Why does the Annunciation loom so large in Catholicism? March 23, 2026By Elizabeth Scalia OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Marian Devotion The Annunciation is the full-on proof of Augustine’s words: “God created us without us, but he will not save us without us.” Just as God’s own Word of assent was necessary for the creation and sustained expansion of the universe, Mary’s “yes” was necessary to its salvation.
St. Patrick’s Breastplate and the terrors of mid-Lent March 16, 2026By Elizabeth Scalia OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Lent St. Patrick might advise, such darkness is still and always with us, looking easy and glamorous as it sucks us into the black and whirling vortexes of sin. The battle between light and dark still continues all round us, and invites us in.
Fear: Destroyer of Lenten works March 7, 2026By Elizabeth Scalia OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Lent It is human to be afraid. But this year, in our Lenten disciplines, let us place all of the fears we’re conscious of — or will admit to — into the vast depths of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Christ, who said, “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Lk 12:32).
Kyrie eleison: Lord, anoint the festering wounds we show January 21, 2026By Elizabeth Scalia OSV News Filed Under: Commentary The idea will not leave my head: how do we anoint a whole world so terribly and self-evidently in need of soothing, healing, consolation and unconditional love?
Scott Adams and the legitimacy of imperfect confession January 19, 2026By Elizabeth Scalia OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Worship & Sacraments Given that his “Dilbert” cartoon spoofed corporate life, it seems fitting Adams approached the idea of religious conversion as a dryly analytical risk-return computation. To some his thinking recalled “Pascal’s wager,” in which 17th-century mathematician Blaise Pascal reasoned that a 50 percent probability of God’s existence represented a bet worth making.
A steady light: Pope Leo XIV’s top five moments of 2025 December 9, 2025By Elizabeth Scalia OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Vatican Leo’s papacy, of nine months gestation, has revealed itself slowly — full of hope but also hidden, as though the first pope from the United States meant to show himself in small, unhurried measures.
Parents, PLEASE: My seventh grade religious ed students do not know the ‘Our Father’ November 3, 2025By Elizabeth Scalia OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Marriage & Family Life Creating Christians who are whole human beings is all of our jobs. But it’s yours first.
Evidence of mercy amid the madness October 13, 2025By Elizabeth Scalia OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Gun Violence Thanks to the availability of instantaneous, global communication and our addiction to it, 21st century humans are permitted — perhaps condemned is a better word — to witness daily episodes of brutality and violence and, particularly over the past few months, horrendous killings.
England’s house afire amid the limitations on free speech September 14, 2025By Elizabeth Scalia OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Religious Freedom Stopping difficult, controversial or “hateful” words before they are uttered may leave some feelings unhurt, but the price of insult-free living will be the destruction of authentic engagement between people. It will mean more social distrust, loneliness and isolation which are already an epidemic.
Charlie Kirk, Iryna Zarutska and the conversations we need to have September 11, 2025By Elizabeth Scalia OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Gun Violence Assassination is a tragedy for our country and for humanity. In this case it raises the flame beneath a pot that had already been simmering and is now dangerously close to boiling over. We must pray for peace, and for a reckoning that rids us of senseless violence once and for all.
Why Mary’s assumption makes total scientific sense August 19, 2025By Elizabeth Scalia OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Marian Devotion When we argue that Mary, as the Ark of the New Covenant, would have been spared the stain of original sin, the knowledge that Christ not only availed himself of her flesh, but would continually reside therein, only further supports that well reasoned belief.
Children of Abraham: Let us find another way to peace August 6, 2025By Elizabeth Scalia OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Conflict in the Middle East These brothers, Arabs and Jews alike, must face the fact that as they spill each other’s blood and destroy their own family they’re perpetuating the age-old curse of rootless dispossession down the decades. They must admit their culpability for miseries, past and present.
