The Bride’s Response to the Bridegroom

Understanding the Call to Repent

  How should one consider the question, “Should the Church repent”? It is a complex question when being considered in both the light of the holiness of the Church and in the darkness of the sinfulness of her members through pre … [Read more...]

Lent: In Search Of the One and the Real

Lent, the great and holy fast, comes upon us again. It is a season of promise and peril. Promise, because we are invited to anticipate in ourselves the paschal mystery, whereby human nature is healed and elevated. Peril, because we risk … [Read more...]

A New Approach for Pastoral Ministry

Incorporating Biblical Creation Imagery and Apocalyptic Metaphors into Pastoral Care and Ministry

Biblical theology of creation is applicable in pastoral ministry, because of its rich cornucopia of imagery and metaphors of myth and apocalypse, imagination and paradoxes employed in demonstrating God’s omnipotence, omniscience, and o … [Read more...]

Pentecostal Suffering and Our Growth in Holiness

The seasons of Lent and Easter help us understand the priesthood if we begin at the end. Easter season ends with Pentecost, so that’s where we’ll begin. Recall the story of Pentecost: Everyone from various countries all understood the same l … [Read more...]

Conscience as Relationship, Part I

General Principles and Personal Experience

As regards the discernment of what is actually good amidst the multitude of the many possible goods arising out of the “results of physics, genetics, and neuroscience, as well as of increasingly powerful computing capabilities, [and the] p … [Read more...]

Mary Is the Choice of God

Part I of a Marian Triptych

Where do we need to begin with a reflection on Mary, spouse of St. Joseph[1. Cf. St. John Paul II, Redemptoris Custos.] and Mother of the Lord? On the one hand, in the times in which we live, it could be argued that we need to recover … [Read more...]

Questions Answered

The Meaning of Propitiation in the Bible Question: I have found several authors I consider to be orthodox disagreeing on the scriptural meaning of propitiation. One seems to understand it as Jesus placating God’s anger by this sacrifice. H … [Read more...]

The Paradox of God’s Predilection

Recently, Pope Francis, like so many of his predecessors in the Chair of St. Peter, has emphasized God’s special predilection for sinners. Indeed, not on one occasion only, but on many occasions, our Pontiff has taken great pains to make t … [Read more...]

The Twin Treasures of Life and Love that Gush Forth from the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Using concepts derived from Aristotelian philosophy, Aquinas provides a tremendous insight into God’s essence by explaining how the latter is the sole Being whose “essence” and “existence” are one and the same: “... God is not only his own e … [Read more...]

Why God Becomes Human

The Advent and Christmas seasons are upon us. Like the reality itself, we Christians have to look more deeply to see the mystery beneath the glitter and the commotion. God has now descended into his creation to take up his rightful place as … [Read more...]

The Nativity of Christ

Its Historic Reality

In those days, Caesar Augustus published a decree ordering a census of the whole world. This first took place when Quirinius was the governor of Syria. Everyone went to register, each to his own town. And so Joseph went from his own town of … [Read more...]

Apokatastasis: On the Salvation of a Punk Rock Princess

“Jesus died for somebody’s sins, but not mine” are the famous opening words sung by the godmother of punk rock, Patti Smith, on her debut album, Horses. On Wednesday, April 11, 2013, the same Patti Smith—a self-proclaimed “non-Catholic who l … [Read more...]

An Advent Reflection: Redemptor Hominis, Redeemer of Man

Introduction The encyclical, Redemptor Hominis, has a specific place in the ministry of Pope St. John Paul II. It was proclaimed the first Sunday of Lent, 1979, the first encyclical of the new pontificate, hence the link to Advent—it m … [Read more...]

In Truth I Tell You, Today You Will Be with Me in Paradise

The act of repentance by Dismas, the good thief on his cross next to Jesus on Calvary, fulfilled God’s greatest desire to pour forth the richness of his grace into his soul.   Dismas and Christ The ultimate goal in the spiritual life and … [Read more...]