During the Second Vatican Council, the bishops voted on whether to have a separate document about Mary or to put a chapter about her at the end of the most important document of Vatican II, which was called Lumen gentium or the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church. By one of the narrowest margins of the entire council, the bishops voted to include Mary as part of—at the end of—the document on the Church. More »

On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you." When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. More »

What does the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord mean for us? It does not mean that the Lord has departed to some place far from people and from the world. Christ’s ascension is not a journey into space toward the most remote stars; for basically, the planets, like the earth, are also made of physical elements. More »

I once came across a book describing the senses of deep-sea creatures that never see daylight. Some of them have rows of lights like portholes along their flanks to enable them to see both prey and predators; others create a chemical reaction in their bodies to produce bioluminescent light. It was clear that every animal is endowed with the senses it needs for survival and the instinctive skills to use them competently. More »

The time: not long after the coming of the Spirit to the disciples on Pentecost. The place: not far from Jerusalem. The characters: a leader among the Jerusalem Christians named Philip, and an Ethiopian government official, unnamed. More »

The famous account of the disciples of Emmaus . . . tells the tale of two followers of Christ who, on the day after the Sabbath or the third day after his death, were leaving Jerusalem sad and dejected, bound for a village that was not far off called, precisely, Emmaus. They were joined on their way by the risen Jesus, but did not recognize him. Realizing that they were downhearted, he explained, drawing on the Scriptures, that the Messiah had to suffer and die in order to enter into his glory. More »

As he looked forward to the coming of the third millennium and reflected on the power of the Holy Spirit, Pope John Paul II wrote, "What was accomplished by the Holy Spirit ‘in the fullness of time’ can only through the Spirit’s power now emerge from the memory of the Church" (Lord and Giver of Life, 51). More »

Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end" (John 13:1). God loves his creature, man; he even loves him in his fall and does not leave him to himself. He loves him to the end. He is impelled with his love to the very end, to the extreme: he came down from his divine glory. More »