The fall equinox and the first day of autumn arrives on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024, at 08:44 a.m. EDT in the Northern Hemisphere. The equinox occurs at the same moment worldwide. So, it’s official — fall is here!

Those who understand the signs of the times are increasingly jarred by the hollowing out of the American middle class. The variance between owner and worker in today’s industries is greater than even Gilded Age barons; the increasing costs of education, health care, housing, and food are hampering the building of fruitful and faithful families in our land. The voices that tempt our citizens toward despair and violence are being accepted as alternatives to this present crisis, for it seems that representative government can only appear to be hopelessly corrupt with self-interest on every side, in every party, leaving a faithful Catholic confused as to ways to live out an authentic Catholic faith.  The deluge of social media only impersonates our sense of connection and happiness.

“And Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary his mother, ‘Behold, this child is destined for the fall and for the rise of many in Israel, and for a sign that shall be contradicted.  And thy own soul a sword shall pierce, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.’” (Luke 2:34, 35).

“Now there were standing by the cross of Jesus his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.” (John 19:25).

On Sept. 14, the Church celebrates the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. Most feasts in the Church celebrate a salvific event in the life of Christ or commemorate a saint. This feast, however, celebrates an object — the cross of Christ.

Ten years ago, Symbolon became the Augustine Institute’s first parish program that was core to their mission of handing down the Catholic faith. It was designed to help every Catholic know the Nicene Creed. Since its initial release, it has been used for catechetical formation and in the Rite of Christian Initiation (recently changed to the Order of Christian Initiation, or OCIA). 

Have you ever found yourself walking in a garden or on a path and happened upon a breathtaking statue of St. Francis of Assisi or a beautiful water fountain busy with birds splashing? It is sometimes in the awe of these moments that a person feels closest to God. He or she might silently thank him for encountering such beauty, or might think, “God sent this sacred message, personally, to me.”

What would you do if Jesus told you that he was amazed by your faith?

The Gospels are filled with accounts of the Lord wondering at the faith of certain people who encounter him: the centurion in Capernaum, the paralytic, the woman with the hemorrhage, the Canaanite woman. Perhaps even more surprising than the miracles themselves is the fact that Jesus is amazed by faith. Since he is God, he knows everything and sees inside the secrets of the heart. Yet it is striking that he wonders at faith.

"The Church, therefore, earnestly desires that Christ’s faithful, when present at this mystery of faith, should not be there as strangers or silent spectators . . . by offering the Immaculate Victim, not only through the hands of the priest, but also with him, they should learn also to offer themselves; through Christ the Mediator, they should be drawn day by day into ever more perfect union with God and with each other, so that finally God may be all in all.” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 48)

In 2005, the singer-songwriter Mary Gauthier released her fourth solo album, “Mercy Now.” The title song is a somber plea for mercy in our families, church, and nation. If you don’t know this song, you should stop reading and go find it on whichever music service you use and give it a listen. In the last line, Gauthier sings, “Every single one of us could use some mercy now.”

Although the Nicene Creed rolls off the tongue of every Catholic with ease — or at least with mumbled inclusion after the Sunday homily — many Protestant denominations reject the Nicene Creed or any creed as something unbiblical or manmade, an attempt to add something to the infallible and sufficient Word of God, the Bible. Until, possibly, now, according to the recent 2024 Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) Annual Meeting.