News

By Father Raymond J. de Souza, National Catholic Register - The solar eclipse of April 8 is drawing enormous attention, some of it theological and liturgical, given its coincidence with the Solemnity of the Annunciation and its proximity to the Easter Octave. But there is also a spiritual lesson to be drawn, one that reflects our experience of the shadow of sin in our lives. The experience of sin, when properly apprehended, is one of darkness, even a sense of being lost, unable to see the light. Yet the reality is something quite different: God’s light never ceases to shine and is far more abundant than the darkness of sin. As St. Paul teaches, where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more (Romans 5:20-21).

By John Grondelski, EWTN News - Using our liturgical calendar, let’s put ourselves at the end of March in northern Israel more than 2,000 years ago. Living in Nazareth is a young woman named Mary. She was an observant Jewish girl raised by her parents, Joachim and Anne. She was perhaps in her teens (remember the lifespan of the times) and probably very poor. As regards the latter, so was Joseph, the man to whom she was engaged, even though — somewhere long ago — his family was part of the line of the great King David.