Kaskasia, Michigamea, Cahokia—strange-sounding Indian names peppered the priest's conversation as he sat in the Duchesnes' study in France and told of his work in far away North America. As young Philippine listened to Father Jean-Baptist Aubert, a new desire began to burn in her heart: to be a missionary among the Native Americans. Continue »

Men may work from sun to sun," says the old proverb, "but a woman's work is never done." Has there ever been a woman who lived out these words more than the Virgin Mary? Continue »

Early on the morning of February 3, 1943, survivors from the torpedoed U.S. troopship Dorchester shivered in lifeboats as they watched their ship slide slowly into the nerve-deadening cold of the North Atlantic. Peering through darkness occasionally lit by waving flashlights, they perceived four figures standing close together in a circle on deck. Continue »

Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart. 
(Psalm 24:3-4) Continue »

The young Jesuit lay prostrate before the Blessed Sacrament in the mission chapel in New France. As he begged God for the privilege of suffering for the sake of those he sought to bring to Christ, he heard as clear and resonant as speech the following words: "Your prayer has been heard. Be it done to you as you have asked. Be comforted, be of strong heart." Continue »

Francis of Assisi sought to serve God in all matters. To do so required action, not just words. Continue »

Too soon Simeon's words found their mark

and Mary's heart was sharply pierced with pain.

Driven out into the dark by the angel's warning,

the young family slipped away from Bethlehem,

Lent of the year 387 was an anxious season for the Christians of Antioch. They lived in one of the largest, wealthiest, and most magnificent cities in the Roman Empire, and their numbers had multiplied since Peter and Paul's missionary work there. Their main church was one of the city's most beautiful buildings. Continue »

Theme: Good work is necessary for our personal and community sustenance. Our most effective work flows from an inner receptivity and rest in the creative, redeeming presence and energy of God working through us. Continue »

It was an adolescent prank—pears stolen from a neighbor's tree. But as Augustine looked back on the incident many years later, it seemed reprehensible to him. He had no need of the pears; they were thrown to the pigs. It was the thrill of committing theft with his friends that he had sought. "My feasting was only on the wickedness which I took pleasure in enjoying" (Confessions, Book II, 12). Continue »