We’re coming to a close on the fourth week of Lent. A month ago, we solemnly celebrated Ash Wednesday; a time of repentance, humility, and remembering that to dust we will one day return. Dust, the simplest of earthly “ingredients.” Common to anywhere and everywhere, it is nowhere close to extravagant or unique. It is … Read More
Monk-y Business
Andrea JLast Updated: March 30th, 2022Featured Pilgrimages
Q. What do hot sauce, caskets, beer, and fudge have in common? A. Monks Monks? Yes. All of these products, and many more, are produced by monks (and nuns) at monasteries throughout the world and can often be purchased for personal use. Perhaps the most famous of these are the Trappist beers, produced at monasteries … Read More
How to Add Moments to your Life
Bri CampbellLast Updated: March 24th, 2022Medjugorje, Pilgrims' Stories, Spiritual Reflections
This past Saturday, I returned to the U.S. from a week-long stay in Medjugorje – a small village nestled in the hills of Bosnia-Herzegovina, not far from the coast of the Adriatic Sea. When asked, most people cannot point to this place on a map. They’ve never heard of Bosnia-Herzegovina, let alone the pilgrimage site … Read More
Our Lady, Queen of Peace, Pray for Us
Andrea JLast Updated: March 24th, 2022Pilgrims' Stories, Spiritual Reflections
Every day in our morning prayers at the office, we invoke the intercession of Mary under the title Queen of Peace. This is especially fitting this week, as Pope Francis called for a day of prayer and fasting on Ash Wednesday for the situation in Ukraine. The title of Mary as Our Lady of Peace … Read More
Prepare for the Fish
Bri CampbellLast Updated: March 24th, 2022Spiritual Reflections
Jesus said to his disciples: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Which one of you would hand … Read More
The Return to the Holy Land
Andrea JLast Updated: March 24th, 2022Featured Pilgrimages, Holy Land, Pilgrims' Stories
Well, it finally happened. After almost exactly 2 years, which really felt like much longer, we had a pilgrimage group depart for the Holy Land. Though those of us here in the office would have preferred to have gone with them, we have been delighting in their pictures and stories they have shared with us … Read More
Preparing the Heart for Pilgrimage
Bri CampbellLast Updated: March 24th, 2022Medjugorje, Pilgrims' Stories, Spiritual Reflections, Upcoming Pilgrimages
It has been exactly 2 years, 9 months, and 4 days since my last pilgrimage. In May of 2019, I was blessed with the opportunity to visit the Holy Land with my home parish. Looking back, it was such an easy journey – without the burden of COVID restrictions and new policies, it seems unbelievable … Read More
Praying for Rain
Petition is one of many types of prayer, asking the Lord for guidance, graces, healing, and more. In petitioning God the Father, we are only following the command of Jesus, as He shared with His disciples: “And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will … Read More
When Your Pilgrimage Becomes Difficult
Andrea JLast Updated: March 24th, 2022Pilgrims' Stories, Spiritual Reflections
The past two years have brought lots of ups and downs in the pilgrimage world. We had two groups travel in February of 2020 and then mere days before we were to send others, everything shut down. March groups were postponed to October, then to the following March, then again to the fall, and once … Read More
Preparing for the Unexpected
Andrea JLast Updated: March 24th, 2022Camino de Santiago, Holy Land, Pilgrims' Stories
Our first pilgrimage to the holy Land in nearly two years is departing in just over a week. They have received their pilgrim packets with their luggage tags and booklet. Their e-tickets are in their inboxes, and their final preparation meeting was earlier this week. We – and their group leaders – have done our … Read More
A Man for the Times
Bri CampbellLast Updated: March 24th, 2022Domestic Church, Saints, Spiritual Reflections
Last January 23, I completed my first Consecration to St. Joseph by Fr. Donald Calloway. This was during the Year of St. Joseph as proclaimed by Pope Francis on December 8, 2020. Encouraged by the testimonies of friends and my parish priest who had already begun the consecration, I decided to begin myself and picked … Read More
Living Holy Lives During the Ordinary Time
Andrea JLast Updated: March 24th, 2022Spiritual Reflections
The longest, and often most misunderstood, liturgical season is that of Ordinary Time. Ordinary, in this sense, comes from the Latin word ordinalis, meaning “numbered.” The weeks of Ordinary Time are numbered through 33 or 34 (depending on the year and how the moveable feasts fall). There are two distinct periods of Ordinary Time that … Read More
Finding Hope in Christ During Easter
Andrea JLast Updated: March 24th, 2022Spiritual Reflections
As our pilgrimage through the liturgical year continues, we arrive at Easter – the peak of the liturgical year. While it may seem odd to reflect upon Easter just after Christmas, the two are intrinsically linked. There would be no Easter without Christmas, and Christmas would not have the same meaning if Easter had never … Read More
Celebrating Our Mother on New Year’s Day
Bri CampbellLast Updated: March 24th, 2022Saints, Spiritual Reflections
Mothers’ Day almost always takes me by surprise. Falling in the first week of May, it seems like I never have any warning to buy the perfect gift or write the perfect card before April suddenly ends and I find myself looking Mothers’ Day in the face. I can’t say the same about the other … Read More
Praying with Christ During the Triduum
Andrea JLast Updated: March 24th, 2022Spiritual Reflections
After Lent comes the shortest liturgical season – the Triduum. Encompassing many traditions and unique liturgies, it is the beginning of the pinnacle of the liturgical year. As Pope Pius XII wrote in his encyclical, Mediator Dei (On the Sacred Liturgy): In Holy Week, when the most bitter sufferings of Jesus Christ are put before … Read More