Tag: Aleteia
4 Ways Holy Week Can Be the Perfect Antidote to This Election Year
If you’re feeling like there are too many shadows, Holy Week brings the Light It is Holy Week at last, and boy do we need it. Holy Week does one thing better than any other event each year: It describes what hope looks like in the most desperate of times. It is the perfect antidote… Read More ›
Politics Today: Looking for Messiahs in All the Wrong Places
Elections sometimes boil over with passionate fervor that contains a religious component, but it is false religion Aleteia, March 18, 2016: Watching the bizarre personality cults being built around our political candidates, I’m wondering, “Has our country gone crazy?” Gone are the days of dull-but-decent candidates laying out feasible, unglamorous policy positions. If we doubted… Read More ›
The benefits of self-denial in a must-have world
It’s great to have what we want, but once we have a certain amount, having more doesn’t make us happier. Shark Tank is my favorite television show. I like to guess which products will (and won’t) get investments, and which ones have succeeded in the past. I’m always wrong. Among the products that have gone… Read More ›
10 Things to Fast From This Lent Instead of Chocolate
Changing up your usual practice may bear new spiritual fruit Chocolate, candy, and sweets are common Lenten sacrifices, but giving up the same thing every year can begin to feel like a routine rather than a sacrifice. Fasting should be a meaningful gesture of self-denial out of love for God. All the better if it… Read More ›
“You’ve got mail!”
“You’ve got mail!” There was a time when those words were associated with an electronic voice on one’s computer, announcing the arrival of e-mail. Do you recall when getting an e-mail was a novelty? Nowadays, my students think of e-mail as quaint, something that only “older” people (such as professors) use for business purposes. If… Read More ›
What Is the Difference Between a Friar, a Monk and a Priest?
Their priesthoods are equivalent, but their vocations are not exactly alike A reader writes to Aleteia: “Can you please help me to understand the differences between friar, monk and priest? I appreciate your attention. [Signed,] Lorena F.” These are somewhat flexible terms; popularly they are all understood to involve a life of sacrifice and poverty…. Read More ›
Surviving Advent as a Single
Tips for handling feelings of disappointment in a season filled with families and gatherings Soon enough Christmas music will flood the stores. All things holiday will insist that we are part of beautiful, functional families. Many of us simply aren’t. It isn’t always easy to embrace a season filled with families, children and abundance when… Read More ›
Do Souls in Purgatory Return from the Dead?
We don’t hear a lot about purgatory these days, and that’s a shame, because most of us will be very lucky to slip in there rather than dropping straight into hell. And lest anyone complain that God is mean or judgmental in sending people to hell, it is well to remember that it’s entirely our… Read More ›
These Two Popular Sayings Were Actually Never Uttered By St. Francis
If you grew up Catholic — and even if you didn’t — you’ve almost certainly heard “The Peace Prayer” prayed or sung, a lovely set of verses attributed to St. Francis which begins like this: Lord, make me an instrument of your peace; where there is hatred let me sow your love. Where there is… Read More ›
What Can I Do About My Anxiety?
We live in a dangerous world with real problems and real suffering. There are bills that need to be paid, mouths that need to be fed and pain that cannot simply be wished away. On top of that, telling someone “don’t worry” is the emotional equivalent of telling a person not to think about pink… Read More ›