Blog of the Archdiocese of Washington
There is a line in the Letter to the Hebrews which reads: You made [Jesus] for a little while lower than the angels; you crowned him with glory and honor, subjecting all things under his feet.” In “subjecting” all things (to him), he left nothing not “subject to him.” Yet at present we do not …
Continue reading “How is the “Weakness” of God Stronger than Satan’s “Power?””
In yesterday’s (Sunday) Gospel, the good thief on the cross rebukes the bad thief at the other side of Jesus with a very poignant question, Have you no fear of God?. Now this question is very well addressed to us as well; especially those of us who live in this modern age, so often marked …
Continue reading “Have You No fear of God?! A Meditation on the Need to Recover Salutary Fear.”
I sometimes like to joke with my parishioners that our church building which is located on the same street as United States Capitol has quite an exulted status. For, indeed, just up the street from my parish of Holy Comforter, is the United States Capitol. It is arguably one of the most powerful buildings on …
Perhaps as a concluding post on funeral masses, this is my third post on the subject this week (omni trinum perfectum – all things are perfect in three), I would like to re-post an article I wrote over a year ago. Many of the comments these past days mentioned the Traditional Latin Requiem Mass, which …
On yesterday’s blog post, I discussed some of the more common problems that arise with funerals these days. That blog post provides the kind of background to the homily I present here. In this homily, I try to teach on what I think are important and central themes that need emphasis in Christian funerals today. …
Continue reading “A Funeral Sermon designed to teach on the Last Things, and inspire prayer”
I have mentioned before that many years ago in seminary I was quite surprised to listen to some of my professors declare what I considered to be heretical things about Jesus Christ. They often said, he did not claim to be God, or he did not know he was God. When I might meekly suggest …
Continue reading “The Divinity of Jesus Christ, In Scripture and in his own words.”
Catholics have often endured the charge that we are an unbiblical Church. Strange accusation, really, for the Church that collected the Scriptures, determined the canon of Scripture and preached it for 1,500 years before there ever was a Protestant denomination. The fact is we are quite biblical and often in ways that are stunningly powerful. …
Continue reading “How Traditional Catholic Architecture Better Fulfills the Plan of God”
The Lord Jesus gives a penetrating analysis of the state of the sinner and some very sobering advice to we would-be saints in today’s Gospel. Let’s look at the Gospel in two stages: The Analysis of the Sinner and the Advice to the Saints. I. ANALYSIS OF THE SINNER – The Lord Jesus describes a …