For Sunday Liturgies and Feasts Homilies for March 2014 Ash Wednesday and the beginning of the season of Lent 8th Sunday in Ordinary Time - March 2, 2014 Only with God are our hearts at rest Purpose: Our human experience is f … [Read more...]
Archives for February 2014
Contemplation, Action, and the Good Life
February 22, 2014 by Dr. Richard Becka, PhD
Everyone is seeking knowledge, but is the knowledge they are seeking really worth the trade-off in terms of the life’s cost? Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas Everyone familiar with the Aristotelian-Thomistic tradition will recognize … [Read more...]
What Is the Right to Religious Freedom?
February 21, 2014 by Fr. Dylan Schrader
The most fundamental right in the area of religion is that which should be attributed to God, what we owe to God. God is absolutely sovereign. Catholics of the United States are more than ever asserting a right to religious freedom, … [Read more...]
“Where your synthesis is, there lies your heart.” An Early Look at Pope Francis’ Vision for the Church
February 21, 2014 by Fr. Joseph A. Tetlow, SJ
Jesus Christ is the center – the driving source – of the entire Exhortation. Those who have been called, and have accepted Christ are sent into their particular life’s world to spread his name, and to do it joyfully. The sentence: “Wher … [Read more...]
Our Act of Faith
February 21, 2014 by Fr. Thomas C. Blessin, SJ+
This is what God does with us, he asks everything of us. Why does he do this? ...he needs from us an attitude toward him that the persons of the Blessed Trinity have toward each other, and that God has toward us ... an attitude of total … [Read more...]
God Gave Burdens, Also Shoulders: A Yiddish Proverb
February 20, 2014 by Sister Joseph Andrew Bogdanowicz, OP
In all of our lives, there are times when encouragement makes or breaks our stamina. Even when all is well, we know a deeper happiness if our efforts find appreciation. Recently, I came across a publication of the Mayo Clinic and was … [Read more...]
Questions Answered
February 20, 2014 by Fr. Brian Mullady, OP
What concerns should a priest have in the weekly homily? “New Evangelization:” What does it mean, and what are its primary focuses? Question: What concerns should a priest have in the weekly homily? Answer: Priests know that the … [Read more...]
Pope Francis’ Message to the General Assembly of the Pontifical Academy for Life
February 20, 2014 by David Vincent Meconi
A society is truly open to life when it recognizes that life is precious even in the elderly population, in the disabled, and even in those who are gravely ill or in the process of dying. To Our Venerable Brother Msgr. Carrasco de P … [Read more...]
Euthanasia for children in Belgium
February 19, 2014 by David Vincent Meconi
Dear Homiletic & Pastoral Review, It is with great distress that as an American living in Texas, I recently learned of the 86-44 vote by Belgium House of Representatives to allow euthanasia for children. As a Christian I couldn't … [Read more...]
An Essay on Natural Family Planning
February 8, 2014 by Dr. Charles W. Norris, M.D.
The Catholic Church has never opposed family planning, but she teaches through her Magisterium, or teaching authority, that man may not, of his own volition, separate the two meanings of the conjugal act, the unitive and the procreative, … [Read more...]
A Liberationist Pope
February 7, 2014 by Dr. Michel Therrien, STD
Read carefully: We should see in this critique (by Pope Francis), not an embrace of socialism, or a condemnation of the market economy, but a call to adopt a different ethic for the marketplace. Pope Francis is a Jesuit, a prelate from … [Read more...]
The Latest Book Reviews
For February 2014
February 6, 2014 by David Vincent Meconi
Mid-Winter Reading for February 2014 Reviews for the following books: LETTERS TO MY BROTHERS: Words of Hope and Challenge for Priests. By Stephen J. Rossetti (Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press, 2013), 180 pp. $15.95. (Reviewed by Rev. … [Read more...]
Observations on “Ex Corde Ecclesiae” and Its Fitful Implementation
February 5, 2014 by Dr. Eric Cunningham, PhD
Ex Corde was promulgated in 1990, and its purpose was to lay out the general place and function of Catholic universities in the modern Church ... {providing} a useful starting point for dialogues on Catholic identity. I suppose the … [Read more...]
Grace and Reason According to St. Paul and St. Thomas
February 5, 2014 by Dr. Eric M. Johnston, PhD
...the world we live in is overwhelmingly irrational. Our popular discourse doesn’t make any sense at all. As Catholics, we need to understand what our faith teaches about this irrationality. We need to look to Scripture and t … [Read more...]
The Papacy: The Person Versus The Office
February 3, 2014 by David Vincent Meconi
What draws the secular media to the Vatican ... (for now) is the man who is able to translate these truths into action, and to proclaim our doctrine with personal conviction. It is one of those few moments forever emblazoned on my mind … [Read more...]
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