Bishop Michael Martin: We have been given freedom to make a difference

As a kid, the Fourth of July was the only time I ever got to see fireworks. I thought that the reason fireworks existed was to replicate what we sing about in “The Star-Spangled Banner” – “the rockets’ red glare” and “the bombs bursting in air.”

Father Richard Sutter: Walk with Jesus this summer

What are your plans for this summer? For many, vacation plans are taking shape. Some are preparing for important transitions in life – from high school to college, from school into the working world, or into marriage. Others may be settling into a new home or preparing to move elsewhere. And for some, summer may simply bring the continuation of daily work, ongoing challenges or the burden of a difficult cross that makes even sunny days feel overcast.

Michael R. Heinlein: The heart of the matter

On June 11, the U.S. bishops undertook the long-anticipated consecration of the nation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Ahead of the Mass at which the consecration took place, three American archbishops offered to their brothers reflections on the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Laura Kelly Fanucci: The sacred heart of parenting

‘Making the decision to have a child – it is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.’

— Elizabeth Stone, journalist and author

Over the years I’ve heard so many parents share this quote from Elizabeth Stone, because it speaks to the (literal) heart of raising a child: a calling that involves vulnerability, anxiety, lack of control, and above all, overwhelming love.

Bishop Martin: Trust in Jesus’ Sacred Heart, and let His love transform your life

In my bedroom as a child, there hung an 8.5-by-11-inch framed picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I am not sure how it got there (I think it also hung in my father’s bedroom when he was a child), or where it is today, but it is a significant part of my early spiritual journey.

What the pope’s encyclical on AI is asking of you

Near the end of his new encyclical “Magnifica Humanitas,” Pope Leo XIV senses that his reader may be feeling overwhelmed. “At this point,” the Holy Father writes, “a subtle temptation may emerge, namely the thought that the problems are too big and we are too small, and that our choices, therefore, cannot make a difference.”

Pope Leo XIV: A real American hero

This spring marked the one-year anniversary of the election of Cardinal Robert Prevost as pope.

It has been exciting following our very own American-born pope through his first year – although Leo XIV has not allowed himself to be pigeonholed as an “American pope.” He is a missionary who belongs first to the Lord and, for His sake, to the entire world.

Laura Kelly Fanucci: Gospels teach us how to live as family in every struggle

Family life is hard. In case no one has reminded you of that lately, let me be the one. Whether you’re in the stage of diapers and bottles, wiping faces and losing sleep, or worrying about the children who have grown – the now-adults making their stumbling way through a suffering world – families will always be holy, hard, humbling schools of love.