Articles

Our Act of Faith

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

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...]

An Essay on Natural Family Planning

 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...]

Observations on “Ex Corde Ecclesiae” and Its Fitful Implementation

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

...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

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...]

Catholics: Some of our Members Are Wandering Away!

Catholic adults deserve the formation worthy of disciples—indeed, the defining mission of the Church is to preach the Gospel, and make disciples of all nations.  The Catholic Church is not doing well in holding her own.  Of those Church m … [Read more...]

Where is Prayer for Christian Unity in Our Parishes?

Every post-conciliar Pope has emphasized, with Vatican II, that ecumenism is a necessary aspect of the Church's mission, and one involving the effort of all the faithful, clergy, and laity alike.    It was once quite common for many C … [Read more...]

The Person of Jesus Unites Himself with the Unborn

I began to meditate on the awesome truth that Almighty God, became fully human, feeding on nutrients and oxygen within the blood of his Blessed Mother, as is every human fetus fed by his or her natural mother. ...Jesus teaches, by his … [Read more...]

Toward a Theology of Infertility: The Trinity in Richard of St. Victor

Richard of St. Victor explores an understanding of the Trinity based on an understanding of the nature of interpersonal love ... in which God is viewed as a community of persons ... he conceives of the Holy Spirit ... as a third person: the … [Read more...]

Communion, Community, and Communication

The Gospel summons us to authentic human development in communion, community, and communication under the sovereignty of God’s love. Our Christian conversion is both an event and a lifelong process of ongoing response to the grace and call o … [Read more...]

Checking the Calendar

(The Ephiphany) celebrates the end of man’s being held captive by the natural elements.  We are not fated but free. None of us is pre-determined, but now made children of God by the humanity of his only divine Son.     God the Father (righ … [Read more...]

Questions Answered

January 2014

What do you say to a non-Catholic man who received questionable advice from a priest about his marriage to a Catholic woman, and now wants to become Catholic as well? How engaged should the priest be in the religious education of the p … [Read more...]