Holy Saturday is one of those days when the church, though liturgically silent, speaks volumes through signs.

Blessed Carlo Acutis had a PlayStation. He made awkward videos with his friends. His favorite cartoon was “Pokémon.” And on April 27, he will be canonized a Catholic saint.

As any parent will understand, praying well at Mass with three children is not easy — or sometimes, even possible.

We should keep in mind that the church sees the process of Christian initiation as a spiritual journey, not as an academic year with a deadline for “graduation.”

It’s difficult to think of laughter when you see the suffering of the men who languish, none of them having access to due process, in a brutal foreign prison. But as Christians we are called to hope, even in the midst of night.

The miracle of Easter shows that anything and everything is possible for God, and that even death does not have the final word.

Weeks and weeks ago, I was walking down the seasonal aisle at the grocery store when I stopped to look at the Easter candy. I spotted chocolate bunnies who were posed as if they were taking selfies. I thought of my niece in college several states to the north. I knew she would be amused. […]

This is the pattern, the lesson, Easter’s strange suggestion, that even in the tombs of our lives, even when there’s no reasonable ground to hope, we still do not despair.

Unlike the followers of Christ on that Good Friday, we know that the 14th station is not the end, that death does not win; rather, in his sacrifice, we find the sure knowledge of eternal life.

The history of relics — authentic or fake — is an amazing, fascinating chapter of Christian history through the centuries, especially the relics of Jesus Christ, which remain the most venerated and famous.