Loading the latest published content…
How to pray & practice
Step-by-step guides to the Rosary, the Divine Mercy Chaplet, Confession, and the spiritual life — steps first, then each prayer in a dropdown.
Devotion
What an indulgence is and the conditions for a plenary one: the indulgenced work, sacramental confession, Holy Communion, prayer for the Pope's intentions and detachment from sin.
Confession
Step by step through the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation: preparing, what to say when you enter, confessing by kind and number, the Act of Contrition, absolution and your penance.
Sacraments
Bringing a civil marriage into the Church: what convalidation is and why it is needed, contacting the parish, dealing with any prior marriages, the preparation, the rite of consent, and living the sacrament afterward.
Devotion
The May devotion to Mary and the parish or family crowning of her image: preparing the statue and crown, the procession and hymns, the crowning itself, the Litany of Loreto, and an act of consecration.
Devotion
The first two days of November: Mass on the holy day of All Saints, prayer for the dead on All Souls, the cemetery visits from 1 to 8 November that carry a plenary indulgence for the departed, and keeping the whole month for the Holy Souls.
Devotion
Every Friday of the year, not only in Lent, is a day of penance in memory of the Lord's Passion: what the Church's law asks, what the bishops of the United States allow in place of abstinence, and how to make it a habit.
Lent
The one day of the year without Mass: the fast and abstinence, keeping the day quiet, the three o'clock hour, the Celebration of the Lord's Passion, venerating the Cross, the Stations, and Holy Communion from the reserved Sacrament.
Sacraments
The Lord's Day as the Church asks it to be kept: the Sunday obligation and its meaning, planning Mass first, rest from unnecessary work, the family meal, works of charity, and closing the day with Vespers or the Rosary.
Sacraments
The six holy days of obligation observed in the United States, how the Saturday and Monday rule works, when a vigil Mass counts, and how to plan the year so none of them takes you by surprise.
Rosary
Leading the Rosary publicly: the leader's parts and the people's responses, pacing, intentions, and how to close.
Confession
Preparing a child for the first celebration of the Sacrament of Penance: what to explain, how to practise, what the child says in the room, and how parents keep confession a normal part of life afterward.
Confession
A review of one's whole life, or of a long period of it, brought to confession with a priest's guidance at a turning point: entering a new state of life, after a conversion, or on a retreat.
Adoration
How to spend an hour in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament: arriving, adoring, giving thanks, praying with Scripture, interceding, resting in silence, and closing, with or without Benediction.
Consecration
An overview of consecration to Jesus through Mary: what it means, how to prepare, which feast to choose, the act itself, and how to live and renew it afterwards.
Confession
Sorrow for sin out of love of God, made when confession is not available, together with the firm resolve to confess as soon as possible, as the Catechism teaches.
Adoration
Uniting oneself to Christ in the Eucharist by desire when unable to receive him sacramentally: what spiritual communion is, when it applies, and how to make it with the traditional act.
Advent
Making the wreath with evergreen and three violet and one rose candle, blessing it at home at the start of Advent, the order of lighting week by week, the prayer to say each evening, and the Christmas custom of the white candle.
Discernment
Preparing for, making and returning from a retreat: choosing the kind, setting an intention, arriving and going silent, following the rhythm of Mass and prayer, meeting the director, confession, resolutions, and a gentle return home.
Adoration
How to pray in the minutes after receiving Communion, when Christ is sacramentally present within you: silence, adoration, thanksgiving, self-offering, petition and a traditional prayer to carry into the day.
Adoration
A short daily visit to Jesus in the tabernacle: finding an open church, greeting him, adoring, thanking, asking and repenting, a brief prayer, and leaving in peace.
Consecration
The schedule of Saint Louis de Montfort: twelve preliminary days and three weeks of prayer and reading, timed to end on the eve of a Marian feast, followed by the act of consecration.
Devotion
The Fatima devotion of reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary: confession, Communion, five decades of the Rosary and fifteen minutes of meditation on the first Saturday of five consecutive months.
Devotion
The Sacred Heart devotion of receiving Holy Communion in reparation on nine consecutive First Fridays: its origin, how to keep the nine months, and what to do if you miss one.
Lent
The first day of Lent: who fasts and abstains and what that means, going to Mass or a Liturgy of the Word, receiving the ashes and the words that go with them, wearing them, and beginning your Lenten plan.
Lent
Palm Sunday through Holy Saturday, day by day: the palms, the Chrism Mass and confession, the Mass of the Lord's Supper and adoration, the Celebration of the Passion, the silence of Holy Saturday, with practical notes on what to bring and on bringing children.
Sacraments
The full, conscious and active participation the Church asks for: arriving prepared, the postures of standing, kneeling and sitting, the responses in full, listening to the readings, the Creed and the Prayer of the Faithful, the Eucharistic Prayer, Communion and thanksgiving, and the dismissal.
OCIA
The three Lenten scrutinies for the elect on the third, fourth and fifth Sundays of Lent, with the Gospels of the Samaritan woman, the man born blind and Lazarus; the exorcism prayers and laying on of hands; the presentations of the Creed and the Our Father; and the final preparation for the Vigil.
Sacraments
The tribunal process explained pastorally: what an annulment is and is not, who to contact, gathering testimony, the formal petition, the process and its timeline since Mitis Iudex, the decision, and how to move forward.
Sacraments
The three rites of the Order of Christian Funerals — the vigil, the Funeral Mass and the committal — with how to choose readings and music, what the Church asks about eulogies and cremation, and how to keep praying afterward.
Sacraments
Planning the celebration itself from the Order of Celebrating Matrimony: Mass or Liturgy of the Word, choosing the readings, sacred music, the questions and consent, the rings, Communion, the nuptial blessing, and the parish's practical rules.
