Catholic

When I picked up The Frassati Field Guide: An 8-Day Ascent to Heroic Virtue by Bobby Angel, it wasn’t because I had a longstanding devotion to Pier Giorgio Frassati. If anything, I was drawn in by the mountain metaphor—in both the literal and the spiritual sense.

by Rietta Parker, Contributing Writer

A crumbling marriage. A priest who agrees to pray as he contemplates the ribbon that bound the couple as one on their wedding day. Mary’s love for her children.

This is the story of how the devotion to Our Lady as Mary, Undoer of Knots, originated in the 1600s. In Augsburg, Germany, a married couple, Wolfgang Langenmantel and Sophia Rentz, were contemplating divorce when Wolfgang went to Father Jakob Rem for spiritual counsel. Father Rem took the couple’s wedding ribbon and prayed with them to Our Lady to smooth out the knots of their marriage. A month later, the couple was able to fully reconcile and lived a long life together.

by Elizabeth Hamonko, Writer

Think about what you last prayed for.
The majority of us start out our prayer life asking for tangible, immediate things. Perhaps it’s a new toy or a new job, depending on whether you grew up in the faith or converted as an adult.

by Franci Revel Eckensberger

Mary’s life was one long yes to God–and a resounding yes, at that. Today, August 15, we honor that lifelong fiat with the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

by Marge Hynes, Writer

As someone who’s guaranteed to get emotional during any movie, I wasn’t shocked to feel something watching this one. But, I was surprised–not by its brisk pace or bright visuals, but by its heart. In a genre saturated with secularism, this film explores the beauty, fragility, and sacredness of being.