Faith Above Fear

Devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows focuses on the Virgin Mary’s many sufferings throughout her life, particularly during the Passion and crucifixion of her Son, Jesus Christ. It is rooted in both scripture and tradition, aiming to deepen our understanding of her role in salvation history. Meditating on her sufferings can help the faithful embrace the Mother of God as a model of redemptive suffering and as a source of comfort in our spiritual lives. This devotion is powerful and needed, especially in our culture today. If you ever feel alone in your suffering or sadness, look to Our Lady of Sorrows! Here are six timeless pieces of wisdom from the saints on Mary’s role as Our Lady of Sorrows: “Mary’s sorrow was less when she saw her only Son crucified, than it is now at the sight of man offending Him by sin.” - Saint Ignatius of Loyola “The Martyrdom of Mary was not caused by the executioner’s sword, but proceeded from bitter sorrow of heart.” - Saint Bernard of Clairvaux “Turn your eyes in...

Internist Dr. José Jorge Maya shared a video explaining, from his professional and personal experience, the health benefits of praying the Rosary and the changes it can bring to people’s lives. On his Instagram account, Dr. Maya noted that many people were surprised to see him praying the Rosary in his latest video. Many left supportive comments about the practice. “As a doctor, I wanted to look into the literature to see what benefits praying the Rosary can bring to your health,” he explained. Among the benefits highlighted by Dr. Maya are a reduction in respiratory and heart rate, which allows for “better synchronization between the cardiovascular and respiratory systems.” “There are changes in blood pressure, and the blood becomes much more oxygenated. This not only provides a feeling of calm and well-being, but has also been linked to health benefits,” he said. Dr. Maya emphasized that the Rosary helps people feel better: “In qualitative studies, this has been proven: people who pr...

Suffering is God's wake-up call to change. I've seen this many times, in many cases, where people have changed, or grown, or made decisions that needed to be made, all because of some type of suffering or undesirable situation that they were going through. They were forced, by some type of pain, to make a change. I'm sure that there are many moments in your own life that you can look back to, when you went through things, or you had to endure things that you would have rather not dealt with. But because of this, it was the cause of getting your life together, all as a result of some type of suffering. That struggle shaped you, refined you, and gave you the strength to become who you are today. Often, it is in the fire of trials that character is purified. Just as gold is tested in fire, the soul is tested in hardship. Many times, suffering is not meant to destroy us, but to awaken us—to remind us of our need for God, to shift our priorities, and to draw us close...

They are not vague forces or bad feelings; they are intelligent beings, and they hate you. All discussion of mass violence is empty if it does not confront this reality head-on. If you are reluctant to talk about evil and need a pep talk, consult the stirring final chapter of St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians: "For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." If you have ever been tempted by the deliberate efforts of another human person, you can at least have a guess at how vastly more skilled demons are. They need not bother with your senses. They can go straight to your imagination. It would be naïve to dismiss the massacres that are now so much a part of our news cycle as merely the actions of racists or the mentally afflicted. For very good reason the Church exhorts us to make it a fair fight by...