Blog of the Archdiocese of Washington
Most Catholics are unaware of how our traditional church buildings are based on designs given by God himself. Designs that stretch all the way back to Mount Sinai when God set forth the design for the sanctuary in the desert and the tent of meeting. Many of the fundamental aspects of our church layouts still …
In a kind of follow up from yesterday’s blog on the call to repentance, it seems it might be helpful to list what the Bible describes as some of the more serious sins. One of the great deceptions of our time is that serious sin is a remote possibility for most people, and that it …
Sunday’s Gospel on generosity and the need to renounce greed, is reflection worth continuing. Last week in the Breviary St. Basil the Great (in Hom. De caritate, 3, 6: PG 31, 266-267, 275) provided a reflection that amounts to an investment strategy not just for the near future of old age, but for eternity. Challenging …
Continue reading “Investment Advice from St Basil the Great”
Some years ago I was stationed with a priest who, while he often liked my homilies, would often critique my use of what he called “fear based preaching.” Perhaps I had warned the congregation of punishment for sin, or even let slip that certain things were mortal sins that would exclude one from heaven and …
Some forty years ago the Venerable Bishop Fulton J Sheen admonished the priests of his day in these words: We become real priests when we empty ourselves, and no longer seek our [own] identity, and where we are lifted up to the cross, not going “down to people.” Too many of us today feel we …
Many people today put Hell in opposition to the love of God. But Jesus combines them. Here is an important truth: No one loves you more than Jesus Christ. And yet, no one spoke of or taught on Hell and Judgment more than Jesus Christ. There is from him, warning after warning, parable after parable, …
Continue reading “Jesus, Who loves you, warned of Hell – A Catalogue of Jesus’ Warning texts.”
There is an old Spiritual that says, My God is so high, you can’t over him, he’s so low, you can’t under him, he’s so wide you can’t round him, you must come in, by and through the Lamb. Not a bad way of saying that God is other, He is beyond what human words …
Continue reading “1 and 1 and 1 are One – A Mediation on the Feast of the Holy Trinity”
This past week we celebrated the feast of Our Lady of Fatima. (And, given my mention of Fatima, you may wonder why I have Our Lady of Guadalupe pictured here, but more on that in a moment). But as for Fatima, with all the emphasis on the magnificent teaching and prophetic fulfillment of that apparition, …
Continue reading “Our Lady of Fatima and the "Muslim Connection"”