Archives for 2018

Praying on Cue

It's 3:10 on Friday afternoon and your boss hands you an urgent request. It’s from an important client, and you have to handle it by close of business. You’re already managing way too many tasks and projects, but the boss insists, so you add … [Read more...]

The Gift and Rights of Being Conceived, Part 2

Even if, as we have seen in Part I of this essay, there are unresolved questions concerning the definition of the moment of conception, an irreversible moment involving the action of God, each one of us is nevertheless evidence of an actual … [Read more...]

Questions Answered

Question: When we do not have enough consecrated bread for Holy Communion is it permitted to dip unconsecrated bread into consecrated wine? Does the Council of Trent give special permission in this regard? Answer: I am constantly amazed … [Read more...]

Late Summer Reading

Liturgy and Personality: The Healing Power of Formal Prayer, by Dietrich von Hildebrand; with a new foreword by Bishop Robert Barron (Sophia Institute Press [1943] 2018) $29.00. Reviewed by Fr. Ryan Rojo, S.T.L. The Porn Myth: Exposing … [Read more...]

“Lord, to Whom Shall We Go?”

We are deeply saddened by the news that comes in daily about the sexual abuse involving the hierarchy (cardinals, bishops, and priests) in the Catholic Church. We certainly believe that those found guilty should be punished and live out … [Read more...]

Homilies for August 2018

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time—August 5, 2018   Readings:  Ex 16:2-4, 12-15; Ps 78:3-4, 23-24, 25, 54; Eph 4:17, 20-24; Jn 6:24-35 http://usccb.org/bible/readings/080518.cfm   This week we find ourselves continuing our journey thro … [Read more...]

Two Knights for Truth

The Ethics of C.S. Lewis and Dietrich von Hildebrand

C.S. Lewis and Dietrich von Hildebrand would agree that the great intellectual catastrophe of modern times is the value-subjectivism that has invaded not only universities, but society at-large. It is now universally assumed that categories … [Read more...]

The Mystagogical Tradition

“Mystagogy” is a word that some parishes hear during Easter Time, and is often associated with the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA). Yet, a proper understanding of mystagogy provides inspiration and wisdom, not only for cat … [Read more...]

So You Think You Understand Mercy?

From the time it was announced, Catholics welcomed the year of Jubilee, the year of Mercy, with open hearts. We recall Pope Francis saying in Misericordiae Vultus (2015) that mercy “reveals the very mystery of the Most Holy Trinity” and is t … [Read more...]

When Does Sin Stop Being Sin?

Imagine I’m poor. Not dirt poor. Not homeless. Not living on the edge of extreme poverty. Just poor. Poor enough not to be able to afford some of the nicer things in life. Now, let’s imagine that I’m riding on the subway. I happen to noti … [Read more...]

The Gift and Rights of Being Conceived, Part 1

In the first of this two-part essay there is an examination of the wholeness of human being, the complementarity of faith and reason, and what human conception is, and what is said about it in the teaching of the Church (Part I). In the … [Read more...]

Our Lord and His Love

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. (1 John 4:16) In this world where almost everything is relative, we can know at least one absolute truth: Every human being alive in this world wants and needs to be … [Read more...]

Questions Answered

Question: Jesus says: “Judge not.” (Mt. 7:1) When are we allowed to judge? Answer: The issue of judgement is an important moral problem. Judgement is an act of the virtue of justice. Since justice involves establishing equity between one … [Read more...]

Dear Troubled Catholics,

I have never seen so many "ordinary Catholics" — who usually never follow or hear about Church news — as deeply troubled as I have seen them in response to the recent revelations about the retired archbishop of Washington, D.C. Cardinal T … [Read more...]

Radical Orthodoxy: An Overview

Part One: An Introduction A Brief Overview of the Radical Orthodoxy Movement In 1990, John Milbank, then reader in the Faculty of Divinity at Cambridge University and a fellow of Peterhouse, published his seminal text, Theology and … [Read more...]