The Most Significant Event

Today, from sunup until sundown, Christians all across the globe are entering into the sacred commemoration of the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. By the hundreds of millions, they’re setting aside their daily routines for a few moments, and celebrating the great event of human history. All their liturgies, celebrations, fasting, and prayers won’t make the headlines. But, in fact, the celebration of the Holy Triduum is one of the most significant things going on in the world over the course of the next several days, even from a human point of view.

We don’t always see things like this rightly. The 24-hour news cycle, and the drama and celebrity it propagates, convinces us that whatever the talking heads have brought to our attention is what ought to have our attention. And then these moments where heaven touches earth, where our immortal, unimaginably high dignity and destiny call out to us, get overshadowed: we find such moments meaningful, yes, even transformative when we engage them, but also non-essential to the “real” things of our immediate, workaday life. Our spiritual and religious practices become luxuries of leisure, something nice for when we can carve out the time.

But today begins the most important few days of our lives. And our common, Christian pilgrimage through them should remind us of that. Our vision is ever in need of healing in this way, and so we set before our gaze those sacred events that forever transform the most fundamental realities of our existence: from death comes life, and from sin, grace and mercy beyond all telling.

We have the option to live our immediate, workaday lives from these realities from here on after. They may define everything else, when we allow the Lord to make us witnesses to what he’s done for each and every one of us. He does the heavy lifting for us; the liturgies we’re invited into do, too. And so we stand today before a threshold: what is old may be made new, what was dark, light. And, passing through it, we may discover that healing, saving love, more than anything else - that’s what’s for real.

In an era more accustomed to announcements of seminaries and Catholic universities closing, the Diocese of Phoenix and the University of Mary have partnered to establish Nazareth Seminary.

The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes has announced its 72nd officially-recognized miracle, relating to a healing that occurred 15 years ago.

Sins of speech are often overlooked. What are they and how can we come to recognize them better?

From falling into mere routine to experiences of great anxiety, many people struggle with the confessional. One author reflects on the beauty of the sacrament.

Finally, for your Holy Week reflection: St. John Henry Newman’s sermon on the Crucifixion.