Reflections from Ana

Made a cardinal at 21 by his uncle the pope, Charles took the job seriously: he reformed Milan, stayed with its people through the plague, and gave us CCD.

Saint Monica's last request, what purgatory really is, where Scripture speaks of it, and the indulgence for praying at a cemetery from November 1 to 8.

Jesus goes up the mountain like a new Moses and gives eight blessings that describe a saint, and Jesus himself: pick the one that challenges you most this week.

Halloween is the eve of All Saints: where the word and its customs come from, what a Catholic stays away from, and why a Christian walks into it knowing Christ has already won.

A zealot who followed Jesus beside a former tax collector, and the "forgotten apostle" Danny Thomas prayed to when he was broke: bring Saint Jude whatever feels hopeless today.

Asked for one commandment, Jesus gives two, and everything else hangs on them.

By twenty Karol Wojtyła had buried everyone he loved, and he opened his heart wide to Christ anyway.

The bad steward's trouble began with one thought, "my master is delayed"; being ready means being faithful in small, daily things.

Tortured and enslaved by the people he came to serve, Isaac Jogues escaped, went back to them, and teaches us to pray for the person we have given up on.

Caesar's face is on the coin and God's image is on you: what Jesus' answer about the tax asks of the whole person.

The nun her own convent did not believe, the heart on fire she saw in prayer, and the nine First Fridays.

A slave sent to the mines came home to keep the Church's catacombs, became pope, and fought for every repentant sinner to be welcomed back.

The third of Jesus' stories to the leaders in Jerusalem: the ordinary excuses for missing the feast, the garment the king holds out to every guest, and two questions to carry into the week.

A two-verse Gospel often read against honoring Mary, read alongside the rest of Luke, where Mary is the one who hears the word of God and keeps it.

What Newman gave up to become Catholic on October 9, 1845, and why one honest step at a time is enough, for converts and cradle Catholics alike.

The friend at midnight and Saint Monica's long years of prayer: pick up the prayer you've nearly given up on, and ask the Father for the Holy Spirit.

How Christians praying the rosary across Europe in 1571 gave us today's feast, and why the Church has always called it a weapon for the battles you're fighting now.

With Martha and Mary, Saint Paul's quiet years and Saint Bruno, Ana invites you to give Jesus five minutes before the day begins.

Ana tells how a housekeeper from rural Poland became Saint Faustina, the messenger of Divine Mercy, and invites you to pray "Jesus, I trust in you" at three o'clock.

Ana unpacks Jesus' parable of the vineyard, with Isaiah's song of the vineyard and the rejected cornerstone, and asks what fruit your own life is giving back to God.

On the 800th anniversary of his death, Ana tells the real story of Saint Francis, from prisoner of war to the stigmata, and asks what you are holding on to.