VIVAT USA

VIVAT USA VIVAT USA is a national group of Catholic member congregations of VIVAT International, a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO).

05/12/2026

Here's a 2-minute video from the Jesuit Migration Network, which invites Catholics across the country to join Corpus Christi processions as a public witness to our communion with Christ and solidarity with our immigrant neighbors. See less

Lent is complete. The fast is broken forever by resurrection. The Gardener appears, mistaking Mary in the garden. "Tell ...
04/05/2026

Lent is complete. The fast is broken forever by resurrection. The Gardener appears, mistaking Mary in the garden. "Tell my brothers: I am ascending to my Father and your Father" (John 20:17). The new creation has begun. Our 40 days of penitence now become 50 days of Easter joy, commissioning us to proclaim: The Earth is risen! Alleluia!

The Great Silence. The earth quaked when Christ died (Matt 27:51); it holds its breath as he descends to the dead. Holy ...
04/04/2026

The Great Silence. The earth quaked when Christ died (Matt 27:51); it holds its breath as he descends to the dead. Holy Saturday is the Day of the earth's vigil. "The creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God" (Rom 8:19). We have fasted for 40 days. We have wept for the earth. Now we wait. The seed is in the ground. The tomb is dark. But the Spirit hovers over the waters. Tomorrow, the Gardener returns. "Mary," he will say, and in that recognition, the new creation begins. We have carried the cross of ecological sin; we will rise with ecological grace. The fast ends, but the feast of care begins.

Today we venerate the Cross, but the Cross is not abstract. Its wood came from a tree that once breathed, sheltered bird...
04/03/2026

Today we venerate the Cross, but the Cross is not abstract. Its wood came from a tree that once breathed, sheltered birds, drank rain. "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son" (John 3:16). The world—the cosmos—was worth saving. The Cross is God's yes to creation, even in its fallenness. As we kiss the Cross, we kiss the tree, the earth, the cosmos that Christ died to redeem.

On this night, Jesus institutes the sacrament that makes present his sacrifice. "The Eucharist unites heaven and earth; ...
04/02/2026

On this night, Jesus institutes the sacrament that makes present his sacrifice. "The Eucharist unites heaven and earth; it embraces all of creation" (LS, 236). The bread and wine are not symbols but real—real wheat, real grapes, real labor, real soil. To receive them while poisoning the earth is a contradiction. Tonight, as we wash feet, we commit to washing creation's wounds.

Today is Spy Wednesday, the day of treachery. Judas negotiates thirty pieces of silver — metal ripped from the earth, re...
04/01/2026

Today is Spy Wednesday, the day of treachery. Judas negotiates thirty pieces of silver — metal ripped from the earth, refined with fire that consumes forests. "What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and lose his soul?" (Mark 8:36). The greed that sells the Creator is the same greed that deforests, that poisons rivers, that measures life in profit margins. Tonight Jesus withdraws to Gethsemane — gan in Aramaic, garden in English — and prays among the olive trees while his disciples sleep. Creation listens; the olives have witnessed betrayals before. "Everything is related... and invites us to a loving reverence" (LS, 92). In the garden's darkness, the cosmos beholds its Creator sweating blood for love of what Judas calculated in silver.

"The Spirit of God has filled the universe with possibilities and therefore can help us to overcome the temptation to se...
03/31/2026

"The Spirit of God has filled the universe with possibilities and therefore can help us to overcome the temptation to see the world in a deterministic or reductionist way" (Laudato Si’, 80). We are not trapped by the climate crisis; we are invited to creativity. The same Spirit that brooded over the waters now broods over the plastic-choked oceans, inspiring solutions, movements, conversions. Lent is not despair; it is the gestation of the new. We fast from cynicism; we feast on hope.

The reversal of the curse. "The best way to restore men and women to their rightful place, putting an end to their claim...
03/30/2026

The reversal of the curse. "The best way to restore men and women to their rightful place, putting an end to their claim to absolute dominion over the earth, is to lay bare the serious risk of running out of time" (LS, 190). We are running out of time. The clock ticks toward 1.5 degrees, toward tipping points. Lent reminds us that kairos—God's time—is different from chronos. We still have time to repent. The fast is urgent. We restore the wetlands, and we restore our souls. We clean the river, and we cleanse our hearts.

The heart of the matter: relationship. "Everything is related, and we human beings are united as brothers and sisters on...
03/28/2026

The heart of the matter: relationship. "Everything is related, and we human beings are united as brothers and sisters on a wonderful pilgrimage, woven together by the love God has for each of his creatures and which also unites us in fond affection with brother sun, sister moon, brother river and mother earth" (Laudato Si’, 92). This is the Franciscan revolution—family, not property. This Lent, we fast from the isolation of individualism. We recognize the sun as brother, the river as sibling. When we poison the river, we poison our kin. The alms we give are to our own flesh.

We are made for communion. "The human person grows more, matures more, is sanctified more in the measure that he or she ...
03/28/2026

We are made for communion. "The human person grows more, matures more, is sanctified more in the measure that he or she enters into relationships—with God, others, all creatures" (Laudato Si', 240). Holiness is measured by depth of relationship, not prayer in isolation. Lent expands compassion's circle to include the non-human. Fast from isolation; feast on communion.

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319 Waukegan Road
Winnetka, IL
60093

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+18474410126

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