Can you explain what the general rights and duties are of the state in regard to the family? What does the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) mean by their term “Creative Fidelity”? Question: Can you explain what the gen … [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...]
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...]
“Ressourcement,” “Aggiornamento,” and Vatican II in Ecumenical Perspective
(S)ome interpreters of Vatican II took renewal to be merely a matter of the Church’s adaptation or accommodation to the standards of the modern world ... they took aggiornamento as an “isolated motive for renewal” ... simply adapting to the … [Read more...]
Catholic Ecumenism: Towards an Integration of Faith, Hope, and Charity
The purpose of this one Church is to bring about the supernatural communion of all humanity together in the Spirit, under Christ as head, giving praise to the Father. Popes Pius XI, Pius XII, John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Pope F … [Read more...]
The Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help for Priests
The message the Queen of Heaven gave to Adele Brise in 1859 was mission-oriented and provides a focus to the Church’s efforts of evangelization. The conversation between Adele and Our Lady is quite telling, emphasizing a two-fold dimension: … [Read more...]
Giving Our Grief over to the “Man Acquainted with Grief”
With the coming of Christ into the depths of all things human, we now know that even our grief can be given over to the good God ... All losses can become places of life, places of intimacy with Christ, if we show him these wounds caused by … [Read more...]
Beauty and Biblical Interpretation: Hans Urs von Balthasar’s Response to Modern Biblical Studies
Key to Balthasar’s response to modern biblical studies is his concept of beauty ... Balthasar links beauty to human perception, and the way human beings gain knowledge. Over the past 100 years—amidst the confusion and darkness sur … [Read more...]
The Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary: Detecting a Pattern of Internal Consistency
Against the background of the words, Ave Maria, the principal events of the life of Jesus Christ pass before the eyes of the soul. They take shape in the complete series of the joyful, sorrowful, and glorious mysteries, and they put us in … [Read more...]
Catechetical and Pastoral Emphasis in the Apologetics of Frank Sheed
Vatican II calls the laity to take a more active role in not just the worshipping life of the Church, but the teaching life, too. While Sheed agrees ... we evangelize best principally through a pastorally oriented and properly formed … [Read more...]
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