First, we need to know who we are. We need to know where we are. We need to know the situation we are in. This is the knowledge of self which the Fathers taught us was so important. This is the message of the Old Testament. It is the call to "repent!" (Acts 2:38). It [...]
Category: What You Can Do
Giving Christ Everything
Hear the words of St. Paul: “rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your forbearance be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of [...]
Shut Up and Pray
What is our job, as Catholics, when our nation tumbles into chaos, violence, and political mayhem? This is a fair question to ask, especially for anyone living in the United States these days. Unfortunately I do not hear a lot of people asking it. Everyone seems to think they know exactly what their job is. [...]
The Lost Art of Hospitality
St. Peter himself told Christians that they should "practice hospitality ungrudgingly to one another" (1 Peter 4:9). Better yet, this verse comes from the Bible, which means the Holy Spirit inspired it. Just as with all the other commands we find in the Bible, we should take this seriously. We should not read it in [...]
Find Some Quiet
The recent spread of COVID-19 has given all of us an excellent opportunity! I won't pretend to be an expert under the circumstances. Like many others, I have also been confused about what to think and how exactly to handle this unique and unexpected situation. I do however think there is one thing we can [...]
Wait…It’s Friday
Many of us are aware that Friday is a "day of penance" in the Church and that, for a long time, Canon Law required Catholics to abstain from meat on all Fridays. If you know this, you probably also know that the Canon changed, and Catholics are no longer bound to this practice under pain [...]
Prayer and Discernment
We all have difficult decisions to make in our lives, and perhaps the most important decisions pertain to our vocations. In the beginning we ask whether we're called to marriage or the religious life. If we decide we're called to marriage, we wonder who we ought to date. If we start dating, we begin discerning [...]
The Morning Offering
What is the first thing you say each day? What is the first thing you think of? For most people, it probably varies quite a bit. Some days it might be, "what a nice morning!" Other days it might be, "this is going to be a very busy day." Most days it's probably something like, [...]
A Secret Little Room
I remember one afternoon I was walking to a college class alongside a friend. He confessed that he was bored, and he wasn't sure what to do with a couple hours of spare time that he had. With humor I said the following: "You know...I know this secret little room. It's over on the other [...]
Working Toward Heaven
Here is a big question: what is the purpose of working? It is an important question because work is something which we're all faced with, and it's also something we frequently dread. So why do it? What are we hoping to gain? We should get at the heart of this question and find an answer [...]
Ambrose Bean 