Pope Leo XIV has been in the Petrine office for less than a month, but that hasn’t stopped tons of people from expressing their hopes for how the American-born pontiff can improve the Church and the world.
The Trinity is the most powerful entity in the universe. It is capable of doing anything and can fulfill any prayer request. The life-giving Holy Spirit is the outpouring of love between the Father and the Son and is lavished upon the Earth in abundance.
There is a trail in Minnesota that extends for 18 miles from St. Paul to Stillwater called the Gateway Trail. It is called the Gateway Trail because it allows many modes of travel and opens a way from the city to the country and back again. It is a gateway because it connects with other paths, parks and nature. Gateways do that. They are entryways that connect people to other paths and opportunities. The whole path is a gate.
As I write this, I am keeping company with a mama robin on our backyard balcony, so I’m treading lightly. Tapping, not pounding, the keyboard. Sliding, not slamming, the door. Basking in the breeze.
For three successive years, my wife and I along with some friends have participated in the physical and spiritual journey of a 22-mile Walk to Mary in eastern Wisconsin — one of many Marian crownings held this month for honoring the Blessed Mother.
In the years since I quit drinking, I’ve prayed for the intercession of different saints when sobriety reached its hardest moments, when I felt myself losing the courage to keep going. Saints like Augustine, Mark Ji Tianxiang and a man formerly named Saul, who encountered a sudden change of heart on the road to Damascus.
This is confirmation season. While some of our candidates receive this great sacrament in the fall or winter, the vast majority of young people within the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis receive the sacrament in the weeks and months right after Easter. It’s a very, very busy time for our bishops, as well as for the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul and the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis.
It is with heavy hearts and deep gratitude that we remember Jean Swenson, a woman whose life bore witness to the truth that every human life, no matter the challenges or burdens faced, is of immeasurable value.
The world’s attention has been on Rome, as people eagerly await the outcome of the papal conclave, so I’ll use my monthly column here to offer my own thoughts about a new pope.
Creating a thriving marriage in this culture is nothing short of miraculous because we are in a time in which traditional marriage is threatened and diminishing in importance in the eyes of many young people.
