When he can, the Pope kneels in the confessional and administers the sacrament: “The love of God precedes us. He sees beyond appearances, beyond sin, beyond failure and indignity”.

On this Third Sunday of Lent, as later in the Fourth and Fifth Sunday, the Liturgy, instead of the Gospel according to St. Matthew, offers us three texts taken from the Gospel of St. John. They describe three meetings of Jesus:

-the one with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well, who receives the gift of the water that quenches thirst forever;

-the one with the man born blind, who receives the light of the eyes and of the heart;

-the one with his friend Lazarus, whom He resurrects.

St. Patrick's Confession is full of interesting information about his family, his youth, and a near-apostolate-destroying scandal that turned his fellow bishops against him.

I can hear the howls of outrage. But before you grab torches and pitchforks and head over to my house, give me a moment. Obviously, Patrick was not an atheist when he began his world-changing missionary work. Yet by his own admission, there was a time in his life when his likelihood of ever being venerated as a saint was nil.

Lent is here! For many, panic ensues on what one should be giving up for Lent. Chocolates? Facebook? Alcohol? Frequently, I have come up with my fast the day of Ash Wednesday as I am walking up to receive ashes on my forehead. For many years I only associated Lent with fasting. Fasting, to me, was just this forty days once a year of not being able to eat what I want. Yet, when I read the Church Fathers, St. Benedict, Scripture, or any spiritual work, fasting comes up often. It seems as if — in the American culture at least — the practice of fasting has fallen off of our radar.

“Live well, Love much, Laugh often” are the three principles that I have found posted on the wall of the house of a friend in New York. I want to share them with you, though they are hard to attain in our time.

Francis’ provocation in Santa Marta “are the homeless like statues or bus stops?” What “do we feel when we see children begging ?” “ These kids belong to that ethnicity that steals?”

“What do we feel in our hearts when we see the homeless or the children begging in the streets? No, these kids belong to that ethnicity that steals ... “And keep going, don’t I?” Pope Francis asked in today’s homily, March 16, 2017, at Casa Santa Marta, of which Vatican Radio provides fragments. The Pope warns, “Those seeing the homeless as part of the panorama are on the wrong track.”

The Higher Council of Ulema abolishes the death penalty for those who leave Islam and triggers a re-interpretation process of the sacred text. Interview with Archbishop of Tangiers.

The "new evangelisation" calls for a new Christian consciousness, that of having to represent Jesus to the people Christians meet. It requires overcoming the barrier of secularism, whereby talking about religious topics is seen an inappropriate, almost a taboo that prevents many from expressing the religious feeling we all carry in our hearts.

The characteristics that make Mary a role model for all women, regardless of their religious beliefs.

March 1 was special this year. It not only marked the beginning of Lent with Ash Wednesday, but it was also the first day of Women’s History Month. And who brings greater honor to women than the Virgin Mary herself? Leaving aside religious questions, we have to recognize that she is a truly remarkable woman. These are five qualities that I learned from her:

1. Sense of family

Stability is not only a gift to us as individuals. It is a gift to others.

Benedict’s monks and nuns take vows of obedience, stability and conversion of life. Obedience helps to break a person’s selfish will and makes us open to respond with alacrity to the will of God. Stability is the second of three vows, which operate in a together like the three strands of a braided rope.