If you have elementary school-aged kids like we do, you know that it is important to help kids be brave. Speaking in public, performing in the school play, playing an instrument in a recital, competing in sports –- these are all great tests of our kids' confidence and self-esteem.
The same can be said of our faith. This Easter Season, with Pope Francis’ renewal of the New Evangelization, we are called to live our faith out loud and share the light of Christ with the world around us. Hallelujah, He is Risen!

-- Heidi

Begin with the sign of the cross:

Risen Lord,
we greet you with joy
this Easter Season
and we thank you for the
gift of new life.
Bless our food,
our family
and our friends,
and help us
to celebrate the springtime
in our hearts
as we rejoice
in the Good News
of your Resurrection.
Alleluia! Amen.

Conclude with the sign of the cross.

May is Mary’s month! In this OSV Newsweekly special In Focus, revisit nine of the most influential Marian apparitions: Our Lady of Guadalupe, Our Lady of Beauraing, Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, Our Lady of La Salette, Our Lady of Lourdes, Our Lady of Laus, Our Lady of Fatima, and Our Lady of Knock.

Read the rest of the article from the May 4, 2014, issue of OSV Newsweekly

So many people have moved to Mount Olive, N.C., in recent years that the local Catholic parish, St. Mary of the Angels, had to move from an 85-person church building to a new facility that accommodates 700 Catholics who attend four Sunday Masses. However, the official parish registry would never tell you this church in rural North Carolina is bursting at the seams. Several of the area’s new Catholics, many of them Latinos from south of the border, have not registered at St. Mary of the Angels. “There are at least three times as many baptized Catholic, if not four times as many, than those who are affiliated with the parish in a formal registration,” St. Mary’s pastor, Father James F. Garneau, told Our Sunday Visitor.

From the April 27, 2014, issue of OSV Newsweekly. Read it all here.