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Cultivating and Sharing the Fruit of the Spirit

Posted on July 5, 2021May 19, 2023 by Vanessa Crescio

If we live in the Spirit, let us also follow the Spirit (Gal 5:25). In Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, He warns: “Beware of false prophets… by their fruits you will know them. Just so, every good tree bears good fruit, and a rotten tree bears bad...
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Prophets and Profits: Fulfilling our Baptismal Responsibilities in Business

Posted on June 14, 2021October 31, 2021 by Vanessa Crescio

“And you, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High...” Benedictus (Lk 1:76) “It’s not personal, it’s just business,” a common phrase spewed by many a savvy business manager to justify uncomfortable or otherwise unjustifiable yet...
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My Eucharistic Offering: Servant of God Sr. Thea Bowman

Posted on April 6, 2021December 26, 2023 by Vanessa Crescio

“I bring myself, my black self, all that I am, all that I have, all that I hope to become… as gift to the Church,” Sister Thea Bowman in her Address to the USCCB, June 1989. Her Early Years At Sister Thea’s funeral on April 3, 1990, the qu...
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When Home Décor becomes Doxology

Posted on January 28, 2021October 31, 2021 by Vanessa Crescio

As we welcome you into our humble Catholic home, you will notice in the entryway a modest Hobby Lobby quote block that reads: “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15). In this our home is far from unique. This line from Jo...
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Sowing in Tears

Posted on January 11, 2021November 28, 2023 by Vanessa Crescio

Imprisoned for the first time in her young life (of the at least dozen times from 1917-1955), Dorothy Day lay in her cell shivering from the cold and starving. She had joined a group of suffragists in D.C. to protest the brutal treatment of impr...
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An Epiphanic Visit: Following the Example of St. Vincent de Paul

Posted on October 27, 2020September 16, 2023 by Vanessa Crescio

At the center of Jesus's teaching in the Gospels stands the greatest commandment, which is twofold: love of God and love of neighbor (Mat 22:34-40). And who is our neighbor that we are called to love? Jesus tells us, “Just as you did it to one o...
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“Imitate the Earth” – St. Basil the Great on the Principle of Detachment

Posted on October 19, 2020October 31, 2021 by Vanessa Crescio

“Imitate the earth... Bear fruit, as she does. She produces her fruits, not that she may enjoy them, but for the service of others”, so St. Basil opens his Homily VI on Luke 12:18 titled, “I Will Tear Down My Barns” on social justice. Basil as t...
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Co-Responsible for the Mission of the Church

Posted on October 13, 2020October 31, 2021 by Vanessa Crescio

This month, Pope Francis invites us to pray with him that the laity, particularly women, embrace our baptismal responsibility for the mission of the Church. Notice please he does not ask us to “collaborate” with the hierarchy, which is not to di...
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