Catholic Church

By Joseph R. Wood, The Catholic Thing - The dangers in such power perhaps lie behind God’s warning in Exodus not to make “a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven or above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.” We seem to have a tendency to pass from images to idols... My direct concern... (is) to understand the power of images that ignite destructive impulses.

By Jennifer Gregory Miller, Catholic Culture - Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week for 2021. A year ago most of the world was in quarantine and lockdown. We celebrated our Holy Week and Easter in the confines of our home, attending the Holy Triduum virtually. This year we find ourselves able to worship in churches. We will be able to attend Mass in person. I realize that’s not a universal situation, and so I will keep praying that all our churches can reopen fully.

By David Larson, Crisis Magazine - Bishop Barron, “Don’t ascribe to Rod Dreher the view that we should all just run to the hills; it’s just time for Christians to run away. No, no, it’s time for Christians, he thinks, to regroup, the way Benedict did back in the 6th century. A kind of withdrawal, yes, because you’ve got to step away from a culture that’s grown extremely corrupt. A regrouping, a rediscovery of our basic identity so that,—and here’s an important side of it—so that we can have a civilization building impact on the world around us.”

By Peter Jesserer Smith, EWTN News - With 10 to 36 months of savings left — and no lifelines available from the Archdiocese of Boston — the St. John the Baptist-St. Joseph parish collaborative in Quincy needed a miracle when the pandemic shut it down in March 2020... “We started talking and praying because this was critical,” Father Matthew Williams, the pastor, told the Register. The obvious choices presented themselves: Lay off staff, cut programs, do a parish fundraising appeal, or have an increased offertory campaign.