Christian News

At the beginning of creation, all of the angels were united in serving God. But a time came when Lucifer, the most senior of all the angels, grew resentful towards God. Catholic tradition holds that this resentment arose when Lucifer realized God’s plan for humanity and the role which human beings, and in particular Our Lady, were destined to play as the crowning glory of all creation.

Pope Leo XIV will hold the first consistory of his pontificate on Jan. 7-8, in what is expected to be the first major programmatic event of his pontificate. The extraordinary consistory follows a papacy in which Leo’s predecessor, Pope Francis, mostly refrained from holding large meetings with cardinals, something that many reportedly complained about during the pre-conclave meetings last year...

The idea that marriage is simply a kind of equal partnership between a man and woman is a model that Western culture purchased a long time ago and at a high price. Such a pattern isn’t a model for integrating a family together into an organic unit but is a road map for divorce with divisions from the start. Separate responsibilities, career goals, and bank accounts make it a challenge to truly weave a couple together...

Yesterday I experienced once again the astounding Byzantine liturgy of Epiphany. Among other things, there was the special blessing of water, wherein the entire natural world is invoked as a chorus of witnesses to its Creator. This gives occasion to ask whether we really see the natural world for what it is, or has our perception been dulled by a pervasive bad science, or our lack of attention, or some other cause.

You might have read in recent days that the flu is surging across the U.S., thanks to a new flu strain that’s causing a lot of problems. Well, our family loves jumping into a good trend, so we spent most of the Christmas octave down with that very flu ourselves, including spending most of Christmas day in the ER with an acutely sick kid.

“Christmas is o-vah!” he shouted, in his thick New England accent, two days after Christmas. Of course, Christmas was very much not over. In the Catholic Church, the Christmas season lasts until the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord — and that was weeks away. Those words, in that accent, and the whole story that followed, have become a yearly Christmas tale in my house...

There is an important point St. Paul makes about the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, where he states that no one has the right to claim it for himself.[1] His entire discourse emphasizes the important relationship between hearing the Word of God and believing in it. St. Paul expresses an urgency about confirming the relationship between the Word of God and faith in God through His Son, Jesus Christ...

If you're a parent, you may already be familiar with the emotional shift that can happen when the sun goes down. During the day, you might feel OK, but at night, the waves of anxiety can roll in: "Am I a bad parent?" "Am I doing this right?" "Is there something I could be doing better?"

“Pray with the Pope” is a new initiative of the Dicastery for Communication and the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network that invites people around the world to share in a real communion of prayer with Pope Leo XIV, offering prayer as a path to unity in a divided world.