Catholic Church

By Fr. Paul D. Scalia, The Catholic Thing - The first duty a good shepherd is to sacrifice: “A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” Now, we might hear that verse as just a statement of principle: A good shepherd ought to lay down his life for the sheep. Or: When times get difficult, he must lay down his life. All true, but the Lord means something more. He means that a good shepherd sacrifices habitually. Literally, he “is laying down his life for the sheep.”

By Rodney Pelletier, Church Militant - At the moment of death, our souls will be separated from our bodies, tearing asunder our humanity, and we will continue to exist in this state, sustained by God. But we will, for the most part, remain as we were at the point of death, and our chance to gain graces will be ended.

By James T. Majewski, Catholic Culture - If with the first three chapters, St. Alphonsus makes the case for obedience to God—the excellence of this virtue, and that man’s ultimate happiness derives from it—in these chapters, St. Alphonsus gets practical, turning his attention to those instances where obedience to God can sometimes be especially difficult... In particular, he focuses on our susceptibility to sickness, and stresses the importance of obedience to God’s will in times of infirmity.

Father Michael Orsi, EWTN News - One of the most pressing concerns of the Gospel writers was to make a convincing case that the resurrection was real — that Jesus had, in fact, risen from the dead... Skepticism would have been the most common reaction to this extraordinary event.