The four years Robert F. Prevost spent at Villanova University in Philadelphia — from the fall of 1973 until May 1977, when he graduated with a degree in mathematics and began his novitiate with the Augustinian order — included the opening salvos of the pro-life movement.

Though the St. Michael prayer is no longer mandated in our post-Vatican II Mass, it can still be a beautiful and spiritually beneficial custom to pray it after the final blessing as a community.

Here are five simple things you can do to prepare for Mass. They aren’t difficult or time-consuming. But they are guaranteed to help you enter more deeply into the celebration of the Mass and achieve a more intimate union with Christ and the other members of the worshiping community.

Pope Leo grew up with remarkably the same kind of life I did. Who would ever have thought such a thing would be possible? Certainly not me. 

The Missouri Supreme Court on May 27 overturned a pair of lower court rulings that had blocked the state’s abortion restrictions, effectively leaving its ban in place — for now.