Do you go to Confession regularly and struggle with discerning what to confess? Mortal sins must always be confessed in kind and number, but what about venial sins? How much detail is it appropriate to give? How can we be clear and accurate, but also brief? How can we make a more devout confession without being scrupulous?
Praying before bed can be a challenge. We tend to feel worn down after a long day. Perhaps we’re distracted, restless, frustrated, or discouraged. We look forward to unwinding and falling asleep.
Yet prayer before bed, though it takes effort, can refresh our souls in a unique way. Here’s how along with practical tips on how to approach it.
Many of us struggle to focus during our prayer, work, conversations, or leisure time. Enter the virtue of constancy. This little-known virtue is key in learning to focus and to fight temptations to procrastinate, multitask, and chase after distractions.
During the Last Supper, Jesus gives His Apostles the mission to “go and bear fruit” (John 15:16). That mission is still relevant to us today. How do we take the graces we receive from the Eucharist and share them with others?
Do you prepare for Mass?
We prepare for so many things—work, school, a birthday party, a vacation—so as to do or enjoy those things as best we can.
Likewise, we need to prepare to celebrate the sacrifice of the Mass. It is…
At the end of the Bread of Life discourse, after many of His disciples abandon Him, Jesus asks the Twelve: “Do you also wish to leave?” A person may hear this question and automatically think, “I’ll never walk away from Jesus.” Yet is that true?
There are a number of pamphlets and such discussing how to spend a Holy Hour. The problem is, these writings tend to focus on how to fill up your time during Adoration. But how do you go beyond formal devotions like the Rosary and enter into a deeper communion with God?
Something that frequently gets omitted in conversations about the Eucharist is not the what or the how, but the why. Why would God bother giving us the Eucharist in the first place? What’s the point of transforming bread and wine into the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ?
In the midst of all of the solemnities the Church celebrates around the month of June, the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart gets overlooked. Why does the Church ascribe so much importance to an internal organ of Our Lord? Isn’t that kind of strange?
Vir Christi delves into mental prayer: what it is, why it matters, and how to do it. He also answers the question of how we know whether our time spent in mental prayer is bearing fruit or not. This is a must-read!
If you’ve never been in the habit of praying the Rosary, it can seem dull or intimidating. Or perhaps you feel in need of a “refresh” regarding your devotion to Mary. Or maybe you want to branch out and connect with her in other ways. Here are several little suggestions.
Pride is the summit of self-love and the greatest of the seven deadly sins. Every sin contains a germ of pride. Besides, sins directly springing from pride come in a multitude of forms. Each of us is inclined to some of them. It is necessary to…
Greed is an excessive love of worldly goods that leads to an unrestricted desire to acquire material things. We tend to associate it with money, but it can also be manifested in a love of clothes, jewelry, frivolous gadgets, etc. Greed is often a subtle vice, one we easily excuse.
The term “wrath” gets used routinely in everyday language. People like to use it to describe unchecked fury. Books and movies have glorified it, in many cases, to the point where wrath is seen as a sort of noble pursuit of justice. Because of this…
Envy is a sin alive and well in our society. Its venom courses through social media and news programs, school and work environments, and even into our churches and homes. Despite this, I’ve heard little mention of this sin. What is it exactly? How does it differ from jealousy? And what makes it so dangerous?