The Right Answer. One day ten years ago, I explained to my four-year-old that God had made her unique, like no one else ever created, with special gifts for serving him. “What’s my special gift?” she asked. Continue »

Every summer my Aunt Minnie planted a big garden and enlisted me to help water and weed it. As soon as the ground defrosted in western Pennsylvania, she scattered seeds that would yield beans, lettuce, pumpkins, and other vegetables. As summer approached, Aunt Minnie put in her tomatoes. Continue »

After Jesus’ ascension, the apostles gather in the upper room. “All these devoted themselves with one accord to prayer, together with some women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers: (Acts 1:14). Continue »

As Jesus voices his parting prayer to the Father, he prays, not only for the disciples gathered around him, but also for all future disciples. His prayer includes all of us who will believe in Jesus through the word of his disciples. He prayed for the unity of all disciples over the past twenty centuries, “that they may all be one” (John 17:21). Continue »

On a spring day in 1916, three children watched their family’s sheep on a hillside in rural Portugal. Completely oblivious to the fact that their country was at war and that Pope Benedict XV was begging Mary’s intercession and lamenting World War I as the “suicide of Europe,” the children sang, danced, and played games. Continue »