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St. Charles Lwanga was a Ugandan convert to Christianity. He is one of twenty-two Ugandan martyrs who were killed in defense of their faith in the mid- to late 1880s. Photo of stained glass window in the Uganda Martyrs Shrine, Namugongo, Diocese of Kampala (https://www.ugandamartyrsshrine.org.ug/).

March is Women's History Month, so let's highlight and honor holy women of God in the Catholic Church! Today: St. Frances of Rome (1384–1440). Her selfless service included using part of her home as a hospital when plagues swept through Italy. Her feast day is March 9. For more of her inspiring story, click on the picture or the headline.

To give us all a chance to better appreciate our significance and purpose in life, St. Wenceslaus is joining an archdiocese-wide Lenten initiative: Viewing an award-winning series called “The Search.” It tackles core questions of life, examining the many options you have and the many signposts that point you to life-enriching answers.

As I finished my first time through the Surrender Novena last week, I got to thinking about conscious and explicit surrender to God the Father and to the Holy Spirit, too. Flowing from that thought, I humbly propose the following variation on the novena prayer...

Dear Readers, May our God bear fruit, fruit that will last (see John 15:15), from this first time through the Surrender Novena for me and anyone's who's joined me in my "real-time" posting of these nine days which started Wednesday a week ago. Of course, I hope this series of posts may bless anyone who comes upon them later, as well...

Dear Readers, please note that I am making these posts as I pray this Novena of Surrender for the first time. I've decided not to look ahead and am only posting each day's message as I come to it. So consider that each message may have historical and cultural contexts and background information about the spirituality of its author, Servant of God Don Dolindo Ruotolo, of which I am unaware. About those sorts of things...

Blog readers, please note that I am making these posts as I pray this Novena of Surrender for the first time. I've decided not to look ahead and am only posting each meditation/reflection as I come to it. So consider that each message may have historical and cultural contexts as well as background information about the spirituality of its author, Servant of God Don Dolindo Ruotolo, of which I am unaware. About those sorts of things, I'm choosing not to delve into them for this first time through...

"You are sleepless; you want to judge everything, direct everything and see to everything and you surrender to human strength, or worse—to men themselves, trusting in their intervention—this is what hinders my words and my views. Oh, how much I wish from you this surrender, to help you; and how I suffer when I see you so agitated! Satan tries to do exactly this: to agitate you and to remove you from my protection and to throw you into the jaws of human...

Continuing the Surrender Novena, I'll introduce Day 5 with some material about if from a blog post on The Catholic Exchange by someone named Maura Roan McKeegan. She explains that the author of this prayer was Servant of God Don Dolindo Ruotolo—for a short time, the spiritual director of St. Padre Pio...

I've begun praying "The Surrender Novena," or "The Novena of Surrender to the Will of God." What prompted me was the heartfelt urging of Archbishop Alexander K. Sample of Portland in Oregon that the priests of the archdiocese join him in taking up this devotion. I now invite people of all states in life to join me in my first time praying this novena. Below are the message and prayers...

I have begun praying "The Surrender Novena," or "The Novena of Surrender to the Will of God." My prompting and inspiration arose from the heartfelt urging of Archbishop Alexander K. Sample of Portland in Oregon. He called on us priests of the archdiocese to join him in taking up this devotion. I now invite people of all states in life to join me...

I have begun praying "The Surrender Novena," or "The Novena of Surrender to the Will of God." My prompting and inspiration arose from the heartfelt urging of Archbishop Alexander K. Sample of Portland in Oregon. He called on us priests of the archdiocese to join him...

Today, January 13, Archbishop Alexander K. Sample of Portland in Oregon strongly urged the priests of the archdiocese to join him in taking up a devotional prayer called, "The Surrender Novena," or "The Novena of Surrender to the Will of God." I had heard of this prayer but hadn't looked it up to learn about it and to consider starting to pray it. Now, with the combined inspiration...

You can now hear my Christmas message as a bonus episode of our Homily Podcast. Learn what you can have in common with the shepherds and soldiers who present at two key miracle events in the life of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ...