Articles

Just a Click Away: Morality for Gen Z

Offering Formation of Good Conscience

Generation Z, or the Zoomers, are those who were born between 1996 – 2010. Their parents are mostly Generation X. Although many developed countries are struggling with aging populations and declining birth rates, Generation Z (hereafter: G … [Read more...]

Rethinking Vocational Discernment

Nearly everyone reading this has probably heard something on the subject of vocational discernment. For those accustomed to Catholic terminology, these words may evoke images of a retreat for young people praying to find their path in life, … [Read more...]

The Importance of the Value of Reputation, Part I

Note: This article is derived from a part of the author’s JCD thesis, “The Right of a Cleric to Bona Fama” (Pontificia Università della Santa Croce, 2022). It is difficult to put a price on the value of someone’s reputation. Throughout Sc … [Read more...]

Recovering Eucharistic Wonder

The following has been adapted from a homily preached by the Reverend Peter M. J. Stravinskas, Ph.D., S.T.D., during the Holy Hour to conclude a course on the Holy Eucharist on May 5, 2022, for students at Regis High School in New York … [Read more...]

Sacrificing Sacrifice

In the midst of the Eucharistic Revival, Dr. Lawrence Feingold, seminary professor at Kenrick-Glennon and author of (among many other things) The Eucharist: Mystery of Presence, Sacrifice, and Communion, suggests that we may be missing … [Read more...]

Aristotelianism in Eucharistic Theology

Father Thomas Reese and Transubstantiation

This article has been reworked from a paper entitled “They Must Fall into Being: The Son’s Power as Quasi-Subject of the Accidents of Bread and Wine in the Sacrament of the Eucharist” which I delivered on Feb. 4, 2023, at The Holiness of God … [Read more...]

True Thanksgiving

The word “eucharist” may be defined in a few ways, but one of the original translations from the Greek is “thanksgiving” or “to give thanks.”[1. Cf. CCC 1328.] In modern culture, we often associate thankfulness with a sense of being happy … [Read more...]

“Reading” a Marian Eucharistic Icon

Scripturally, Theologically, and Liturgically

This icon has a double appellation. The first is that of place, Our Lady of Connecticut, because its basic symbols are derived from the state’s shield and motto. Its second designation is that of grace, Virgin Mother of the Holy Vine, from w … [Read more...]

Translating Each Other

A Rabbinic Reflection on Jewish-Catholic Understanding

Editor’s Note: Pope Benedict XVI reminded us in Verbum Domini 43, “I wish to state once more how much the Church values her dialogue with the Jews. Wherever it seems appropriate, it would be good to create opportunities for encounter and exc … [Read more...]

Sacred God, Sacred Church

The Catholic Church and the Hermeneutic of Mystery

In the religion of the Old Testament, Hebrew knowledge and experience of covenantal obligations inspired God’s people to treat his name as particularly sacred and holy, and to refer to it as the great, the only, and the glorious and t … [Read more...]

Preaching the Heart of the Gospel

Although I grew up in a nominally Catholic home, neither of my parents was particularly religious. We attended Sunday Mass occasionally as a family, but as we got older the demands of family life, sports, and other obligations quickly began … [Read more...]

Stuck in Neutral: When Parish Evangelization (Still) Fails

It has been five years since the four-day United States Convocation of Catholic Leaders on Evangelization was held in Atlanta. It has been nine years since Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, The Joy of the Gospel, was … [Read more...]

Why Doesn’t Holy Communion Always Seem to “Work”?

St. Thomas Aquinas and Ronald Knox on Objective Grace and Subjective Dispositions at Work in the Reception of the Sacrament

For anyone with more than a passing acquaintance with Holy Communion, questions emerge about its efficacy that do not admit of easy answers. The Eucharist is immensely powerful, so why does it not seem to make more of a difference in every … [Read more...]

What Many Priests No Longer Believe

Lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi. Loosely translated: “The norm of prayer governs the norm of belief; the norm of belief governs the norm of living.” Many priests nowadays (including myself) are asking, “What if there’s deficient lex in … [Read more...]

Altar Server Training and Ars Celebrandi after the Pandemic

Note: This article was drafted in spring 2021 and completed and submitted to Homiletic & Pastoral Review in October 2022. In the June 2022 Apostolic letter Desiderio Desideravi, Pope Francis issues the clarion call for liturgical … [Read more...]