Prayer
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What Edan Alexander’s Return Means to Us May 14, 2025
This week, one of our prayers has been answered: Edan Alexander is free.Taken hostage during the Hamas-led terrorist attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, and dragged into the Gaza Strip along with some 250 others, he is now able to see the sky after 584 days in ...
Why I Pray With Presidents May 14, 2025
Some people say, “Christians — especially pastors — should stay out of politics.”My response is, why?We need believers — and more importantly, we need the Gospel — in every part of life. That includes the public square, politics, and the halls of pow...
Mikveh, Prayer and the Temple Mount May 13, 2025
I have wanted to visit the Temple Mount (Har Habayit) for some time. However, for many years, Jews were not permitted to do so. But they are increasingly visiting the site where the Holy Temples once stood. And during a recent trip to Israel, I final...
What Exactly Is Trump's Religious Liberty Commission? May 12, 2025
Trump celebrated the annual National Day of Prayer on May 1 by announcing an Executive Order to establish a presidential commission on religious liberty.“[The Religious Liberty Commission] shall be the policy of the executive branch to vigorously enf...
A Tribute to Mothers May 09, 2025
Not only is May the month we celebrate Mother’s Day in the U.S., but more importantly, it is also our Blessed Mother’s month. Fittingly, May ends with the Feast of the Visitation, when the Virgin Mary, in her generosity and humility, left her home to...
Christians Must Support the Ministry of Motherhood May 09, 2025
Each year, Mother’s Day offers us a moment to honor the women who have shaped our lives through their love, faith, and sacrifice. But this day should do more than spark gratitude — it should remind us of a deeper truth: motherhood is a ministry. And ...
We Need Prayer May 08, 2025
In a Center for Faith blog post, guest contributor Franklin Graham shares steps that citizens can consider taking to help return respect, responsibility, and reverence to our nation's schools....
Full Text of Homily of Cardinal Re at Mass for Election of Roman Pontiff May 07, 2025
We read in the Acts of the Apostles that after Christ’s ascension into heaven and while waiting for Pentecost, all were united and persevering in prayer together with Mary, the Mother of Jesus (cf. Acts 1:14).This is precisely what we are doing a few...
In Choosing Pope, Cardinals Will Call on a Partner: The Holy Spirit May 06, 2025
As the cardinals walk into the Sistine Chapel on Wednesday evening to open the papal conclave, they’ll chant the plaintive prayer that their forebears have sung for centuries: Veni Creator Spiritus. Come Holy Spirit.The process of selecting a pope is...
No State Religion But With Free Exercise Thereof May 02, 2025
The American Founders were familiar with the historic situation in Scotland during the Reformation and before the Act of Union with Great Britain. The Presbyterian Church led by John Knox (1514–1572) had ruled as a virtual theocracy, enforced conform...
Should We Keep the Siren? Israel’s Sound of National Remembrance May 01, 2025
The Israeli national siren, introduced in the early years of statehood, has long served as a powerful ritual of collective memory. At 10:00 a.m. on Holocaust Remembrance Day, and again on Memorial Day for fallen soldiers and terror victims, the natio...
Keller’s Threefold Hope for Renewal April 30, 2025
Ifirst met Tim Keller nearly 20 years ago at the inaugural conference of The Gospel Coalition while covering the event for Christianity Today. I had recently written the 2006 CT cover story “Young, Restless, Reformed,” about the New Calvinist resurge...
Inside the Conclave: A Visual Guide on How Next Pope Will Be Elected April 30, 2025
The 267th pope is set to inherit a deeply divided church: There are those who will want the new leader to remain on Pope Francis’s reformist path and those who would want the next pontiff to return to a more traditional style.The conclave, which will...
Zoning Out the Jews April 29, 2025
Take Linden, the latest in a line of localities that have used zoning laws to enforce an unofficial quota of Jewish residents. In 2017, the town began passing zoning laws in an attempt to reverse the continued growth of its Orthodox Jewish community....
Papal Conclave Won’t Fit Into the American Political Framework April 28, 2025
The Catholic Church is currently undergoing a nine-day period of mourning and prayer for the late Pope Francis, but everyone knows that a papal conclave, the gathering of the College of Cardinals to select a new pope, is coming up soon. Already, head...
How Jews in Revolutionary War Helped Shape First Amendment April 25, 2025
The colonies were overwhelmingly Christian, with Jews representing just one out of every 1,000 colonists and 0.1 percent of the population. When Congress issued the call for prayer and fasting, it invoked the name of Jesus Christ. Yet in addition to ...
Requiem Aeternam: Pope Francis (1936–2025) April 23, 2025
On behalf of our colleagues, families, and friends at the Acton Institute in the United States and Rome, we express our heartfelt sorrow and the pledge of our prayers for the eternal repose of the soul of Pope Francis, the 266th Supreme Pontiff of th...
Americans Haven’t Found a Satisfying Alternative to Religion April 22, 2025
On Sundays, I used to stand in front of my Mormon congregation and declare that it all was true.I’d climb the stairs to the pulpit and smooth my long skirt. I’d smile and share my “testimony,” as the church calls it. I’d say I knew God, Jesus Christ,...
Pope’s Funeral Set for April 26, Public Viewing April 23-25 April 22, 2025
The funeral Mass of Pope Francis will be celebrated April 26 in St. Peter’s Square, the Vatican announced.Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the College of Cardinals, will preside over the liturgy, which begins a nine-day period of official mourn...
The Wall of Separation Between Church and State April 21, 2025
The Founding Fathers wrote the “establishment” clause of the First Amendment, and its original intent is quite different from the way some progressive scholars claim. The Founders never imagined one day the clause would be used as “a weapon against C...
Pope Francis: Rest in Peace April 21, 2025
It was January 2019.The Knights of Columbus (KofC) assigned me to report on its efforts for English-speaking pilgrims to World Youth Day in Panama City, Panama. The initiative, launched by Pope John Paul II in 1987, gathered tens of thousands of youn...
Easter’s Global Hope: A Call for Recognition Amid Persecution April 21, 2025
As an Asian church leader, I am grieved by the controversies in America and Western democracies over President Trump’s public affirmation of Christianity. These nations, often overlooking their Christian heritage, enjoy freedoms of belief and express...
All the President’s Pastors: Who’s Advising Trump? April 21, 2025
After Franklin Graham offered a prayer at the White House Easter dinner on Wednesday, he introduced President Donald Trump to a group that already knew him quite well.“It feels so dumb to have to introduce the president of the United States in his ow...
In the Holy Land, Seeking the Solace of the Cross April 17, 2025
For many years, I have believed that as Christians we must read the Gospels, as we must read our own lives, in the light of the resurrection. We are called to return to every moment in the life of Jesus, no matter how small: his walks along the shore...
When Love and Prayer are Intwined April 15, 2025
Friendship reveals itself most clearly in difficult moments. Not in grand gestures, but in consistent presence. In showing up. In the simple act of sitting side by side, turning page after page.The hospital lounge is an in-between space — not quite m...
