Lent is a time when followers of Christ spend 40 days in prayer, fasting, and almsgiving in preparation for Holy Week and Easter.
When I was growing up, the emphasis was on “giving up” things we liked — from candy to favorite television shows. Penance and self-sacrifice are still important aspects of the Lenten season, but they may take on different forms.
Just when it looked like state and federal abstinence-based sex education programs were set to lose funding, a new study shows that abstinence-only programs do work.
But is it too little, too late to change minds, hearts, and government programs?
I hope not.
As we celebrate February as Catholic Press Month, I would like to comment on the continued importance of Catholic media in today’s world.
With a plethora of communication tools today (printed materials, computers, cell phones, electronic books), we seem to be bombarded by information. How do we sort it all out? How do we separate truth from fiction? What is important for us to know and what is just garbage?
We may not always be aware of them, but they are there: people living in poverty. They are hanging on by a thread, barely making ends meet. They are often too proud to reach out for help.
Mother Teresa has been quoted as saying, “I do not pray for success; I pray for faithfulness.” Many people in the pro-life movement haven’t seen much success in the past 37 years, but they have continued to be faithful in fighting for the lives of unborn babies.
The January 22, 1973 Supreme Court decision in Roe vs. Wade which legalized abortion set in motion a fierce debate in this country. The court decision has not been overturned, but there are signs of hope as we begin the year 2010.
Several years ago, the United States Catholic Bishops changed the observance of National Vocation Awareness Week from October to the week beginning with the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. This usually occurs during the second week in January.
I remember wondering why the bishops made this change. Having this week soon after Christmas and close to Catholic Schools Week didn’t seem to make sense to me. (It is also a challenge to prepare special articles and coverage of vocations for the Catholic Herald right after the holidays, but we’ve learned to adjust!)
Once again, we experienced a devastating snowstorm on December 9 that practically shut down Madison and most of southcentral Wisconsin.
The storm was followed by frigid single-digit temperatures, meaning that salt applied to the roads couldn’t work.
As the United Nations climate summit gets underway in Copenhagen this week, Pope Benedict XVI was right on target — as usual — in giving some advice to the delegates from around the world attending the summit in Denmark.
The Holy Father said he hoped the December 7 to 18 conference would identify policies that “respect creation and promote a cooperative development founded on the dignity of the human person and oriented toward the common good.”
As the United Nations climate summit gets underway in Copenhagen this week, Pope Benedict XVI was right on target — as usual — in giving some advice to the delegates from around the world attending the summit in Denmark.
The Holy Father said he hoped the December 7 to 18 conference would identify policies that “respect creation and promote a cooperative development founded on the dignity of the human person and oriented toward the common good.”
We just officially began the Christmas shopping season on “Black Friday,” the day which is supposed to help stores get out of “red” debt and into the “black” of economic survival.
While it is good to support our economy — especially in these challenging times — I think we can find additional ways to spend our money during the Advent season that reflect our religious values.
