Archives for August 2014

Homilies for September 2014

Homilies For Sunday Liturgies and Holy Days, September 2014 St. Gregory the Great, the Prophet Ezekiel, and St. Augustine of Hippo   23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time—September 7, 2014  Being responsible for others in charity Purpose: W … [Read more...]

What Should the October Synod Discuss?

...I must say that we are blinking at reality if we do not face up to the fact that since the 1950s, marriage and the family, outside and inside the Church, have been plunged into an ever-growing crisis—to the extent that their nature, and v … [Read more...]

The Beauty of Chastity Today

Chastity is a costly pearl that must be guarded well. Well-lived chastity is a habitual disposition of the heart and mind that makes a person gracious and approachable. The transparent beauty of chastity sees life through a lens of … [Read more...]

The Role of the Church in the Journey of Salvation

The Church, the living Body of Christ and sacrament of salvation, continues its pilgrimage to heaven by exercising Christ’s ministry in the world so as to bring humanity into greater conformity with Christ. The Vision of the Lord D … [Read more...]

“Go and Call Your Husband”: What Enables a Marriage to Endure?

The unity of will between a husband and wife that God establishes is realized also through a life that is fully shared. A marriage is contracted as a result of the consent of the spouses, and this consent needs to be renewed each … [Read more...]

Sacred Tradition: The Forgotten Doctrine?

The miracle and mystery of divine guidance has been the primary constituent element of Church teaching over the centuries, and this guidance is what makes Tradition “sacred,” but rarely is it linked with the teaching of any other doc … [Read more...]

The Latest Book Reviews

Late Summer Reading for August 2014

Masters of Preaching: The Most Poignant and Powerful Homilists in Church History.  Fr. Ray A. Atwood (New York: Hamilton Books, 2012) xviii + 304 pages; $34.99. (Reviewed by Fr. David Maconi, S.J.) ____________ Clare’s Costly Cookie: A … [Read more...]

God’s Love for Us

...the Son Jesus Christ has revealed the true nature of God the Father’s love for us: a love who becomes incarnate, not despite our sinfulness, but precisely because of it—a love that longs to suffer on behalf of the beloved, a love that say … [Read more...]

Homosexuality and Vocational Discernment and Choice

A Call for Evidence-Based, Astute Priestly Discernment in a Framework of Overall Moral Character Development

A seminary that is on-going in the cultivation and the learning of the skills of virtue as an expression of life-in-Christ, and as lived testimony to the Gospel, will be a seminary that is prepared to discern, and to equip, young men for a … [Read more...]

The Holy Family, Celibacy, and Marriage: A Reflection on the “Passage” from the Jewish Rite of Marriage to the Sacrament of Marriage

If the sacrament of marriage came to be specified at a particular moment, then as the renewal of marriage was itself an indication of a new beginning ... it makes sense that the marriage of Mary and Joseph was precisely the implicitly … [Read more...]

The Problem with “Not” Having a Personal Relationship with Jesus

Christian believers know the God who created the Universe ... as a person who reveals himself as Love and Gift, and Personal in his nature. Jesus revealed that the One True God also has an inner life that is not only personal, but … [Read more...]

Mythbuster Extraordinaire: How Benedict Tackled False Christologies

Christians sense there is something radically wrong in trying to put Christ into strange molds, where long-held Christian beliefs about Christ are attacked from all sides. As Benedict stated in his Dunwoodie address to seminarians, to see … [Read more...]

Sticks, Stones, and Broken Bones: The History of Anti-Catholic Violence in the U.S.

We do not recall these instances of anti-Catholicism to foster more animosity or violence, but recall them as part of our history, a history that, like so many others, included the targeting of ethnic and religious groups for … [Read more...]

Questions Answered

Does the Church state that there is an ideal form of government? What Magisterial status does the teaching of the popes on contraception enjoy?  Can it be changed?  Must we believe it? Plato, St. Thomas Aquinas, and A … [Read more...]