As I was growing up, my family could have said, with the disciples of John the Baptist whom Paul discovered at Ephesus, "We haven't even heard that there is a Holy Spirit" (Acts 19:2). More »

"God has a plan for your life." I have heard the phrase countless times and never really doubted it. In fact, my husband and I have always loved the Scripture passage from Romans 8:28: "We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him." More »

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. More »

How often God chooses the most improbable people to move forward his purposes! A cowardly Jonah fled from God's commission to preach to the Ninevites (Jonah 1:1-3). Israel's great King David committed adultery (2 Samuel 11:2-5). More »

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). More »

Much of Matthew's gospel deals with the question of faith, and it offers a climactic answer with the proclamation of Jesus as "the Messiah, the Son of the living God" (Matthew 16:16). More »

Sometimes, the first day of school feels more like New Year's Day than the first of January does. Classes are back in session; fall sports, religious ed, and other activities and meetings resume—a new year has begun! It seems like a logical time for making a "back-to-school" resolution. More »

Contradictions, sickness, scruples, spiritual aridity, and all the inner and outward torments are the chisel with which God carves his statues for paradise. —St. Alphonsus Liguori More »