The year was 1897. A young Carmelite nun lay dying of tuberculosis. It was a custom in many religious communities of the time for consecrated religious to circulate a brief biography of deceased members as a remembrance and to encourage prayer for the repose of the dead. While she lay on her deathbed, Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus could hear two of her sisters...
Unlike most converts from various strains of Protestantism, I never had much of a problem with the Blessed Virgin Mary. Perhaps it was because my Christian background was more or less nominal and lacking a good deal of Christian catechesis. Or perhaps it was because I had a natural attraction to the idea of saintly intercession and the communion of the saints.
Whatever the reason, I did not have difficulty accepting the Marian dogmas, and I enjoyed the folk piety of ordinary lay...
I love reading conversion stories. I've read so many of them that I sometimes don't remember exactly what a convert said about his journey, only that he entered the Church. That's the case with a story I remember reading years ago, probably in an anthology of conversion stories. I don't remember a lot of the details, only an extraordinary tale of answered prayer.
This convert had attended a famous Protestant seminary in the U.S., one which had been seeing a surprising number of its...
For years a friend of mine has hosted an annual Shakespeare party. It used to be held around William Shakespeare's birthday (April 23), but is now usually held just before Lent, when the weather is more amenable to wearing heavy costumes and as a final farewell to the Christmas partying season. The party includes music and skits prepared by the guests, usually from Shakespeare or evocative of his time.
This year's Shakespeare party will be tonight. It's not often that dramatic...
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