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When one traces the golden thread of salvation history, the Holy Spirit is never absent. He is there, veiled or visible, from the dawn of creation to the descent at Pentecost. It was the Spirit who hovered over the deep (Gen. 1:2); the same Spirit who inspired the prophets of Israel (Ezek. 37:1-14); the same Spirit who overshadowed Mary, bringing about the Incarnation (Luke 1:35); and the same Spirit who descended upon Jesus at his baptism, publicly marking him for the messianic mission (Matt. …

True witness often means embracing sacrifice and offering our own suffering for the salvation of othersWe’ve been calling evangelization a battle, and it is. When you step out to evangelize, you’re not just starting a project, you’re stepping onto a battlefield.Evangelization is a direct assault against Satan’s kingdom of lies, sin, and death. And he doesn’t sit quietly when his territory is threatened. So, what kind of a soldier are you? How prepared are you for b …

Could we imagine what it would be like if athletes stopped training their bodies? It would be unthinkable. Without training they would never have the strength and stamina required to perform. They also would lose their fans, since we respect athletes because of the great feats their training allows them to perform.The same can be said of the saints, the champion athletes of the Faith. ThefFy are exemplars not of physical training but of the ascetic life. This ancient staple of our Faith is view …

The Immaculate Conception refers to Mary’s preservation from original sin from the very moment of her conception. The formal definition of this dogma was given to the Church by Pope St. Pius IX in 1854:We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all …

As we continue our inquiry as to what it means to be a saint, we need to answer the question: “How does someone become a saint?” The answer depends on precisely what is meant by saint. If saint is taken to refer to simply being united to Christ (and thus a Christian), then the answer is baptism. St. Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians 12:13, “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.&rdqu …