Summer Break

We send out a new issue of the Register every week of the year, with only two exceptions — the last week in December and the last week in July.

This coincides, of course, with a time of many family vacations — and the time for my own vacation.

I will start and finish my vacation at a lake house that my community uses.

But in between, I will be busy at the Youth and Family Encounter. This year, Atlanta will be home to an annual event that started 10 years ago as a way to bring Regnum Christi members and friends together and to let them share their Christian values and ideals. It gives young people and families, normally separated by great geographical distances, the chance to team up with other members of the movement.

Mindful of the teachings of Pope Benedict XVI, who reminds us that “God is love,” the theme of our encounter this year is “Love One Another as I Have Loved You.” 

These events are invigorating for me — truly awesome in the real sense of that overused, misused and abused word.

Thus, my summer break will be very much like the vacationing apostles — they, too, started out on a quiet lakeside, then met with a large group of families.

I pray that, like theirs, my vacation and your own will find us resting in the one place worth resting — in the presence of the Lord.

Martha and Me

In time for the July 29 feast of St. Martha, patron of cooks, Amy Smith considers how the kitchen can be a place of great grace.

40 Days for Life

It’s been local for a few years, but the 40 Days for Life campaign, aimed at saving the lives of the unborn, will go national this fall.

Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne attends a German Synodal Way assembly on March 9, 2023.

Four German Bishops Resist Push to Install Permanent ‘Synodal Council’

Given the Vatican’s repeated interventions against the German process, the bishops said they would instead look to the Synod of Bishops in Rome. Meanwhile, on Monday, German diocesan bishops approved the statutes for a synodal committee; and there are reports that the synodal committee will meet again in June.

Palestinian Christians celebrate Easter Sunday Mass at Holy Family Church in Gaza City on March 31, amid the ongoing battles Israel and the Hamas militant group.

People Explain ‘Why I Go to Mass’

‘Why go to Mass on Sundays? It is not enough to answer that it is a precept of the Church. … We Christians need to participate in Sunday Mass because only with the grace of Jesus, with his living presence in us and among us, can we put into practice his commandment, and thus be his credible witnesses.’ —Pope Francis