Near death experiences (NDEs) have garnered a reputation of being blissful, other-worldly adventures complete with encounters with lost loved ones. While many NDEers do consider their close brushes with death to be positive, 1-2% report having negative near death experiences. 

“Be not afraid!”

On May 13, 1917, Lucia Santos and her cousins Jacinta and Francisco Marto were visited for the first of many times by the Blessed Virgin Mary at the Cova da Iria in Fatima.  

Mother Teresa of Calcutta’s life was a miracle, so to speak, in itself. At the age of eighteen, Mother Teresa left her home in Skopje, North Macedonia to join the Sisters of Loreto in Ireland, never to see her family again.  

In this episode of Wednesday on the World, Father Spitzer discusses the life of John Henry Cardinal Newman, declared a saint by Pope Francis this past Sunday. Father Spitzer also shares 3 of Newman's books that had a personal impact on Father's life.

During his lifetime, Padre Pio performed a large number of miraculous cures. The following miracle is connected to Padre Pio’s beatification, meaning it was approved by a Diocesan Scientific Board, a Diocesan Theological Tribunal, a Vatican Scientific Board and a Vatican Tribunal. 

Saint Augustine is one of the most intriguing figures in the two-thousand-year history of Christianity. He represents misspent youth, passionate romance, a deep conversion, and ultimately a profound, compelling Christian faith. It’s a hard story not to fall in love with. If he were alive today we might imagine him (at least in his later life) as one of the media titans among our Catholic bishops (think Bishop Barron or Fulton Sheen).

Holiness is not simply a matter of our exertion, but the power of God working in us. This life of divine sonship continues to flow outward in the promptings of the Holy Spirit, moving us, challenging us, drawing us ever more deeply into the mystery of God. This is especially exemplified in the lives of the men who influenced the young Karol Wojtyla.

The Creator of the universe can be known through His creation.

“So we have seen it, and so it has been fulfilled: indeed, we are witnesses that the Gospel has been preached unto those parts beyond which there lives nobody.” –St. Patrick, Confession 34