Learning to be Quick to Listen

Pope Francis said the Sacrament of Confession does not work like a dry cleaner but is a moment in which Jesus imparts his peace. “Jesus in the confessional is not a dry cleaner, it is an encounter with Jesus but with this Jesus who waits for us just as we are,” said Pope Francis. “Many times we think that going to confession is like going to the dry cleaner to clean the dirt from our clothes,” he observed during his April 29 homily. But what really happens is that Jesus “donates to us the peace that only he gives,” he said. The Pope usually invites different groups to attend his daily Mass in the chapel of Saint Martha’s residence, where he lives. Today, the personnel from the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See were among the congregation. “We are often ashamed to tell the truth, but shame is a true Christian virtue, and even human,” he commented. “I do not know if there is a similar saying in Italian, but in our country those who are never ashamed are called ‘sin ver...

Praying for the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings. May all those in pain today turn to the Lord Jesus Christ who is our great consoler.

Students and parishioners are speaking up for a Catholic priest after two gay students at George Washington University said they want him removed for supporting the Church's stance on homosexual behavior. “I have never seen Fr. Greg be less than compassionate to any student on an issue of sexuality,” Catholic author and speaker Dawn Eden told Catholic News Agency April 5. “He’s been instrumental in helping them to find healing in Christ.” Eden, who is a parishioner at Saint Stephen Martyr Parish where Fr. Schaffer serves as chaplain to the GWU Newman Center, said participation in Catholic life “shot up exponentially” since his arrival in 2009. These comments come in the wake of an effort by two former Newman Center members seeking to force Fr. Schaffer off campus at the D.C. university, saying that they felt alienated by his defense of the Church’s teaching on homosexuality. Seniors Damian Legacy and Blake Bergen, both of whom are gay, want Fr. Schaffer removed because he taught th...

During his brief homily at an April 2 Mass at the chapel of St. Marta’s Residence, Pope Francis encouraged the faithful to pray to God for the gift of tears, to imitate Mary Magdalene during this Easter season. Addressing various members of the Vatican gendarmerie and other Vatican workers present for the Mass, the Holy Father mediated on the passage about the “sinful” woman who wept upon seeing the empty tomb. Mary Magdalene, he said, is the woman “whom Jesus said had loved much and therefore her sins were forgiven.” However, she had to “confront the loss of all her hopes” in not finding Jesus, and for this reason she wept. “All of us have felt joy, sadness and sorrow in our lives,” but “have we wept during the darkest moment? Have we had that gift of tears that prepare the eyes to look, to see the Lord?” the Pope asked. “We too can ask the Lord for the gift of tears,” he said. “It is a beautiful grace…to weep praying for everything: for what is good, for our sins, for graces, for joy...