This is the second post in a 4-part series by Fr. Hagan. THE PROBLEM Catholic doctrine says that there is a realm of reality called “nature”, the world of creation which, though separate from God, is made by God in such a way as to imitate his being, from the lowest of inanimate natures to […]

Some of you may have heard of YArespond. We focus on providing holistic and informed responses to the clergy abuse crisis and related crises facing the Catholic Church. While our efforts are based in the Twin Cities and our leadership consists of lay Catholic young adults, we seek to provide support and resources for Catholics […]

Meet Rachel Harkins Ullmann. Wife, mother of three young children, and the Executive Director of the GIVEN Institute. (Fun fact, she plays the harp too!) Rachel joined us to talk about the mission and vision of GIVEN as well as the upcoming MN GIVEN Gathering taking place in the Twin Cities on Saturday, April 24th. […]

This is the fourth post in a 4-part series by Fr. Hagan. THE PROBLEM The day before the death of Pope John Paul II, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger — soon to be Pope Benedict XVI — gave a speech on the occasion of his reception of the St. Benedict Award for the promotion of life and the family in Europe. The address […]

As we’ve recently come to the end of Paschaltide, the Easter season, with the celebration of the Solemnity of Pentecost, it seems fitting and perhaps needful to reflect on what might be thought of as a “meta-season” of the Church’s liturgical year, the period from Advent to Pentecost. In our secular culture we’re habituated to […]

New Year’s Resolutions may be notorious for their attrition rates, but that should not stop Christians from making them. The changing over of the calendar year is a great opportunity for disciples of Jesus to assess where He might be calling us to grow and to make a firm decision to follow Him more closely.  […]

The nightly routine of putting my daughter to sleep usually consists of the same stuff. After we say evening prayer, she insists I sit on the floor near her crib, holding her hand as she drifts off. It is usually during this time that I sit and scroll through the day’s news and social media […]

Dear—   Congratulations on your engagement and thanks so much for writing and for asking this question. Too few young Catholics today seek reliable “opposition counsel” before making massively important decisions in their lives, and by so doing, you demonstrate humility, a desire to know and understand the Church’s teaching and ultimately, to be obedient to […]

The temptation is to hyper-analyze our spiritual lives, to worry about having enough faith or saying the “right combination” of prayers, calculated for “maximum spiritual gain.” A figure that looms large in Lent is such a helpful corrective against that. Everyone else in the Gospel gives Christ some sort of title or address when they […]

This is the third and final part of our series on boredom. You can read part one here and part two here. At our young adult night back in May, we had a time of Q&A at the end, and one of the great questions that we got was: “all this theoretical stuff is great […]

It’s summer so I will keep this short: you should watch The Chosen. For anyone who is unfamiliar with The Chosen, it is a crowd-funded television series about the life of Jesus. Currently two seasons are available to watch for free at the show’s website, and the producers hope to raise an additional $100 million […]

Welcome to your new home! Maybe you’re new to the parish, city, state, or country. Now it’s time to break into your community and get some connections going. But how to do that? Here are the top four things that have made the difference for me when starting over in a new place. Get the […]

I know I’m not the only one who experiences this time of year as a muddle of joy and pain. The joy of the Nativity of our Lord, being with my family, and seeing friends back in town gets mixed in with a fair amount of pain. There’s the pain of loved ones and family […]

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