Learning to be Quick to Listen

God's action in our life is according to his own plan rather than ours, Pope Francis taught in his daily homily June 28, and this requires patience on both his part and ours. “The Lord takes his time. But even he, in this relationship with us, has a lot of patience,” preached the Bishop of Rome at the chapel of the Vatican's Saint Martha House. “Not only do we have to have patience: He has. He waits for us. And he waits for us until the end of life. Think of the good thief – right at the end, at the very end, he acknowledged God.” Pope Francis gave Abraham as an example of God's sometimes lengthy timetable: when he was 99, and his wife 90, God promised him a son. On the other hand, God immediately acts in the life of the leper who in the day's Gospel asked for healing. “When the Lord intervenes, he does not always do so in the same way,” explained the Roman Pontiff. “There is no 'set protocol' of action of God in our life; it does not exist.” God acted one way w...

Christians are called to be revolutionaries, changing the world one heart at a time, Pope Francis said. "A Christian who is not a revolutionary today isn't a Christian," the pope said June 17 during a conference that quickly turned into a rally for evangelization and care of the poor. More than 10,000 people gathered at the Vatican -- most in the audience hall, but also in the parking lot outside -- to listen to Pope Francis kick off the annual Rome diocesan convention, a three-day gathering of priests, religious and laypeople to set pastoral priorities for the coming year. Speaking for 30 minutes without a prepared text, Pope Francis repeatedly called upon Rome's Catholics to take seriously their responsibility to bring God's love and the promise of salvation to the poor, the sad and the suffering. The revolution started 2,000 years ago by Jesus, who accepted death in order to save humanity, is the longest lasting revolution in history and the one with the greate...

President Obama suggested to a Northern Ireland crowd that gathered for the Group of Eight summit that parochial education leads to a divided community, irking some in the Catholic Church. “If towns remain divided — if Catholics have their schools and buildings and Protestants have theirs, if we can’t see ourselves in one another and fear or resentment are allowed to harden — that too encourages division and discourages cooperation,” he said, the Scottish Catholic Observer reported. About 2,000 were in attendance — many of whom were Catholic — and heard the remarks, The Blaze reported. Catholic World News called the timing of the comments curious, given the recent address of one archbishop who touted the many benefits of religious eduction. “Ironically, President Obama made his comments just as Archbishop Gerhard Muller, the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, told a crowd in Scotland that religious education upholds the dignity of the human person,” the organiza...

Two weeks after giving birth to her second child, Julia Schoch received an e-mail that would forever change her life. It was February 2003, and she was at home recovering from a C-section with her husband, her two-year-old son, and her newborn daughter when her husband Andy told her she had an e-mail that she needed to see immediately. It was from a friend who knew of a 13-year-old pregnant rape victim who needed help. It turned out that Julia was exactly the help this girl and her baby needed. “It’s one of those kind of bizarre God stories,” explains Julia, “I’d been involved in pro-life stuff since high school, and I had monitored a message board for CBR [The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform]. I would come into contact with people who were post-abortive. In that, I met a woman who had an abortion at 18 weeks and five days, and I ended up becoming friends with her. Over two years of encouraging her and loving her, she finally felt ready to share her story. She was telling [that] story at...

Today is the feast day celebrating St. Anthony of Padua who is recognized as a Doctor of the Church. This high honor indicates the importance of Anthony's writings and his life in general. Even though he died in 1231, his life is still a great example for those of us living in 2013. He also has a link with Pope Francis as Anthony was a Franciscan. He died at the age of 36 and was elevated to sainthood less than a year after his death. His teaching was very impactful as he strove to speak simply so that the message of salvation though Jesus Christ could be revealed to everyone regardless of their educational training. You will typically see Anthony pictured with a book in his hand indicating his teaching mission. He is also frequently pictured holding the Child Jesus because Anthony was visited miraculously by Christ in this form. For many years, Catholics created action groups in their parishes to feed the hungry, in response to Jesus' instruction. These groups were typically n...

Pope Francis asked the tens of thousands of Catholics gathered in Saint Peter’s Square to overcome divisions and the fear of evangelizing by trusting that “God is stronger.” “Just as I said, it is enough to open a newspaper and we see that around us there is the presence of evil, the Devil is at work,” he said. “But I would like to say in a loud voice God is stronger, Do you believe this, that God is stronger?” he asked the thousands of pilgrims. He asked several times for them to repeat with him, “God is stronger! And you know why he is stronger?” he asked. “Because he is the Lord, the only Lord, God is stronger!” Pope Francis delivered his reflection on “the people of God” as part of a series on the Church as depicted in the documents of the Second Vatican Council. The Pope called on the crowd to make their lives “a light of Christ” to “bring the light of the Gospel to the whole world. Let’s think of the Olympic Stadium in Rome or that of San Lorenzo in Buenos Aires,” he said. “If on...

On June 6 the Catholic Church honors Saint Norbert of Xanten – who started out as a frivolous and worldly cleric, but was changed by God’s grace into a powerful preacher and an important reformer of the Church during the early 12th century. He is the founder of the Norbertine order. Born around the year 1080 in the German town of Xanten, Norbert belonged to a high-ranking family with ties to the imperial court. As a young man he showed a high degree of intelligence and sophistication – which marked him out as a contender for offices within the Church, the state, or both. None of this, however, was any guarantee of a holy life. On the contrary, Norbert's gifts and advantages would prove to be a source of temptation even after he joined the ranks of the clergy. Norbert was ordained as a subdeacon, and enrolled with a group of clerics in his town, before moving on to an appointment with the powerful Archbishop of Cologne. He went on to serve the German Emperor Henry V, in a position w...