We learn as children that praying doesn’t always “work”: we prayed and still failed that math test, we prayed and still were ignored by our crush, we prayed and our sick grandmother never got better. As adults, our worries increase, as do our disappointments in prayer: we pray and still don’t get hired, we pray and still our spouse wanders, we pray and we ourselves never get better. So, what’s the point? Why pray for things that we want if we don’t always get them? Is God listening? Does God care?

The French Episcopal Conference disseminated the following official prayer to request Father Jacques Hamel’s intercession:

Father Jacques Hamel,

Grant us the favor of presenting our prayer to God

Father, Son and Holy Spirit!

You who consecrated your life to Him:

May God help us to do His Will

simply and faithfully each day.

You who offered Him the bread and wine:

May God help us to open our lives for His glory

and the salvation of the world.

You who unmasked Satan, the divisor:

Between Syria and Iraq, while the Islamic State's military defeat is approaching, different and conflicting Kurdish entities seek international endorsement for their own independence cause, casting shadows on the future status of the remaining native Christian communities

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

O St. Maria Goretti, beautiful model of forgiveness, pray for me.

Even at the age of 11, you did not withhold forgiveness from your attacker. You didn’t wish him unwell. On the contrary, you wanted Heaven for him. You loved him in that way. Pray for me, that I, too, will be able to love my enemies like you did. Pray that I will want Heaven for them.

Please pray that it will become easier and easier to forgive those who have hurt me and those who will hurt me.

What is the true “great power of the universal Church”? “Its persecuted little churches.” Words of Pope Francis. The Pontiff often recalls that there are more Christian martyrs today than in the early centuries, but – he decries - “the media don’t talk about this” because it does not hit the headlines. Comparison with the past set aside, what emerges from beyond the Tiber River sources is that in 38 countries religious freedom is violated.

Spanish knights who drove the Moors from their homeland, and then conquered Central and South America, took St. James as their protector.

Have you ever been asked why you confess sins to a priest? In discussing the Catholic faith with non-Catholics, the doctrine concerning confessing one’s sins to a priest often arises. Indeed, in my experience, the Sacrament of Reconciliation ranks right up there with Marian Dogmas among the Church’s teachings that prompt the most questions from those inquiring about the Catholic Faith.

The following objections are those I most often encounter. Here is how I answer them.
Objection #1 – Only God can forgive sin.

At the Angelus Francis appealed for “reconciliation and peace” for the Holy City. Then he warns, “It is better a Church that is not afraid of getting its hands dirty, rather than a Church of “pure ones” who wants to judge who belongs to the Kingdom of God and who does not”.

Most Rev. Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Apostolic Administrator of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, celebrated Mass at the Martyrs of Jordan Church on Sunday July 23, marking the conclusion of the 6th Canon Law Conference for lawyers which convened at the Movenpick Hotel, Dead Sea. The conference was attended by Catholic bishops, judges, lawyers and pastors from Jordan, Palestine, the Galilee, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and experts in law from Italy.

The parables of Jesus are not too remote from our own daily experience; at least it’s not difficult to understand them. Many are about household activities, the woman putting yeast into the flour, planting of seeds, harvesting weeds and wheat, being at a banquet. All these images can resonate either directly or indirectly with our own lives, and that’s the point of them, they are messages for us too!