A wise old Benedictine priest once told me in spiritual direction years ago: “There will be days in you life as a priest when everything from the pressures of work, to tiredness, to depression, to distractions, to flat-out laziness, will make it difficult for you to pray. But no matter what, always try to pray at least one sincere, focused Our Father every day.” Jesus gives us no more perfect prayer than the Our Father. And the priest was right, there are days when that’s

Pope Leo 13th, not our current Pope but the one before him, in 1892, called for a long celebrated feast of the Holy Family in some dioceses, to be observed throughout the universal Church on the 3rd Sunday after Epiphany.  He saw this feast as a possible antidote to the troubles plaguing the family in an increasing industrialized  world.   Pope Leo worried that capitalistic employers worried about their profits,  might not keep in mind the good of the working man’s soul and h

It had been a long journey,  all those many miles and many cold nights from Nazareth to Bethlehem. . .  All because a Roman emperor wanted to know how many subjects he had control over,  so as to be sure he was getting his share of the taxes due him from this backwater land of Galilee. And to arrive at the city of David, Bethlehem, only to find there was no room in any inn,  anywhere??  Only a stable filled with straw and animals which was somehow to become a fitting place to