Good Monday morning. The world kept moving overnight. Here's what happened, and what your faith has to say about it.
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Pope Leo XIV
Pope: Like Lazarus, may we hear the Lord's call to new life
Pope Leo XIV reflects on the Gospel account of Lazarus's resurrection during Sunday Angelus, inviting the faithful to embrace God's call to new life and spiritual renewal during Lent. The Pope connects the biblical narrative to the invitation to walk in light and grace.
Angelus Address
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John 8:1-11
"Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At daybreak he appeared in the Temple again; and as all the people came to him, he sat down and began to teach them. The scribes and Pharisees brought a woman along who had been caught committing adultery; and making her stand there in full view of everybody, they said to Jesus, ‘Master, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery, and Moses has ordered us in the Law to condemn women like this to death by stoning."
| Rosary Mystery of the Day | |
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Today's Mysteries |
Monday: Joyful Mysteries |
Joyful Mysteries
- 1. The Annunciation
- 2. The Visitation
- 3. The Nativity of Our Lord
- 4. The Presentation in the Temple
- 5. The Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple
The Objection
"Why do Catholics make such a big deal about Mary? She was just a regular woman who happened to give birth to Jesus. The Bible never says to pray to her."
The Catholic Response
Mary was not 'just' anyone. The angel Gabriel greeted her as "full of grace" (Luke 1:28), a title that describes her very identity, not just a polite hello. Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, called her "the mother of my Lord" (Luke 1:43), recognizing that to carry God in your body changes everything about who you are. The Church honors Mary because Jesus honored her first: he chose her, preserved her from sin (CCC 491), and gave her to us from the cross when he told John, "Behold, your mother" (John 19:27). Asking Mary to pray for us is no different from asking any friend to pray for you, except that this friend is closer to her Son than anyone who has ever lived (CCC 2673-2679).
Luke 1:28 | Luke 1:43 | John 19:27 | CCC 491 | CCC 2673-2679
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Test Your Faith IQ |
Scripture |
In today's Gospel (John 8:1-11), Jesus writes in the dirt while the Pharisees demand a woman be stoned. How many times does the Gospel of John say Jesus wrote on the ground?
- A) Once, before his response
- B) Twice, before and after his response
- C) Three times, between each exchange
- D) The text never specifies writing, only 'bending down'
Answer at the bottom of this newsletter.
 Photo: NPR
NPR
President Trump delayed planned strikes on Iranian power plants by five days while simultaneously deploying ICE agents to U.S. airports, raising questions about both foreign brinkmanship and domestic enforcement.
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FAITH & THE WORLD |
Sirach 28:2-3 |
"Forgive your neighbor the wrong done to you; then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven. Does anyone nourish anger against another and expect healing from the Lord?"
Just War Doctrine (CCC 2307-2317)
A five-day pause is not peace; it's a longer fuse. The Catechism insists that war is permissible only as a last resort, after "all other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective" (CCC 2309), and every delay should be spent exhausting those means, not merely recalculating the strike window.
Reflect → When you 'delay' a confrontation in your own life, are you genuinely seeking resolution, or just picking a better moment to attack?
 Photo: CBS News
CBS News
Two pilots were killed and dozens injured when an Air Canada Express plane collided with a firetruck on a runway at LaGuardia Airport late Sunday night.
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FAITH & THE WORLD |
Wisdom 2:23-24 |
"For God formed us to be imperishable; the image of his own nature he made us. But by the envy of the devil, death entered the world, and they who are allied with him experience it."
CCC 1006-1009 (Death in Christian Meaning)
Two people went to work Sunday night and never came home. The Church teaches that death is not the last word, but she also refuses to treat sudden death as routine; every human life lost is an unrepeatable image of God extinguished from this world (CCC 1700).
Reflect → If tonight were your last, is there a conversation you've been putting off that you'd regret never having?
 Photo: CBS News
CBS News
With gold prices surging, investors are scrambling to understand the market and whether precious metals should anchor their financial strategy.
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FAITH & THE WORLD |
Matthew 6:19-21 |
"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in heaven. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be."
CCC 2424 (Universal Destination of Goods)
Gold fever reveals what we actually worship when we feel unsafe. The Church has never condemned wealth itself, but she does warn, through Rerum Novarum and Centesimus Annus, that money hoarded out of fear becomes a god that can never love you back.
Reflect → What would it look like if you invested as much energy into spiritual security as you do into financial security?
![[GOOD NEWS] A new website calculates how many marine animals](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5f6cc9cd16d59d990c8fca33/69bd8790898c8a112b70c8bf_wildlife-impact-calculator-beach-cleanup.jpg) Photo: Good Good Good
Good Good Good
A new research-backed calculator shows how many marine animals are saved from death for every piece of plastic trash picked up during beach cleanups.
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FAITH & GOOD NEWS |
Genesis 2:15 |
"The Lord God then took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden, to cultivate and care for it."
Laudato Si' (Pope Francis, 2015), CCC 2415
Pope Francis wrote that "every act of cruelty towards any creature is contrary to human dignity" (Laudato Si' 92). This calculator does something beautiful: it makes visible the real impact of small, faithful stewardship, proving that one person bending down to pick up a bottle cap is participating in God's original job description for humanity.
Reflect → What's one small, concrete thing you could do this week to care for creation in your own neighborhood?
![[GOOD NEWS] Nashville Public Library Offers Free Digitizatio](https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Hunter-Scott-via-Unsplash.jpg) Photo: Good News Network
Good News Network
Nashville's public library is offering free digitization of old family photos and VHS tapes, rescuing entire lifetimes of memories from obsolete technology.
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FAITH & GOOD NEWS |
Deuteronomy 6:6-7 |
"Take to heart these words which I command you today. Keep repeating them to your children. Recite them when you are at home and when you are away."
CCC 2204-2206 (The Christian Family as Domestic Church)
Every dusty VHS tape holds someone's baptism, someone's wedding, someone's grandmother singing. The Catechism calls the family a "domestic church" (CCC 2204), and preserving its memory is not nostalgia but an act of honoring the communion of persons God built your life upon.
Reflect → What family story are you at risk of losing if you don't write it down or save it soon?
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DAILY WORD GAME
Test your Catholic vocabulary
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Saint of the Day |
March 23 |
Saint Turibius of Mogrovejo
Turibius was a layman and a law professor when the King of Spain appointed him Archbishop of Lima. He had never been ordained. He protested the appointment, but the Pope agreed with the King, so Turibius received every sacrament from confirmation through episcopal ordination in rapid succession. He then walked 18,000 miles across the Andes on foot, learning local indigenous languages so he could hear confessions without a translator.
His feast is March 23, and his life mirrors today's Gospel: like Jesus bending down in the dirt to defend the accused, Turibius walked through mountains to reach people the colonial system treated as disposable.
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