Articles

Let More Sunshine in Your Life

A gentle man understands it is wiser to live without anger than to try to make moderate use of it. He knows that as soon as he is surprised by anger, it is better to turn from it than to start a discussion with it. The woman caught in … [Read more...]

Breaking Down the Barriers to Prayer

The heart hardens with a kind of moral crust that excludes compassion for others and prevents communication with others, especially God. Habits of sin, especially the seven deadly sins, keep us focused on our own pleasure, honor, and … [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...]

Teaching the Faith: Contributions from Thomas Aquinas

God's love, mediated through the articles of faith, is a communication of God's love speaking to us. Those who hear, and cling to the merciful speech of God, in faith, are the ones who attain this saving knowledge.   "But when the Son of M … [Read more...]

Time to Abandon the Genesis Story?

Legitimate science can never assert that Adam and Eve are impossible. It might claim that they are improbable, but never impossible. God’s omnipotence can always make short work of long odds.   Is the Genesis story of a literal Adam and Ev … [Read more...]

The Glory of the Mass

Obviously, the Mass is a glorious thing. It is the way God continues to feed his people; it is the way Jesus Christ—God made flesh—keeps his promise never to leave us orphans. Those who attend daily Mass have been given an unmatchable gra … [Read more...]

Home and School in American Catholic Life

This essay argues that understanding the historical reasons why Catholic schools and homeschooling arose can help one to see how both may contribute to the revitalization of a Catholic subculture and American society in complementary w … [Read more...]

The Problem with “A Personal Relationship with Jesus”

... a baptized, confirmed Catholic who faithfully partakes of the sacraments of reconciliation and Holy Communion in the manner prescribed by the Church certainly has a “personal relationship” with Jesus, whether or not he or she uses that p … [Read more...]

Shakespeare and the Franciscan Order

Shakespeare’s most famous Franciscan character is Friar Laurence in Romeo and Juliet. ... Friar Laurence indirectly relates tragic paradox to divine power; grace so fills the world that evil can be brought out of good, yet, good can also d … [Read more...]

Decoding Vatican II’s Marian Paradigm Shift

This Vatican II Mariological paradigmatic shift reverberated into all areas of ecclesial theology and liturgy, through a new hermeneutic or interpretation that went beyond the council’s purview and became what is described as a new ethos, t … [Read more...]

The “Inhumanity” of the Homosexual Lifestyle

To love as a person is freely to wish goodness for someone ... Love always wants to affirm, and to better, one’s friend. Through the power of free choice, true love makes the friend, not the self, the beneficiary. Can there be a more … [Read more...]

The Giver and the Gift

God is himself the first, and absolutely the most important gift that God gives to us, which implies a second gift: God gives us our very selves. One thing that people seem to do in all cultures is to give gifts, and this is always … [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...]

Memory: Wired for God in the Eucharist

So, as we reflect on the principle of memory, we are drawn into what lies at the center of it all, Christ and his words in the institution of the Eucharist: “Do this in remembrance of me” (Lk 22:19; 1 Cor.15:25). No Ordinary Pil … [Read more...]

The Understanding of Revelation in “Dei Verbum” and the Response of Faith

While this notion of revelation, understood as the manifestation of ... Christ himself, has been with the Church since the very beginning. There have been many confusions and reductions over time that have altered the very essence of the … [Read more...]