New Advent

Regina Coeli: Pope Benedict explains the Ascension, asks prayers for Chinese Catholics...
Pope Benedict's prayer at the Regina Caeli today, was for Chinese Catholics, who on Thursday venerate "the Blessed Virgin Mary, Help of Christians, venerated with great devotion at the Shrine of Sheshan in Shanghai", "so that they may announce with humility and joy the Risen Christ, be faithful to his Church and the Successor of Peter and live their daily life in a manner consistent with the faith we profess. "
Every round goes higher, higher. A reflection on the Feast of the Ascension...
In more dioceses than not, the Feast of the Ascension is celebrated this weekend. The liturgist in me regrets the move, but here we are any way. So let’s ascend with the Lord, three days late! This marvelous feast is not merely about something that took place two thousand years ago. For, though Christ our head has ascended, we the members of his body are ascending with him. Since he was ascended, we too have ascended. In my own life, as a Christian, I am brought higher every year by the Lord who is drawing me up with him. This...
The long black line continues...
In a tradition stretching back to 1853 and the hands of the nation's lone bishop-saint, that could only mean one thing. And so, even amid an epic tide of trials and transformation, the "long black line" continued on here earlier today as, in his first turn at the rite, the Ninth Archbishop ordained six new priests. The sextet are part a national ordinandi class that, all told, holds at just shy of 500 new priests for the nation's dioceses and religious orders for the year. While 2012's figure of 487 "potential ordinands" is roughly consistent with last year's, the number...
Why did Christ ascend into heaven? Would it have been better if he had remained on earth?
For forty days after his Resurrection, Christ remained with the Apostles showing himself by many proofs truly to have been raised from the dead. However, after these days were fulfilled, our Savior withdrew his physical presence from his disciples and ascended into heaven. While we know that the good Jesus has done all things rightly, we may nevertheless ask whether it may not have been better for him to remain on earth. Why did the Lord ascend into heaven? While it is clearly better for him, it does not at first seem to be beneficial for us.

Chen Guangcheng comes to the US, but what about other dissidents?
Chen Guangcheng’s flight to New York Saturday marks a major step in difficult and delicate negotiations between Beijing and Washington. But it also spotlights the difficulty other activists face under a government regime and a system of local authority many view as repressive.
The Ascension is a sign of hope
Descending and Ascending are beautiful movements of the paschal mystery, the saving mystery by which all that is good, holy and true about our humanity is rescued by God and cherished by Him. To say that Jesus, Risen from the Dead, ascended into heaven is to profess that frail humanity not only has been recreated in Christ but through Him drawn up into the mystery of God. It is both the love and the vulnerability of our humanity that God has drawn into Himself, and in drawing this into his Heart, He has made it holy, once and for...
Solar Eclipse: 'Ring of Fire' Coming Sunday
Don’t look directly at it (not to sound like your elementary-school teacher), but plan on checking out a “ring of fire” partial eclipse on Sunday, May 20, if you live on the West Coast of North America. In this weekend’s annular solar eclipse, the moon will slide in front of the sun and block 94% of its light. Because the moon is near apogee — the point in its orbit when it’s farthest away from Earth — it appears smaller to us and will cover most of the sun, leaving a ring of fiery light blasting the edges. (What, you...
The Isolation of Musicians
The longer I spend within the world of Catholic sacred music, the more a serious problem presents itself. The musicians in the parish or cathedral are too often isolated on their own. Their issues and problems are considered unique and not shared by other sectors of Catholic life. They have their own organizations, their own publishing venues, their own special skills not shared by others, and their own internal cultures that other find impenetrable, even scary.
Why I became Catholic (and not Buddhist)...
One of the questions I get most often when people hear I’m a convert is, “Why did you choose to become Catholic?” I’ve been asked this question by Jews, Baptists, Mormons, atheists, and even Jehovah’s Witnesses. The person who asks the question never says the rest of it, which is, “Why did you choose to become a Catholic INSTEAD of what I am?” These are people of genuine faith, who believe they have found and are living by The Truth. So naturally they want to understand how someone educated and sane could believe so differently.

Some doctors are acting like doctors...
The philosopher Karl Jaspers, who was also a psychiatrist, tells a chilling story (I recall) of how he visited a hospital at the end of World War II, and was trying to console a dying German soldier, a young man, who was very troubled in conscience over what he had done as a guard in a concentration camp. ”What is it, my son?” Jaspers asked in a kindly tone, “What is tormenting you?” The soldier with difficulty explained that once when he was guarding a line of prisoners headed into the gas chambers, he saw a Jewish boy escape, and...