be known and know others.
June 8
Pentecost
Pray for your mind and heart to be open to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in your life. Enjoy a feast together to celebrate the birthday of the Church!
June 9
Jubilee of the Holy See / Memorial of Mary, the Mother of the Church
In Rome, it’s a day of celebration for all who serve at the Vatican. Ask the Blessed Mother’s intercession for the Pope and all those who attend to the governance of the Catholic Church.
“Some old-fashioned things like fresh air and sunshine are hard to beat.”
Laura Ingalls Wilder
June 22
Corpus Christi
Our Lord Jesus provided bread for the 5,000 and gallons of wine for the wedding guests. As you receive the Eucharist today, plan to feed someone—with a meal, a kind word, a smile.
June 23–27
Jubilee of Seminarians, Bishops, and Priests
Thank the clergy who serve your parish and light a votive candle in prayer for them.
June 27
Sacred Heart of Jesus
June 14
Flag Day
Express your love of country by displaying the flag. Explore the history of the flag on the National Museum of American History’s website (amnh.org)
June 14–15
Jubilee of Sports
Take a walk or a run and pray for the safety, wellbeing, and fair play of all athletes and their coaches.
June 15
Father’s Day
Thank a father today. Pray for yours. Honor him through charitable giving.
June 20–22
Jubilee of the World of Government
Pray for world leaders and all those who serve in government. And, if you haven’t already, make plans to register to vote.
In his encyclical on the Sacred Heart, Dilexit Nos (He Loved Us), Pope Francis wrote “the heart makes all authentic bonding possible.” Reach out today to someone who needs to know you love them.
June 29
Saints Peter and Paul Saint Peter, the first pope, and Saint Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, didn’t always agree. They argued about what Gentiles had to do to become disciples of Jesus, and that argument was settled at the Council of Jerusalem. And here we are today. Disagreements can lead to growth—think about that the next time you disagree with someone. Pray to Sts. Peter and Paul to help you find your way to unity.
Praying Online
Ienjoy discovering new ways to approach things. I’ve discussed in this column the various strategies we can adopt with social media and our faith. One beautiful aspect of the digital age is the accessibility of our Catholic traditions, prayers, and devotions that might otherwise have remained a mystery to many. Because May is the month of Mary, I thought it fitting to explore how people express their devotion to our Blessed Mother on social media.
Every so often, as I scroll away on TikTok, a live stream appears on my “for you page” of a gentleman praying the rosary. He is praying to God, through the intercession of Mary, for the well-being of the world. Such witness provides a positive break from the chaos and shocking headlines of the world.
All the major social media platforms have some type of niche aimed at devotions. On Instagram, for example, I often come across beautifully created images of Marian prayers, reflections from saints who had a deep devotion to Mary, and even short reels of people talking about their own personal devotions.
On the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, I read a post by Cardinal Joseph Tobin, CSsR, which included this prayer: “Immaculate Mary, your freedom from the curse of selfishness and sin shows us what humanity is intended to be—people in perfect communion with God and with all our sisters and brothers. Pray for us, Holy Mary.” The post, though quite simple, offered me an opportunity to take a step back and refocus on what truly matters. In the midst of a busy day, scrolling through countless updates and notifications, that short but profound prayer served as a gentle nudge toward holiness and peace. It was a reminder that even in the digital space, we are constantly invited to encounter God through the intercession of Mary.
maryprayforus.org
There may be a special devotion that you hold dear and that you include in your daily meditations. These devotions are a gift for us, and social media can be a tool for us to share our devotions. And, who knows? Our contributions may have an impact on the spiritual lives of others, even helping someone have a closer relationship with God.
During this month of Mary, we can seek out these new expressions of devotion and perhaps contribute our own prayers to the growing chorus. Whether by sharing a favorite Marian prayer, joining a live-streamed rosary, or simply posting a brief intercession, we can help fill the digital space with reminders of Mary’s love for us, ultimately leading others closer to her Son, who is our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. A
St. Joseph Mass League
Established in 1919, to help people in times of joy and sorrow, for both the living and deceased.
A FAITHFUL WOMAN’S TWO CONSUMING PASSIONS REVEAL THE SECRETS OF LIFE
Everybody’s Grandma
KEN NEUSER
She wasn’t really anybody’s grandma, yet she was everybody’s grandma. Chocolate was her secret. Dark, delicious chocolate. Millie’s favorite. Her passion for chocolate went beyond the love of sweetness.
Life had not always been chocolate for Millie. Married young, widowed young, childless. To top that off, a mid-life stroke had left Millie with a contorted face. Her left eye resisted closing, the quivering eyelid catching the attention of children. The left corner of her mouth drooped, causing difficulty in chewing. But not when it came to devouring chocolates. “Never does a good chocolate get by,” quipped Millie. “So many chocolates, so little time.”
Why this passion for chocolate? Life centered on working at Rapp’s Candy, a quaint combination of restaurant and confectionary, known and respected for its distinctive, delicious chocolates. Millie’s task: dipping the chocolate, having mastered the art of code markings, distinguishing the kind of chocolate. Millie liked them all.
Two houses off Main Street was where Millie lived. At the corner, her parish church and school. Several blocks away, the hospital. Millie accepted the role of being widowed. “Men like my Ralph don’t come in duplicates,” she lamented. “Ralph was the chocolate of my eye.”
Volunteering was yet another passion, with the hospital being like a second home. This was a lady on the move. From home to church to the hospital.
Daily Mass was a must. Then, at about 3:00 each day, after volunteering at the hospital, Millie would stop again at church. “One more rosary I say.”
Right up there with chocolate was Millie’s love of saying the rosary. Millie had many rosaries. There was the rosary by her favorite chair, the one by her bedside, the one on top of her bureau, the one in her bureau. There was always a spare rosary in her purse, just in case. Ordinary rosaries for an ordinary lady— ordinary except for her chocolate addiction.
Millie never had a driver’s license, never a car. She walked. She walked everywhere. Early in the morning to late in the evening. When asked if she were fearful for her safety, Millie declared, giving a wink with her right eye, “Nobody has tried to take away my chocolates yet!”
The townspeople enjoyed Millie. “Tell me a chocolate tale, and a chocolate from me you will get,” was the story of her life. “As long as there is chocolate, there will be happiness,” was Millie’s philosophy, along with “Chocolate makes it possible to get out of bed,” “Chocolate is like patience: you can never have enough,” and “When you love chocolate, you love life.”
Cautious Millie was—but not careful enough. En route home one fateful evening, Millie misstepped, one pavement slab higher than the other, falling backward and hitting her head.
“At least I hung on to my purse,” Millie justified to the small gathering that came to her rescue. So read the local newspaper clipping, a special tribute to everybody’s grandma, now hospitalized. In return, a letter to the editor from Millie:
Life without chocolate is a life that lacks something important. My desire for chocolate has not diminished with this accident. When you feel
sad, you just need to eat a little chocolate. Even when I was a little kid, all I loved were books and chocolate. Now, when I feel overwhelmed, I take a deep breath and have a few pieces of my dark chocolate. You know, chocolate says, “I miss you all,” so much better than words. Chocolate has its own language.
The words in Millie’s medical chart at the hospital were not as kind:
CT scan of the head identified a subdued hemorrhage, bleeding in the space between the layers of tissue surrounding the brain. Space between the layers filled with blood and resulting expansion.
Millie’s hospital room was flooded with chocolates, every kind, from everywhere. Shaking her head in disbelief, Millie confessed, “I never wanted to be a celebrity. All I want is a simple box of chocolates on my bedside table.”
The hospital staff abided by Millie’s wish, limiting her to a single box of chocolates in the room. The rest of the abundance was refrigerated at the hospital. Millie found joy in her daily Bible reading, in saying her rosary, in greeting many visitors. Spotting the empty box of chocolates on the bedside table, the good priest from the corner church jested, “So whether you
Consolation was found in praying her rosary, the meditation going far beyond recitation of the beads. “Those decades are the soul of my prayer.”
eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).
Without hesitation came Millie’s reply, “How sweet to my tongue is your promise, sweeter than honey to my mouth” (Psalm 119:103).
Consolation was found in praying her rosary, the meditation going far beyond recitation of the beads. “Those decades are the soul of my prayer. The mysteries of each decade are what give the rosary life,” Millie shared. “It is the mysteries of the rosary that link me to my God in relationship.”
“My grandma had simple beads like that,” observed one of the nurses.
“My dear,” Millie gently stated. “The rosary is simple, but the repetition of the prayers gives me the opportunity to open myself to God’s words. The rosary turns my mind to the life and mysteries of Jesus Christ.”
“Millie,” the hospital social worker interjected. “Prayer is good, but we need to talk about nursing homes now.”
“First, let me tell you about my rosary,” responded Millie. “It begins with the Apostles’ Creed, which summarizes all the great mysteries of my Catholic religion. Then, the Our Father introduces twenty different mysteries—if I say four rosaries—all based
on the lives of our Lord and his Blessed Mother. The repetition of the Hail Mary leads me to restful prayer. Saying my rosary lets me enter the silence of my heart.”
As unexpected as the accident, so was the visit from death, rosary in Millie’s hands.
The funeral was held at the church at the corner of the street where Milie had lived. It was a tribute to this lady, everybody’s grandma. The abundance of chocolates from the hospital was distributed to everyone in attendance. And Millie had left one more chocolate message, printed on the program at the funeral:
Put “eat chocolate” at the top of your list of things to do today. That’s at least one thing that you will accomplish. Then, say your rosary! A
Kenneth Neuser, PhD, is a retired educator and a freelance writer who is committed to keeping the printed word alive. Ken lives in Green Bay, Wisconsin, with his wife and enjoys spending time with his three children and nine grandchildren.
Bible Quiz answers (puzzle is on page 44)
1 O
2 A (Jn 1:35–40)
3 F (Ezr 1:1–4)
4 X (Lk 2:25–34)
5 S (Acts 8:26–38)
6 V (Jgs 16:13–19)
7 D (Jn 11:1)
8 I (Gn 24:67)
9 P (Mt 2:19–23)
10 G (2 Sm 5:4)
11 M (Mt 1:18–19)
12 N (Mk 1:6)
13 R (1 Kgs 16:23–25)
14 Y (Gn 3:1)
15 K (Nm 26:59)
16 H (1 Sm 1;19–20)
17 C (2 Sm 12:24)
18 W (Eph 6:16)
19 U (1 Pt 5:8)
20 L (Acts 2:14–21)
21 E (Acts 8:27)
22 Q (Jon 3:1–2)
23 J (Mt 2:1–3)
24 B (Jude 1:9, Tb 12:15)
25 T (1 Kgs 17:1–6)
Catholic Crossword answers (puzzle is on page 45)
GO OD AM IG O PI CT
AN TE PI NE S IS EE
VE TS ES TE S LI NE
EN ES SOS O AT TN
LO RE TT A T
RI EL HA BE MU S
BA NT AM GA L AL P
DI ES PL UM B AC EA
RD A LA Y ES TH ER
MA TT HE W ARCH A S TIL TE D H AIR PE WS EE RO
OR TS OVO ID TR AM
LI EU PA RS E ESSE YA MS EN DI S SEES
Moms…
Did you know that Mother’s Day is the result of a mother/ daughter effort? Ann Reeves Jarvis started a series of Mother’s Day Work Clubs in 1858, creating the opportunity for mothers in rural areas to receive education on child-raising and healthcare issues. The groups also raised money for mothers who needed medical assistance. Later, in 1868, she founded Mother’s Friendship Day and inspired women to talk with soldiers on both sides of the Civil War to try to promote peace between them. In 1908, her daughter, Anna Jarvis, wanted to honor her mother’s life, and she worked to establish a day when all mothers would be honored. In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson made it official that mothers would be celebrated each year on the second Sunday of May.
May 11
and Dads
Father’s Day was also championed by a daughter: Sonora Dodd, whose father had single-handedly raised her and her five siblings. Inspired by the growing popularity of Mother’s Day, she felt that fathers should also have their special day, so she coordinated the first Father’s Day celebration on June 19, 1910, in Washington State. Her efforts were not immediately rewarded, although President Wilson tried. Congress thought a day to honor fathers was just a commercial ploy. Official recognition finally came in 1966, when President Lyndon B. Johnson issued a proclamation recognizing the third Sunday of June as a day to honor fathers. It was signed into law as a permanent national holiday by President Nixon in 1972.
June
Pentecost Is Sunday, June 8.
Did You Know…
Ever wonder why the Holy Spirit is often pictured as a dove? When Jesus was baptized, “the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove” (Luke 3:22). The dove is a symbol of purity and constancy. It was a dove that signaled the end of the flood. (See Genesis 8:8–11.) The dove was a sacrificial animal for the poor. (See Leviticus 5:7.) And, Jesus tells his disciples to be as “shrewd as serpents and [innocent] as doves” (Matthew 10:16).
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Bible Quiz
Rate yourself on your knowledge of Scripture. Match the first column with the second. Answers are on page 41.
1. Book that comes after Jonah ______ A. Andrew
2. First to follow Jesus, according to John ______ B. Angels
3. He allowed the exiles to return to Jerusalem ______ C. Bathsheba
4. He blessed Jesus, Mary, and Joseph ______ D. Bethany
5. He converted the Ethiopian eunuch ______ E. Candace
6. His hair gave him his power F. Cyrus
7. Hometown of Lazarus G. David
8. Husband of Rebekah H. Hannah
9. Jesus was raised here ______ I. Isaac
10. King of Israel at age 30 ______ J. Jerusalem
11 . Matthew describes him as a righteous man ______ K. Jochebed
12 . Meal for John ______ L. Joel
13 . More evil than any king who preceded him ______ M. Joseph
14 Most cunning of all the wild animals ______ N. Locust
15 Mother of Moses ______ O. Micah
16 Mother of Samuel ______ P. Nazareth
17 Mother of Solomon ______ Q. Nineveh
18 Paul compared faith to this R. Omri
19. Peter compares the devil to this ______ S. Philip
20. Peter quoted this prophet ______ T. Ravens
21 . Queen of Ethiopia U. Roaring lion
22 . The Lord sent Jonah here V. Samson
23 . The magi stopped here before visiting Jesus W. A shield
24 . Michael and Raphael X. Simeon
25. They fed Elijah bread and meat ______ Y. Snake
QUIZ RATINGS
“Catholic Crossword” and “Bible Quiz” are produced by Gabriel Publications. Liguori Publications is not responsible for its content. Please direct questions or comments to Gabriel Publications at info@wordgamesforcatholics.com.
ACROSS
1 The ______ Shepherd
5 Acapulco buddy
10 One of St. Columba’s converts
14 Feed the kitty
15 Christmas trees
16 Fortuneteller’s phrase
17 Animal drs.
18 Politician Kefauver
19 Boundary
20 Hydrocarbon suffixes
21 Indifferent
22 Memo letters
23 Catholic AcademyAward-winning actress Young
26 Cambodian cash
27 “______ papam ”
32 Boxing weight
35 It precedes Eph
36 The Matterhorn, for one
37 “None of us lives to himself, and none of us ______ to himself.” (Rom 14:7)
38 Amos’ vision of a line (Am 7:7)
40 Suffix (zool.)
41 Dietary data
42 ______ Minister
43 Biblical heroine
45 First Gospel
47 Opening of the largest diocese in a province
48 Pompous
52 The woman wiped Jesus’ feet with hers (Lk 7:38)
55 They face the altar
58 Architect Saarinen
59 Scraps of food
60 Egg-shaped
62 Streetcar
63 Place
64 Analyze, as a sentence
65 Being (Lt.)
66 Edible roots
67 “The ______ near!”
68 Views
1 Chairman’s hammer
2 Terse bridge bid
3 Playful mammal 4 Sweets
5 Copy 6 Prayer book
7 Avid about
8 Certain letters
9 Bologna bone
10 He said “What I have written I have written” (Jn 19:22)
“_____ something I said?”
Coin
Prom attendee 24 Madre’s hermana 25 Tradition says James was thrown from this 27 Son of Noah
28 “Great” teacher of Aquinas 29 Speed-of-sound measure 30 Peter Fonda “golden” role
Box
Abbreviation used by 58A?
“Terrific”
Catholic Fawkes of the Gunpowder Plot
Ezra read this to the people (with “The”) (Neh 8:2–3)
Sebastian is their patron saint
Cupolas 52 ______ Cross Brothers 53 “Habanera,” for one
Agenda notation 55 His Holiness 56 Designer Piccone
Liturgy of the ______
______ Plaines
The Lighter Side J
Two Quarters or a Dollar?
A young boy entered a barber shop, and the barber whispered to his customer, “Watch this!”
The barber held out a dollar bill in one hand and two quarters in the other, and he asked the boy, “Which do you want, son?”
The boy took the quarters and left the dollar.
“What did I tell you?” said the barber. “That kid never learns!”
Later, the customer saw the same young boy coming out of the ice cream parlor and said, “Hey, son! Why did you take the two quarters instead of the dollar bill?”
The boy licked his cone and replied, “Because the day I take the dollar, the game’s over!”
How’s Your Hearing?
In a church one Sunday morning, the pastor announced, “Anyone who has needs and who wants to be prayed over, please come forward to the altar.”
With that, Joe got in line. When it was his turn, the pastor asked, “Joe, what do you want me to pray about for you?”
Joe replied, “Pastor, I need you to pray for help with my hearing.”
The pastor put one finger on Joe’s ear, placed his other hand on top of Joe’s head, and then prayed as the whole congregation joined him.
After a few minutes, the pastor removed his hands, stood back, and asked, “Joe, how is your hearing?”
Joe answered, “I don’t know. It isn’t ’til Thursday.”
If you have jokes or amusing stories you’d like to share, please email them for consideration to Liguorianeditor@Liguori.org.
“Are you gonna make your sermon on the evils of technology available on your podcast?”
The Farmer’s Grace
A pastor attended a men’s breakfast in the middle of a rural farming area of the country. The group asked an older farmer, decked out in bib overalls, to say grace for the morning breakfast. “Lord, I hate buttermilk,” the farmer began.
The visiting pastor opened one eye to glance at the farmer and wondered where this was going. The farmer loudly proclaimed, “Lord, I hate lard.”
Now, the pastor was growing concerned. The farmer continued, “And, Lord, you know I don’t much care for raw white flour.”
The pastor once again opened an eye to glance around the room, and he saw that he wasn’t the only one feeling uncomfortable.
The farmer went on, “But, Lord, when you mix them all together and bake them, I do love warm, fresh biscuits. So, Lord, when things come up that we don’t like, when life gets hard, help us to just relax and wait until you are done mixing. It will probably be even better than biscuits. Amen.”
Br. Raymond Pierce, CSsR, supplies the text for “The Lighter Side.” To receive his complimentary weekly emails, “Morning Smiles,” email him at raymondcssr@gmail.com.
Understanding Scrupulosity
A fourth edition of Understanding Scrupulosity, the time-tested resource for those who suffer with the sometimes debilitating affliction, is set to be released in May 2025. The book provides invaluable assistance to those who suffer with scrupulosity and is an excellent reference guide for the counselors, spiritual directors, and confessors who strive to help them.
Understanding Scrupulosity, 4th Edition
Relief and Encouragement
A companion book, A Guide for the Scrupulous, will also be available in May. Here, the author identifies experiences and feelings that are common to the scrupulous affliction, some of which create obstacles to prayer. By offering new perspectives and reflections, the author hopes to provide encouragement where it’s most needed. The book is also a helpful guide for anyone who struggles with how to pray.
A Guide for the Scrupulous Spiritual Practices, Critical Beliefs, Helpful Prayers
