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 »

Outside, gray clouds scudded damply across the spring sky. Inside, a continuous procession passed by the woman’s bedside. “People came to pray near her, to bring her a last token of affection,” her husband recalled years later. Continue »

The carpenter of Nazareth knew first-hand the challenges of the daily grind and of toiling to support a family. St. Joseph experienced the tiring monotony of the work week. Continue »

Lapa Benincasa’s shrieks bounced off the walls of her kitchen and into the narrow streets of Siena. Her daughter Catherine, the twenty-fourth of her twenty-five children, had just shaved her head. The fifteen-year-old girl was adamant that she not be married off, and to show the seriousness of her intention, she had chopped off her hair. Continue »

“Throughout the world the Second Sunday of Easter will receive the name Divine Mercy Sunday, a perennial invitation . . . to face, with confidence in divine benevolence, the difficulties and trials that humanity will experience in the years to come.” Continue »

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

This Tuesday, our new Holy Father, Pope Francis, celebrated his inaugural Mass in St. Peter’s Square. I’m sure many of you have already seen video clips or read news reports of the event—and of the many other things that Pope Francis has done since his election last week. Continue »