When Jesus’ disciples ask Him to teach them to pray, He gives them much more than simply words to say. How?

Just weeks into President Trump’s first term, David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network asked the businessman-turned-politician whether he would make the plight of Christians facing religious persecution abroad a priority of his administration.

“Yes,” Trump said. “They’ve been horribly treated.”

The president spoke about Christians fleeing violence in Syria, concluding: “We are going to help them.”

Visit the Home of Jesus’ Grandparents
Saints Joachim and Anne received the astonishing grace to be the grandfather and grandmother of God.
Susanna Bolle Parent
While on pilgrimage to the Holy Land earlier this year, our group was given a tour by a White Father. He spent a few minutes of his day to teach us about the Church of St. Anne, but more importantly, about those who lived just below it.

Sts. Joachim and Anne can intercede for grandparents who seek help and guidance for their grandchildren.

Throughout the remainder of this liturgical year, we will hear predominantly from Saint Luke’s Gospel in the Sunday Masses. As the only Gentile author in the New Testament, his perspective and emphases are different from the other gospel writers.

On the 13 July Our Lady taught the children of Fatima the marvelous prayer to be inserted into the Rosary at the end of each mystery: “O my Jesus, forgive us our sins...”

Forgive us our sins: The thought of our sins, which threatens to cause our ruin, is present everywhere in the message of Fatima. There is not one of the nine apparitions of the Angel and Our Lady that does not make some allusion to it. It echoes the invocation in the Pater Noster, “forgive us our trespasses”, as well as in the Ave Maria “pray for us sinners”.

The teachings of Lord Jesus Christ introduced a call within the human family for mercy, compassion, and universal charity. Of all his parables and sayings, few emphasized these points as beautifully and succinctly as the story of the Good Samaritan.

While the story is a shining example of love and concern, it also has an interior theological meaning. What’s the basic storyline on this notable allegory? What is the deeper meaning for Christian believers?

Politicians, journalists, photographers and a few other professional persons often share the dizzying experience of being able to observe the course of history while it happens. One such privileged observer is none other than Most Rev. Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Apostolic Administrator of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, since 2016 and, a long time before, Custos of the Holy Land.

"What man among you having a hundred sheep
and losing one of them
would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert
and go after the lost one until he finds it?”
(Luke 5:4)

These words of Our Lord, drawn from the Gospel reading for the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, reveal both profound truths about God’s heart — the Sacred Heart — and deeply practical wisdom for our daily life and work.

Human and Divine Assumptions

Vladimir Putin's visit to the Vatican on July 4, 2019 began in a "traditional" way, the first stage of the ten-hour trip to Rome. And that is with the delay of the president of the Russian Federation that, as already in the previous hearings with the Pope of 2013 and 2015 (on this last occasion the minutes of waiting had been seventy), was presented by Francesco at around 14.05. So about an hour later than the scheduled time on the agenda, 1.15pm.