On the Mount of Olives overlooking Jerusalem, there is a patch of olive trees on a site traditionally believed to be the Garden of Gethsemane — the place where Jesus came to pray the night before he died. The olive trees themselves are about 900 years old, and the...

Is the Immaculate Conception just another example of Catholics exaggerating Mary’s role, putting her on par with Jesus? From the outside, some might look at Catholic Marian doctrines this way: Jesus is a king, so Catholics make Mary a queen. Jesus ascended into...

The virtue of temperance sometimes gets a bad reputation. As the virtue that "moderates the attraction of pleasures" (Catechism of the Catholic Church: Second Edition, no. 1809), many people today object to such a notion: "What’s wrong with seeking pleasure?"...

On a Spring morning along the Sea of Galilee some 2,000 years ago, the Risen Jesus asked his disciple Peter this deeply personal question: “Do you love me?” At first glance, we might expect Peter to give a wholehearted, “Yes!”  After all, Peter is one of Jesus’ first...

What did Jesus mean by his mysterious words at the Last Supper: "Take this, all of you, and eat of it, for this is my body...Take this, all of you, and drink from it, for this is the chalice of my blood…”?  Did he really intend for us to eat of his body and drink of...