VATICAN CITY – Like parish priests throughout Italy do during the Easter season, Pope Francis spent an afternoon May 19 going door-to-door and blessing homes.

MOSUL, Iraq – With the blessing of the cross raised up in the city of Bakhdida May 2, the reconstruction of the towns in the Plain of Nineveh in Iraq destroyed by the Islamic State officially began.

Fr. Ron Rolheiser will be a leader at the 2017 National Catholic Mission, addressing the theme “Our final gift,” based on Fr. Henri Nouwen’s thesis that death can be our final gift to others. Fr. Rolheiser addressed that concept in a 2001 column reprinted here with his blessing.

VATICAN CITY – Each week dozens of newlyweds, dressed again in their wedding gowns and tuxedoes, come to the Vatican to receive a special papal blessing as they begin their lives together.

Mary, the Holy Mother of God, Jan. 1 (Year A) Numbers 6:22-27; Psalm 67; Galatians 4:4-7; Luke 2:16-21

What does Aaron’s blessing tell us about the nature of God?

Imagine yourself as a tree. 

We all start off as small little seeds and the water is all of the blessings and gifts the Lord grants us in order to grow. Slowly over time, we grow into a tall, strong and beautiful tree. The fruits that we bear are everything that we have to offer to others and to the Lord. 

VATICAN CITY - No saint was ever known for having a "funeral face," Pope Francis said; the joy of knowing one is loved by God and saved by Christ must be seen at least in a sense of peace, if not a smile.

Celebrating the third Sunday of Advent, Gaudete Sunday, Dec. 14, Pope Francis paid an evening visit to Rome's St. Joseph parish, meeting with the sick, with a group of Gypsies, with a First Communion class and with dozens of couples whose newborn babies were baptized in the past year.

When I was in elementary school, we were made to memorize a number of poems by William Blake. We didn’t understand them, but they had a wonderful jingle to them, were easy to commit to memory and remain branded inside me to this day.