First Communion is a powerful church and family ritual; no one who has been present can miss its importance for the children taking part.

“Students who understood very little of his lectures told me that they attended because they ‘felt better’ about themselves in his presence. ‘This is a professor to whom I can confess,’ one said.”

Why do we need ministers of Communion? Why not just pass the eucharistic bread and wine and let people take it themselves?

The ministry of the reader at Mass is pivotal to the whole liturgical celebration.

As predicted, the release on Feb. 27 of the report prepared by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice on sexual abuse by members of the Catholic clergy created another sizable aftershock in the crisis that has shaken the Catholic Church.

It always disappoints me a bit when the celebrant at Mass chooses Eucharistic Prayer 1 (the Roman Canon) and skips the invocation of the saints, that resonant list of early martyrs recited before and after the institution narrative. The omission is all the more disappointing since one of those lists