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Q. Is there a minimum age before someone can be designated as a reader at Mass? Must that person be confirmed?
A. There is no minimum age, and having received the Sacrament of Confirmation is not a requirement. Carrying out this service to the Church is a matter of someone’s ability to read effectively in a faith-filled way during public worship.
In a time when loneliness and disconnection are at historic highs, how can resurrecting community help us awaken to what Thomas Merton called our “true selves”? In an age of division, how might principles from the Franciscan way help us to uncover our “original unity”? What does real, authentic, diverse community look like today? And what does Pope Leo’s new encyclical “Magnifica Humanitas” say about using digital tools to build a universal human family? What might a digital “piazza” offer in this technological age?
Francis of Assisi may not have written the words of the Peace Prayer attributed to him, but he certainly lived them.
Reflect Have you struggled to pray when it feels dry and boring, like God is distant and not feeding us whenever we enter into prayer? Pray St.
Jesus told the apostles: “Whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it” (Jn 14:13–14). How can we believe this if a prayer is answered no?
The rosary is an invitation for the Spirit to introduce new awareness of God’s presence.
St. Francis of Assisi praised God for all life: the birds in the sky and the lilies of the field. Even the dog at your feet is a messenger of the Almighty—there to remind you that you are loved and beloved.
Does the Catholic Church have a position about donating one’s body to science? I have registered as an organ donor but would also like to leave my body to help the training of future doctors.
Our minds often focus on the “big things” we are pushing toward, but each day is also an opportunity to enjoy and experience the “little things.”
It is only through the passage of diversity that we awaken to our inherent union and spiritual connection to one another.
