St. Mary's Church

Jan 7, 2026 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Hundreds of young women filled a ballroom on Jan. 4 at the 2026 SEEK Conference in Denver to hear Sister Virginia Joy Cotter, SV, discuss how to follow God’s call and determine one’s vocation.

“When we think about vocation, it’s ultimately a call to love and be loved,” Sister Virginia Joy said during her talk, titled “The Adventure of the Yes: Following God’s Call.”

“Growing up, or even now, you’re probably asked, ‘What are you going to do when you grow up? What’s your major? What do you want to do with your life?’” she said. “I would guess no one has probably asked you, ‘What are you going to do with your love? How do you plan to make a gift of yourself?’ But these are the questions that sit behind a vocation.”

“For some, the word vocation might be completely foreign to you. For others, maybe it provokes a stream of emotions from wonder to anticipation to anxiety. Whatever it means to you, it’s good to take stock of where it sits with you right now and open your heart to whatever God wants to give you this morning.”

Sister Virginia Joy shared that “ultimately, our vocation is not a problem to be fixed or a riddle to be solved … Vocation is deeply relational, personal, and distinct. It comes from the Latin ‘vocare,’ meaning to call, to name, to summon. There’s one who calls and there’s one who responds. It’s a relationship between each individual and God.”

Here are seven ways a person can discern his or her vocation based on Sister Virginia Joy’s talk:

Pay attention to where and how you are called to love

Sister Virginia Joy shared that the questions behind one’s vocation are fundamentally about “what are you going to do with your love” and how you are called to “make a gift of yourself,” not merely what career or role you will have.

Receive God’s love first

She emphasized that the prerequisite for hearing God’s call is first receiving his love, since vocation flows from a relationship.

“When I think about a vocational call, I think of two things: First, God is the one who calls, and it is always a call of love. Second, we are the ones to respond to that call and to love in return. So first, the prerequisite to hearing God’s call is receiving his love,” Sister Virginia Joy said.

Develop a real prayer life and speak honestly to God

God makes himself known in prayer, especially when a person speaks from the heart — expressing longing, confusion, loneliness, or desire for meaning.

Sister Virginia Joy highlighted that “God is looking for a place to break in and make himself known. I trust you’ve experienced it here at SEEK. It’s real. He’s real. And he is in pursuit of your heart. He knows you and he desires that you come to know him. This happens in prayer.”

“But prayer can be challenging because we’re used to instant gratification. We want to see results. And yet relationships, they’re not about results,” she added. “Relationships take time, patience, and trust. Sometimes I think we settle or we allow ourselves to get distracted because real love means facing our weakness and searching for the Lord in times of loneliness, doubt, and even pain.”

Stay close to the sacraments, especially confession and the Eucharist

Sister Virginia Joy emphasized that living in grace and regularly receiving the sacraments helps ensure that a person does not miss God’s call and gains the strength to respond in his time.

She shared with those gathered that she has always found herself making life decisions after “a good confession — decisions to move across the country, decisions to become a missionary, decisions to accept a particular job or begin or end a dating relationship.”

“I know there can be a lot of fear about somehow missing what God is calling me to,” Sister Virginia Joy said. “And I just want to crush that fear because the truth is if you’re staying close to the sacraments, if you’re living in grace, you will not miss what God is calling you to. And because of the grace of the sacraments, you will have the strength to respond in God’s time.”

Live your call to love daily, even before knowing your definitive vocation

Sister Virginia Joy stressed that holiness and vocation are lived now, through everyday acts of love, even before one enters marriage, religious life, or another permanent state.

She asked those gathered: “Where are we called to love?”

“It’s not a complicated question. All the love happens right where God has you — with family, friends, roommates. We are each given so many opportunities to love every day. You might not be in your definitive vocation right now or five years from now, but your call to love is now. Your call to make a gift of yourself is now,” she said.

Recognize your unique gifts

Especially for women, discerning vocation involves recognizing the “uniquely feminine” capacity for receptivity, generosity, spiritual maternity, and leading others to God, Sister Virginia Joy explained.

“As women, we possess a unique capacity for love … Written into our very makeup by design, we as women have space for another, room for another. And the physical capacity — we’ve heard this over the days — the physical capacity to receive and carry life sheds a much deeper reality within the heart of each woman,” she said. “Our bodies and souls are intimately connected and together they tell us something — that our love is receptive, sensitive, generous, maternal.”

Observe where your heart becomes undivided and free

A key sign of vocation is interior freedom and unity of heart, where fear gives way to peace and clarity about where, as Sister Virginia Joy said, one is called “to make a gift of oneself in a total way.”

She shared that while discerning her own vocation her heart was divided — seeing the beauty in both married life and religious life. It wasn’t until she asked in prayer, “What do you want, Lord?” while on retreat with the Sisters of Life that she heard him say, “You. You. All of you for myself.”

“And in an instant, my heart was undivided,” she recalled. “I knew where I was being called to give my love and my life, and I felt more free than I ever had.”

“Your love story is going to be perfectly unique to you,” Sister Virginia Joy added. “God has been preparing something far beyond your expectations and he desires your freedom to respond with an undivided heart. Whether it be marriage, religious life, lay life, there is no doubt he wants you and your unique love. God loves you.”

Los obispos de los Estados Unidos han invitado a los católicos a rezar la novena anual "Respetemos la Vida" (Respect Life) por la protección de los niños no nacidos

Durante 2025, el cine y el documental católico vivieron un año especialmente fecundo, con estrenos que llevaron a la gran pantalla testimonios de santidad, fe vivida en contextos de guerra, devoción mariana y nuevas figuras que hoy inspiran a la Iglesia universal.

El Arzobispado de Santiago informó que en la madrugada del 6 de enero fueron robados de la Catedral Metropolitana objetos litúrgicos de gran valor espiritual, histórico y material. 

Jan 6, 2026 / 18:10 pm (CNA).

President Donald Trump is asking congressional Republicans to be more flexible on taxpayer funding for abortions as lawmakers continue to negotiate an extension to health care subsidies related to the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

Some federal subsidies that lowered premiums for those enrolled in the Affordable Care Act expired in December.

The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that the average increase to premiums for people who lost the subsidies will be about 114%, from $888 in 2025 to $1,904 in 2026. The exact costs will be different, depending on specific plans.

Trump has encouraged his party to work on extending those subsidies and is asking them to be “flexible” on a provision that could affect tax-funded abortion. Democrats have proposed ending the restrictions of the Hyde Amendment, which bans direct federal funding for abortions in most cases.

“Let the money go directly to the people,” Trump said at the House Republican Conference retreat at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Jan. 6.

“Now you have to be a little flexible on Hyde,” the president said. “You know that you got to be a little flexible. You got to work something [out]. You got to use ingenuity. You got to work. We’re all big fans of everything, but you got to be flexible. You have to have flexibility.”

The Hyde Amendment began as a bipartisan provision in funding bills that prohibited the use of federal funds for more than 45 years. Lawmakers have reauthorized the prohibition every year since it was first introduced in 1976.

A study from the Charlotte Lozier Institute estimates that the Hyde Amendment has saved more than 2.6 million lives. According to a poll conducted by the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, which was commissioned by the Knights of Columbus, nearly 6 in 10 Americans oppose tax funding for abortions.

However, in recent years, many Democratic politicians have tried to keep the rule out of spending bills. Former President Joe Biden abandoned the Hyde Amendment in budget proposals, but it was ultimately included in the final compromise versions that became law.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, criticized Trump for urging flexibility on the provision, calling its support “an unshakeable bedrock principle and a minimum standard in the Republican Party.”

Dannenfelser said Republicans “are sure to lose this November” if they abandon Hyde: “The voters sent a [Republican] trifecta to Washington and they expect it to govern like one.”

“Giving in to Democrat demands that our tax dollars are used to fund plans that cover abortion on demand until birth would be a massive betrayal,” she said.

Dannenfelser also noted that, before these comments, Trump has consistently supported the Hyde Amendment. The president issued an executive order in January on enforcing the Hyde Amendment that accused Biden’s administration of disregarding this “commonsense policy.”

“For nearly five decades, the Congress has annually enacted the Hyde Amendment and similar laws that prevent federal funding of elective abortion, reflecting a long-standing consensus that American taxpayers should not be forced to pay for that practice,” the executive order reads.

“It is the policy of the United States, consistent with the Hyde Amendment, to end the forced use of federal taxpayer dollars to fund or promote elective abortion,” it adds.

Jan 6, 2026 / 17:38 pm (CNA).

Scott Adams, the 68-year-old cartoonist who created the decades-long “Dilbert” comic strip, announced he is converting to Christianity amid his deteriorating health caused by terminal cancer.

Adams, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer in May 2025, had previously been critical of organized religion and expressed skepticism about traditional faiths in blog posts and two fiction books titled “God’s Debris” and its sequel, “The Religion War.”

On the Jan. 1 episode of his podcast “Real Coffee with Scott Adams,” the cartoonist expressed a change of heart following numerous conversations with Christian friends.

“I’ve not been a believer, but I also have respect for any Christian who goes another way to try to convert me,” Adams said. “Because how would I believe [that] you believe your own religion if you’re not trying to convert me? So I have great respect for people who care enough that they want me to convert and then go out of their way to try to convince me.”

Adams then informed his viewers “it is my plan to convert,” adding: “I still have time, but my understanding is, you’re never too late.”

“And on top of that, any skepticism I have about reality would certainly be instantly answered if I wake up in heaven,” he said.

Speaking to “my Christian friends,” Adams said: “It’s coming, so you don’t need to talk me into it.”

Adams appeared to invoke “ Pascal’s Wager,” which is an argument about the risks and rewards of following Jesus Christ, which was articulated by the 17th-century French Catholic philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal.

The argument was not meant to be a “proof” for God or even an argument about whether God exists. Rather, Pascal argued that accepting God can lead one to eternal life if he exists and it carries little risk even if he did not exist, but rejecting God will lead to eternal consequences if he exists and does not yield significant benefits even if he did not exist.

As Adams summarized his view: “If it turns out that there’’s nothing there, I've lost nothing, but I’ve respected your wishes, and I like doing that. If it turns out there is something there and the Christian model is the closest to it, I win.”

Adams’ cancer has spread through his bones and he is paralyzed below his waist. He is also suffering from heart failure.

Father Thomas Petri, a Dominican theologian, said this announcement is “very good news” and that he will continue to pray for Adams.

Petri said he has seen some Christians online try to suggest the conversion is not genuine because “he seems to be doing it merely as a wager in case God exists.” Yet, Petri said, “I’m fine with that wager.”

“Few people come to God with a perfectly formed faith,” he said. “Yet, because we believe God is love, it’s hard to think that Scott Adams’ gesture would not be received and blessed by him.”

“Naturally, as we approach death we become more focused on ultimate things and questions,” Petri added. “Trusting in God opens us to the possibility that death is not an end but an avenue to something greater. I pray that even the most hardened sinners have some desire for God even in their last moments. I think that’s enough for God to work with.”

Jimmy Akin, a senior apologist at Catholic Answers who debated Adams on assisted suicide in 2015, said he is “very glad that [Adams] has decided to seek out God in this difficult time.”

“God has many ways of drawing people to himself,” Akin said.

“On the human level, we’re built to think about events and challenges that we will soon be facing, so as we see that death is drawing near, it’s only natural for people to begin thinking about what may come after death and to try to make plans for it,” he said. “This can create an openness to the idea of God and to Christianity, even if a person was not religious previously.”

In other cases, Akin said some people “have become hardened by years of living without God” but that “God can still reach out by his grace … and being the person to him.”

“As Jesus taught us, it is never too late in this life for a person to turn to God,” he said. “That’s one of the major points of the parable of the workers in the vineyard.”

El custodio de Tierra Santa, P. Francesco Ielpo, celebró la Solemnidad de la Epifanía del Señor en la ciudad de Belén, desde donde señaló que a través de los Reyes Magos el Niño Jesús se manifestó “como luz para todos los pueblos”.

Ambos líderes “reafirmaron su compromiso de profundizar la cooperación entre Estados Unidos y la Santa Sede para abordar prioridades comunes en todo el mundo”, concluye el comunicado

Arthur Brooks, autor de bestsellers del New York Times y profesor de la Universidad de Harvard, dijo a los asistentes a SEEK 2026 que su trabajo “no se trata de ganar discusiones sino de ganar almas".

Jan 6, 2026 / 14:00 pm (CNA).

The United States bishops have invited Catholics to pray an annual Respect Life novena for the protection of the unborn.

The Committee on Pro-Life Activities of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is sponsoring the “9 Days for Life” prayer that will begin on Friday, Jan. 16, and end on Jan. 24. The novena is to be prayed in observance of the annual Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children on Jan. 22.

The 2026 “9 Days for Life” marks the 14th time the novena has taken place. Since it began, the prayer has reached hundreds of thousands of people in over 100 countries spanning six continents, according to the USCCB.

The overarching intention of the novena is to end abortion, and it also offers prayers for mothers and fathers, those suffering from participation in abortions, civic leaders, and pro-life activists.

Those who sign up to participate can access a resource kit with information in both English and Spanish. Participants will be offered daily prayer intentions accompanied by short reflections and suggested actions to help build a culture of life.

There are also resources available to help leaders guide the novena at parishes, schools, and ministries.

Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children

The USCCB first started sponsoring the novena in 2013 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision on Jan. 22, 1973. Following the legalization of abortion, “millions of children have lost their lives, and millions of women and families have been wounded by abortion,” the USCCB said.

While the Supreme Court overturned Roe. v Wade in 2022, continuing efforts are still “needed to protect children and their mothers from the tragedy of abortion,” the bishops said.

The General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM), designated Jan. 22 as “a particular day of prayer and penance.” In all the dioceses of the U.S., the day “shall be observed as a particular day of prayer for the full restoration of the legal guarantee of the right to life and of penance for violations to the dignity of the human person committed through acts of abortion,” according to the GIRM.

On the Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children, the bishops suggest the faithful observe the day by attending Mass, abstaining from meat, praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet, fasting, praying a decade of the rosary, or offering a prayer for life to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.