Blog of the Archdiocese of Washington
On today’s Feast of Saints Peter and Paul it behooves us to look in detail at the first reading from today’s Mass and see in it a kind of roadmap to growing in faith. Peter’s story and experience were not just for him; they were for us as well. Let’s see what we can learn …
Continue reading “Five Lessons on Faith From Peter’s Time in Jail”
There was something awful about the year 1968. Fifty years later we are still reeling from its effects. Perhaps we do well to ponder the deep wounds that still fester today. I was a young lad at the time, and almost everything I saw on the television news terrified me. Harrowing nightly reports from Vietnam …
Continue reading “1968 – A Year When Many in the Church Drank the Poison of the World”
In daily Mass for Monday of the 11th Week of the Year, we read a passage from the Sermon on the Mount. It is a challenging text that raises many questions if read in a literal or absolute manner. You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for …
Pope Leo XIII penned an insightful analysis of three trends that both alarmed him and pointed to future problems. He wrote of these three concerns in 1893 in the Encyclical on the Holy Rosary entitled Laetitiae Sanctae (Of Holy Joy). The Pope laid out these three areas of concern and then offered the Mysteries of …
Continue reading “Three Insights of Pope Leo XIII That Diagnose Our Cultural Malaise”
This week in daily Mass we read of the struggles of Elijah the Prophet, who spent his life fighting the influence of the Canaanite god Baal in Israel. Up on Mt. Carmel, Elijah was strong and fearless, but he also had moments of deep discouragement. Many of us today are discouraged in these times of …
Continue reading “God Has His Seven Thousand: A Word of Encouragement from the Life of Elijah”
In modern bibles and in the breviary, Psalm 101 is often called the “Avowal of a Good Ruler.” In other words, it is a kind of oath a ruler takes pledging to promote virtue in the kingdom and to refute error and sin. One can imagine King David saying this himself. While this psalm is …
As this Easter Season is nearing a close, we do well to ponder the picture of the early Church described in the Acts of the Apostles. The kind of persecution and suffering they endured in those days should serve to remind us of the sacrifices we are often unwilling to make. Yet these early descriptions …
In the first reading for Wednesday of the 7th Week of Easter, St. Paul warns of perhaps the most damaging and wrenching evil that the Church must face: dissension from within. I know that after my departure savage wolves will come among you, and they will not spare the flock. And from your own group, …
Continue reading “Pondering St. Paul’s Lament of Savage Wolves”