Learning to be Quick to Listen

There were two very interesting stories about universities in the U.S. that caught my attention. The first is about the ongoing debate over illegal immigration. At a recent conference, Sister Diane Kennedy, vice president for mission and ministry at Dominican University, proudly described 17 of Dominican’s students. Of the 17, several have achieved high academic honors, Kennedy said. And two, so far, have been arrested by immigration officials and spent time in jail. All 17 students are undocumented immigrants, and the college is spending $274,000 of its own money to help them pay tuition. At a session of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, Kennedy and other Catholic leaders urged other colleges to follow Dominican’s example. Catholic colleges and the Catholic church, led by Cardinal Roger Mahony, who retired as archbishop of Los Angeles in 2011, are quietly stepping up efforts to enroll and assist students whose parents came to the United States illegally. In recent...

Natalie Grants sings in her song Your Great Name, "Every fear; has no place; at the sound of your great name. The enemy; he has to leave; at the sound of your great name." Have you ever invoke the name of God to protect yourself from evil? Many of us begin to pray when we are fearful. Often it is the only time we may pray. We ask God for protection and to save us. Do we really understand what we are asking for from the Lord? Hearing that the enemy must flee when we call on the Lord is a powerful thought. The mere mention of our God's name can bring evil to a halt. She goes on to sing, "sick are healed; and the dead are raised; at the sound of your great name." We know this is true because of our faith but we also have historical proof in the person of Jesus. When Christ lived on earth, he healed many who were sick and he raised some from the dead. It illustrates how powerful our God is. But is that really the message? I think Natalie is telling us to turn our li...

A poll taken for the Knights of Columbus and Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., indicates a strong majority of Americans continue to want restrictions on abortion. According to the poll, 79 percent of those surveyed said they would not allow abortion after the first three months of pregnancy. And 51 percent said they would allow abortion only in cases of rape, incest or to save the mother's life -- or not at all. The poll's numbers are almost unchanged from a similar poll taken two years ago. The survey responses were released in Washington on January 23, the date of this year's March for Life. According to the poll results, 84 percent said they believe that laws can protect both the life of the unborn and the health and well-being of women. This is up from 81 percent from the 2010 survey. "Almost four decades after the Supreme Court's decisions in Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, which resulted in the almost totally unrestricted abortion regime of today, these de...

Father Julian Carron, the Spanish priest who leads the ecclesial Communion and Liberation movement, has one piece of advice for Catholics in this 21st-century world. Accepting the mystery that is Christ, he explained, will to help shape and guide one's life and bring about new relationships and a new understanding of what it means to live life fully. It's a simple premise, he said, but one he knows that people have difficulty accepting or understanding. "(If) we have met Christ, this introduces something new in our life," he told Catholic News Service prior to his presentation at The Catholic University of America. "In the way we're dealing with everything, we can convey that there is another way in dealing with everything." Father Carron, who has led Communion and Liberation since 2005 after the death of the movement's founder, Father Luigi Giussani, said people often seek complex answers to help face the difficulties posed by everyday life. Christ ...

Texas (and U.S.) Catholics had plenty to celebrate after a ruling from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. After months of litigation, a three-judge panel brushed off a challenge to Texas's sonogram law that Governor Rick Perry championed and paved the way for leaders to start enforcing the policy. Writing for the group, Chief Judge Edith Jones was frank about the other side's failure "to demonstrate constitutional flaws with the law," which requires women to have a sonogram 24 hours before an abortion. The Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) also picked a fight over the second part of the law, which orders doctors to explain where the baby is in its development before their patients consent to an abortion. CRR fought to keep women in the dark, arguing that it somehow violates a doctor's free speech rights to give patients the medical facts about their pregnancies. Like most people, the justices dismissed that logic completely, noting that the law only asks docto...

According to a Reuters report, Pope Benedict said Monday that gay marriage was one of several threats to the traditional family that undermined "the future of humanity itself." The pope made some of his strongest comments against gay marriage in a new year address to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Vatican in which he touched on some economic and social issues facing the world today. He told diplomats from nearly 180 countries that the education of children needed proper "settings" and that "pride of place goes to the family, based on the marriage of a man and a woman. This is not a simple social convention, but rather the fundamental cell of every society. Consequently, policies which undermine the family threaten human dignity and the future of humanity itself," he said. The Vatican and Catholic officials around the world have protested against moves to legalize gay marriage in Europe and other developed parts of the world. One leading opponent of...

Changing the world means that we must take a positive step each and every day. We cannot relent. We cannot rest. We must prevail. God provides us the perfect road map in the Bible so don't tell me that you don't know how to do this. Go to your Bible and begin to read. Let it rest in your heart. Let it echo in your mind. Immerse yourself in the words. When you are finished reading, put it down, close your eyes and listen to God. He will talk to you but you have to be still and listen. Block out the white noise of the world and listen to your Father God. There is no one like our God. Don't even try to put human qualities on Him. Don't think that He reacts like your spouse, brother, cousin, friend, co-worker. God is not a person. God is not like us but we should want to be like Him. He is so loving and He forgives us over and over again. He has an abundant love that is consoling and healing. He is! When you are feeling hurt, shout His name. When you are feeling happy, shou...

The Houston priest appointed by Pope Benedict XVI to lead what amounts to a nationwide diocese for Anglican converts to Catholicism said Monday that the new Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter represents a momentous step toward healing the rift between the Vatican and the Anglican church. "For, perhaps, the first time since the Reformation in the 16th century, a corporate structure has been given to assist those who in conscience seek to return to the fold of St. Peter and his successors," said the Rev. Jeffrey Neil Steenson, a married former Episcopal priest and father of three. The pope named Steenson to head the ordinariate, which is the first of its kind in the United States. It will be based in Houston at Our Lady of Walsingham, a Catholic Anglican-use parish established in 1984 that serves about 300 local families. Steenson asked for prayers for him and for those who become members of the ordinariate. "There is so much to learn, and it is a steep learning curve...