(OSV News) — A federal district judge granted a preliminary injunction Feb. 12 that will allow clergy, religious and Catholic social justice advocates to enter a Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility west of Chicago on Ash Wednesday to provide ashes and holy Communion.

The order came after the group filed a lawsuit in November against the Trump administration following several attempts to give pastoral care to migrant detainees there.

In his order, U.S. District Judge Robert W. Gettleman for the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division found “the government has substantially burdened the plaintiffs’ exercise of religion.”

Chicago-based Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership, as well as several priests and a religious sister described in their lawsuit ICE’s “complete denial” of the group’s right “to practice their religion at a detention center in Broadview” 12.5 miles west of downtown Chicago, after seeking federal agents’ permission numerous times to enter the facility where fellow Catholics are detained.

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The Carmelite church at Whitefriar Street in Dublin is an unlikely but popular pilgrimage site for couples, who can venerate the patron of love’s relics.

To the secular world, St. Valentine is synonymous with cards, chocolates and lavish gifts of roses to mark this saint’s day.

But for the prior of Dublin’s Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Shrine of St. Valentine, the saint has a broader important significance to Catholics in understanding and celebrating the sacrament of marriage — with all of its joys and challenges.

“Our vocation is to be the love at the heart of the Church, and it is important that we look at how we communicate that,” Carmelite Father James Eivers told the Register.

Throngs of visitors are expected to visit the shrine on Feb. 14, and the priest wants them to know the Church’s view of marriage.


“The foundation of sacramental marriage is that vocation to love that God gives to married couples, supported through God’s grace, and the feast of St. Valentine is an opportunity to celebrate that love,” Father Eivers said.

Continued below.

James Van Der Beek, who died Feb. 11, left a remarkable last testament on finding his identity and purpose in God during his long battle with cancer.

Who am I? What is the purpose of life? These questions, as articulated by the late James Van Der Beek as he came “nose-to-nose with death,” speak not only to a deep wound of how we self-identify in the world, but to its answer.

In a social media post that has been making the rounds since his Feb. 11 death from colorectal cancer at 48, Van Der Beek says of his illness, which he said had stripped him of his ability to be present as a husband and father: “I was faced with the question: If I am just a too-skinny, weak guy, alone in an apartment with cancer, what am I?”

Van Der Beek, a TV star of my generation, was known for his titular role in the teen drama Dawson’s Creek, as well as the lead in the football flick Varsity Blues, among others. I hadn’t followed his life and career after these early successes, but I have since discovered he had taken a path that was unconventional for many successful mainstream actors. At the time of his death, he was living on a Texas ranch with his wife and six young children, and had embraced a life of faith.

Continued below.

​

‘What better way to mark your marriage than by visiting our Eucharistic Lord.’


We are in the midst of National Marriage Week, an annual event that has been in practice for 30 years, always centered around Valentine’s Day, where love is in the air and couples actually do try to take the time to get a babysitter for a quick date night.

Founded in the United Kingdom by Richard Kane, his motto was: “If you’re fortunate enough to be in a marriage, you should look after it.”

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has always played a large role in promoting the week, and this year, couples are encouraged to bask in the Real Presence together to pray for all engaged and married couples.

Julia Dezelski, associate director for marriage and family life at the USCCB underscored the idea, saying, “What better way to mark your marriage than by visiting our Eucharistic Lord.”

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Tooti said:

Today I learned that our brains learn better from paper.

• Print comprehension scored 24% higher (Reading in print versus digital media uses different cognitive strategies: evidence from eye movements during science-text reading)
• Meta-analysis: 49 studies, print higher comprehension (Reading comprehension on handheld devices versus on paper)

Don't throw your physical books away. Cherish them.

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I use both but prefer physical books.

The history of engagement rings extends almost as far back as the history of rings themselves. “Engagement season” takes place between Christmas and St. Valentine’s Day — with an estimated 6 million proposalstaking place on Feb. 14 — and there is a Catholic connection with engagements and rings (and the betrothal rite too).

Rings first appeared on people’s fingers in the Bronze Age, as humans began working with metal and fashioning the original jewelry. The ancient Egyptians started the trend, according to George Frederick Kunz in his 1917 book (released as an e-book in 2023) Rings for the Finger: From the Earliest Known Time to the Present, first using the signet ring to establish authority and sign and seal household items or documents.

As Kunz explains in his book, the history of engagement rings is vast. The first ring mentioned in the Bible appears when the patriarch Joseph received a ring from Pharaoh as a sign of his authority.

“With that, Pharaoh took off his signet ring and put it on Joseph’s finger. He dressed him in robes of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck” (Genesis 41:42, NAB-RE).

Sign of Betrothal​

Continued below.

How a Pope ‘Christianized’ Engagement Rings (and Other Ring Stories)

The history of engagement rings extends almost as far back as the history of rings themselves — and there is a Catholic connection with engagements and rings (and the betrothal rite too).

www.ncregister.com

Let the light of your face shine on us, Lord. Psalm 4

RDKirk said:

Britain sent a lot of their crackers to Oz as well.

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they still do occasionally, except now they arrive on Jetstar instead of a convict ship.

"The pagan cults of Greece and Rome were part of what are commonly called the mystery religions. By Paul's time they had dominated the near eastern world for thousands of years and indirectly would dominate much of western culture through the middle ages and, even until today.

The mystery religions had many forms and variations, but a common source. In his vision on the island of Patmos John was shown "the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters," on whose "forehead a name was written, a mystery, 'Babylon the great, the mother of all harlots and the abominations of the earth'" (Rev. 17:1,5). Here the Lord pictures His judgment of the world religion. At the end of the Tribulation the true church will have been raptured (1 Thess. 4:13-18; Rev. 3:10) and the world will begin to establish a religion of it's own that will be truly universal. It will be the composite of all the worlds false religions, which will "give their power and authority to the beast, "the Antichrist" (Rev. 17:13). The final form of that all-powerful, universal religion will represent the completion of the mystery religions that historically originated in ancient Babylon.

In its organized form false religion began with the tower of Babel, from which Babylon derives it's name. Cain was the first false worshiper, and many individuals after him followed his example. But organized pagan religion began with the descendants of Ham, one of Noah's three sons, who decided to erect a great monument that would "reach into heaven" and make themselves a great name (Gen. 10:9-10; 11:4). Under the leadership of the proud and apostate Nimrod they planned to storm heaven and unify their power and prestige in a great worldwide system of worship. That was man's first counterfeit religion, from which every other false religion in one way or another has sprung.

God's judgment frustrated their primary purpose of making a grand demonstration of humanistic unity. By confusing "their language, that they may not understand one another's speech," and scattering "them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth" (Gen. 11:7-8) the Lord halted the building of the tower and fractured their solidarity. But those people took with them the seeds of that false, idolatrous religion, seeds that they and their descendants have been planting throughout the world ever since. The ideas and forms were altered, adapted, and sometimes made more sophisticated, but the basic system remained, and remains, unchanged. That is why Babel, or Babylon, is called "the mother of all harlots and of the abominations of the earth" (Rev. 17:5). She was the progenitor of all false religions.

From various ancient sources, it seems that Nimrod's wife. Semiramis (the first), apparently was high priestess of the Babel religion and the founder of all mystery religions. After the tower was destroyed and the multiplicity of languages developed, she was worshiped as a goddess under many different names. She became Ishtar of Syria, Astarte of Phoenicia, Isis of Egypt, Aphrodite of Greece, and Venus of Rome--in each case the deity of sexual love and fertility. Her son, Tammuz, also came to be deified under various names and was the consort of Ishtar and god of the underworld.

According to the cult of Ishtar, Tammuz was conceived by a sunbeam, a counterfeit version of Jesus' virgin birth. Tammuz corresponded to Baal in Phoenicia, Orisis in Egypt, Eros in Greece, and Cupid in Rome. In every case, the worship of these gods and goddesses was associated with sexual immorality. The celebration of Lent has no basis in scripture, but rather developed from the pagan celebration of Semiramis's mourning for forty days over the death of Tammuz (cf. Ezek. 8:14) before his alleged resurrection--another of Satan's mythical counterfeits.

The mystery religions originated the idea of baptismal regeneration, being born again merely through the rite of water baptism, and the practice of mutilation and flagellation to atone for sins or gain spiritual favor. They also began the custom of pilgrimages, which many religions follow today, and the paying of penance for forgiveness of sins for oneself and for others. (John Macarthur NT commentary '1 Corinthians' )

Funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ran out at midnight, marking the third — but smallest — government shutdown of President Trump’s second term as Democrats demand reforms to immigration enforcement practices.

The shutdown is likely to last longer than the four-day partial shutdown that ended last week, as the White House, Republicans and Senate Democrats negotiate on proposed immigration reforms.


Most House and Senate lawmakers have departed Washington for a scheduled weeklong recess. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said he would call lawmakers back to Washington in the event that negotiators come to an agreement but did not cancel the break entirely.

Continued below.

Following an announcement from Gay Days that some interpreted as a cancellation of the group’s 2026 gathering in Orlando, organizers clarified that the annual event hasn't been canceled despite the loss of sponsorships that initially caused the group to pause its plans.

Gay Days, which was established in 1991 and describes itself as “the leading LGBTQ vacation experience that spans five days over a weekend in June,” announced Sunday via social media that it had decided to pause the Orlando event scheduled for June.

“Changes to our host hotel agreement, the loss of key sponsorship support, and broader challenges currently impacting LGBTQIA+ events nationwide made it impossible to deliver the experience our community deserves,” the organization wrote in an Instagram post. “This is a pause — not an ending.”

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A Brazilian student who's facing four to 10 years in prison over social media comments about gender identity appeared before a federal court this week. The hearing addressed whether the posts constituted criminal “transphobia” under Brazilian law.

Judicial questioning during the session this week focused on whether the statements were published from the defendant’s own social media account, and the judge indicated the content appeared to reflect personal opinion rather than discriminatory intent while granting the defense five days to submit written conclusions before any ruling, according to the legal advocacy group ADF International.

The prosecution concerns two posts published in November 2020 on X, where the student, Isadora Borges, stated that transgender women “were obviously born male” and wrote that a person who identifies as transgender retains their birth DNA and that surgery, hormones or clothing do not change that fact.

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JustaPewFiller said:

That's A LOT of goof-ups in a row.

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Kind of a common theme for the last year or so.

Pommer said:

Indicted by complaint, (not a grand jury); how the agent “lost” the tip of their finger has chain-of-evidence problems as it wasn’t noticed until later in the day.

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Huh. Who doesn't notice their fingertip getting bit off until later? Or am I misunderstanding?

RDKirk said:

So you were deflecting from the topic of the thread, then.

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The conversation seems to have gotten into the weeds of perceived cultural grievance, and I was just responding to that.

I notice a trend whenever one of these news stories comes up, it too often snowballs into a totalizing narrative, and the usual grievances are paraded around to make the case that this is some kind of conspiracy on the part of "liberals" or "Democrats", when the decline of religious institutions in the US are alot more complicated and unsettling that just "us vs. them" dynamics.

Search with the attitude that the right church will seem to choose you raqther than vice versa.
Initially forget about doctrinal comapatiblity and tune in to which church speaks most tenderly to your needs.
Ask yourself whether you sense God's nurturing presence in each church. By doing so, God will choose you for the right church.

Page 70

He argues "for all eternity [God's] happiness shall be conditional upon ours".

Thomas Weinandy, OFM, wrote a book Does God Suffer? The answer is no. God can never be less than perfectly happy because He is perfect, and this is good for us, because it guarantees, when we participate in God's divine nature, we too will be happy, and that this happiness is secure forever. Jesus assumed a human nature and only suffers in His human nature -- according to Weinandy.

Carter joined the American Baptist Church in his later years. ABC are northern Baptists, part of the historic Protestant Mainline, at one time a very large religious denomination.

stevevw said:

So therefore you will have to admit that your claim that morality is subjective is just an opinion. Holds no weight. I could say that morals are objective and it would be just as worthy of an answer as yours.

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Only if you are willing to subject your god to those morals.

stevevw said:

Didn't Lewis say something about the universe and justice.

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Don't know who you are talking about.

stevevw said:

I think morality is a property of the universe.

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Oh, boy, you did go there. Perhaps I will ask why you would think so or how you can demonstrate it, a bit later. Not sure how that could be given the inconsistency in how morality is applied by various civilizations and species.

stevevw said:

We make it so. Just like free will and choice. We live that reality and therefor make it real.

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How do humans make the universe have morality as a fundamental property. This feels like some sort of projection. (or wishcasting)

stevevw said:

Yes but situational does not equal relative morality. Each and every situations demands its own moral truth for that situation. We can determine that some acts are more moral that other acts.

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Every situation has its own moral truth? That's a lot of very specific moral truths. This seems like an overstatement.

stevevw said:

What I am saying is that after such a long time like anything we see enough examples of lived reality to then determine whether the relative moral ideology is realistic and works. That it actually harms society.

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Evidence based morality -- I kind of like it.

stevevw said:

What I am trying to do is move beyond the countless debates that never go anywhere because people say there is no truth to morality. To show how the philosophy of relative morality has actually worked and failed.

Thus we are in a post moral relative period where people are seeing the unreality and harm of such an ideology. The moral relativists have lost credibility. Their arguements hold no weight.

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It seem that your relative morals complained about are just ones that aren't "biblical-traditional". I could demonstrate those are not good, but the mods wouldn't like that...

stevevw said:

Its not a case of declaring they are a god. I am not saying that. I am saying they are acting like they are gods.

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We don't.

stevevw said:

Its a natural thing to do if there is no God. The next being down the line to uphold and worship is humans. We see examples everywhere.

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I see absolutely no reason to worship anything. I think worship is undignified.

stevevw said:

Its happened time and time again throughout history. When humans deny God they become their own gods or make gods of people and animals and nature. But with humans as the ultimate god or being that holds the most worth over everything.

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This is just your dogma -- a dogma that insists we all need gods and will make them up if none exist.

I didn't have any desire to worship when I thought there was a god. I have even less interest now.

stevevw said:

Why when its an historical fact and one playing out right now. Your claim of wrongness is wrong itself.

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I see you persist in your wrongness.

I looked up the poison, Epibatidine, similar to curare, which is also used as a dart toxin by indigenous peoples. It's a nicotine agonist, it only takes a few micrograms to kill by paralyzing the nervous system and stopping the heart.

Often distributed on the feast of the Presentation of the Lord, blessed candles are powerful spiritual additions to the home.

There is a centuries' old tradition of distributing blessed candles on the feast of the Presentation of the Lord on February 2. If you received a candle from that celebration (or from a different source), what should you do with it?

With the prevalence of electricity around the world, there remains no practical use of candles. At the surface level, it seems like they don't have any particular use.

How to use blessed candles​

Continued below.

This article is the third part of a series about Purgatory, a topic that is rarely discussed today. A knowledge of Purgatory is essential if souls are to avoid the pains of this place of expiation. The first article can be found here.

* * *

Even during her lifetime, Saint Lidwina of Scheidam (1380-1433) was credited with many healings in the region of Holland where she lived. It seemed that the only person she could not cure was herself. At the age of fifteen, she fell while ice skating and broke a rib. Not only did that injury never heal properly, but she gradually lost the use of most of her body. As she grew older, her pains became intense, and paralysis eventually extended to every part of her body.

Today, some medical historians conclude that Lidwina suffered the first known case of multiple sclerosis.

The Saint and the Sinner​

Continued below.

Saturday 14 February 2026 – Burkina Faso​

Pray for the safety – and daily decision-making – of our partner’s local team, who are frequently travelling along dangerous roads in order to take support to persecuted believers.

Friday 13 February 2026 – Burkina Faso​

Pray for pastors who minister to and lead displaced Christians, often in simple tent churches within IDP camps. Pray for God’s blessing on them so that they can inspire and encourage others and lead by example.

Thursday 12 February 2026 – Burkina Faso​

Pray that Christians would be able to stand firm in their faith despite the challenges they have faced and be able to share God’s love with others.

Wednesday 11 February 2026 – Burkina Faso​

Pray for emotional healing for believers who have lost loved ones, land or possessions due to the Islamist violence and the resulting mass displacement of Christians.

Tuesday 10 February 2026 – Burkina Faso​

Pray for the displaced Christian children who are receiving education provided by our partner. Pray that they would be able to thrive despite the trauma they may have experienced and the many challenges they face.

Monday 9 February 2026 – Burkina Faso​

Pray for the protection of displaced Christians especially in areas where poverty is rife and newcomers can be seen as a burden.

Sunday 8 February 2026 – Burkina Faso​

Pray that God would restore peace, security and stability in Burkina Faso and that those in positions of power, leadership and influence would act with godly integrity to protect all citizens.

Most Christians in Jordan belong to Orthodox or Roman Catholic churches and generally enjoy a relatively high degree of religious freedom. Even so, they may face discrimination in employment, government monitoring and restrictions on public preaching. Christians who have converted from Islam risk violence, arrest or even death from their families or extremist groups if they openly express their faith. Unrecognised churches – especially those that evangelise – may face harassment from the authorities.

Despite Jordan’s reputation for tolerance and interfaith dialogue, Islamic extremists continue to pose a threat to Christians and other minorities. Additionally, the Gaza conflict has fuelled Islamic conservatism, support for Hamas, boycotts of international brands and greater Islamic visibility. This has led to more social pressure and distancing from Christians, even as the government maintains policies promoting religious tolerance.

Who is most vulnerable to persecution?​

Leaving Islam is not criminalised, but it is prohibited; converts risk referral to Sharia courts and losing their legal status and contracts, including their marriages. They face monitoring, harassment, exclusion from public-sector employment and social ostracisation. Christians who share their faith may experience pressure and detention.

Meet Munther​

"We remember and believe in the Word of God that says, ‘And I say to you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you whom you should fear: fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!’ (Luke 12:4–5)."
MUNTHER NAMAT, GENERAL SECRETARY OF THE BIBLE SOCIETY OF JORDAN

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What has changed this year?​

[The persecution situation in Jordan remains much the same for followers of Jesus, whose lives can be difficult]. One Christian was killed and several Christian converts were reportedly forced to leave their homes or relocate within Jordan. The September 2024 parliamentary elections brought a historic win for the Islamic Action Front (IAF), reflecting rising Islamic conservatism in Jordan and solidarity with Gaza. However, after an alleged security plot, Jordan banned the Muslim Brotherhood in April 2025, casting uncertainty over the IAF’s future amid escalating regional tensions.

What does Open Doors do to help Christians in Jordan?​

In cooperation with local partners and churches, Open Doors supports the church in Jordan through training, relief and rehabilitation, research and prayer.

How can you pray for Jordan?​

• Under the leadership of King Abdallah, many believers in Jordan are able to worship openly. Thank God for this and ask Him to continue to make the monarchy aware of how the Jordanian church is a force for good in society.
• Conversion from Islam can be quite risky in Jordan. Pray for those who have lost friends or family because they follow Jesus.
• Pray that those called to share their faith can do so boldly and safely.