Posts Tagged ‘Faith & Current Events’
Many thoughts move through my mind on this third Monday in January. Just up the street from where I live, the Second Inauguration of President Barack Obama is taking place. Today is also the official celebration of the birthday of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. And also, later this week, my rectory will be [...] Read the rest of this entry »
The Video at the bottom of the page was sent to me today and I want to say that I find it beautiful. What makes the video so good is that it inspires a spirituality for the server that includes some of the following encouragement and advisement: That the Mass is mystical, beyond mere human [...] Read the rest of this entry »
There is a great hymn, an antiphon actually, written by St. Thomas Aquinas for the Office of Corpus Christi. It is O Sacrum Convivium and it serves as a wonderful summary of Eucharistic theology that is worth our attention. With that in mind I’d like to make a brief reflection on some of its compact [...] Read the rest of this entry »
Susan Jacoby, an author and atheist wrote a column in last Sunday’s New York Times entitled “The Blessings of Atheism.” In it she proposes that atheism has a lot to offer, especially in times of tragic loss and that it frees human beings from having to ask and answer difficult question. As you may imagine, [...] Read the rest of this entry »
I saw a YouTube video today by a fellow Catholic who was quite concerned and animated over what he describes as the desperate condition of the Church. It is true that there is much to be sober about in these troubled times, and we have discussed them quite thoroughly here. There are current and necessary [...] Read the rest of this entry »
In yesterday’s post we pondered the insistence of the Johannine scriptures on the fact that Christ Jesus came in the flesh, was incarnate. To the deny the incarnation is a serious heresy that not only misunderstands Jesus, but misunderstands the nature of the faith as well. For if Jesus came in the flesh, if the [...] Read the rest of this entry »
There is a line in the first letter of John (read on the Monday of this week), a line that proves of critical important to many difficulties today with heresy, unbelief and moral decay. The line says: Beloved, do not trust every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they belong to God, because [...] Read the rest of this entry »
Some decades ago the argument from authority was often invoked as we answered some question about the faith. It was often considered sufficient merely invoke the existence of a rule. And thus, to my nagging question, “Why should I have to go to mass?” my parents would often answer, “Because it’s a rule!” Other variations [...] Read the rest of this entry »
On of my problems on the blog is that I often “commit typos.” That is to say, I am lousy at proof reading my own material. A number of you send me little corregida, for which I am grateful. I do read over what I have wrote, but I read right past my errors and [...] Read the rest of this entry »
When I was a young man, a teenager really, I did the usual crazy stuff of the early, 70s, long hair, bell bottoms, wide ties, crazy plaids, shirt open at least least three buttons, and of course, rock-n-roll. But, through it all I had this love for older things. I think it had something to [...] Read the rest of this entry »
Many Catholics seldom think past their own parish when the consider the Church. And yet the Catholic World is huge and quite vibrant: 1.2 Billion Catholics in the World. 412,236 Priests 721,935 Religious Sisters 221,055 Parishes 92,847 Catholic Elementary Schools with 31 million students. 43,591 Catholic Secondary Schools with 17 Million Students [*] 117,000 health [...] Read the rest of this entry »
A lot of breakdown in modern communication comes down to logical fallacies and cognitive distortions that have us talking past each other. Perhaps, as the new year draws near, we might spend a little time reflecting and “thinking about our thinking.” All of us fall into these traps. I have spoken before on the blog [...] Read the rest of this entry »
