Blog of the Archdiocese of Washington
The Gospel today is of the familiar and endearing story of Zacchaeus, a man too short to see Jesus, who climbs a tree, encounters Jesus, and is changed. The danger with familiar stories is that they are familiar and we can miss remarkable qualities. Perhaps it is well that we look afresh and search for the symbolic in …
How should we as Catholics and Christians respond to Halloween? In recent decades there seems to have been the emergence of two camps. One sees Halloween is generally harmless fun. The other sees Halloween as a dangerous dalliance with the occult, the demonic and evil. While it is true that there are some excesses evident …
In the Gospel for yesterday (Sunday’s) Mass the Lord Jesus healed ten lepers. Only one of them returned to thank him. And Jesus asked the following question: Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine? (Luke 17:17) We have discussed before (HERE) that, when Jesus asks a question, you’re supposed to answer …
Continue reading “Where are the Other Nine? – A Question YOU must Answer”
In the readings for daily Mass the past few days we have been reviewing the faith journey of St. Paul who describes his personal history and also his authority in the second chapter of the Letter to the Galatians. The story is interesting for three reasons. It can help correct notions that some have of Paul’s rapid assent …
Continue reading “What St. Paul Can Teach Us About Respect for Church Authority”
We live in a time when science is exulted. But the problem with science is that it is only able to deal with the material and the measurable. Hence to exalt science to the exclusion of other ways of knowing is to take the partial and declare it to be the whole. Yet it is …
In the Gospel for today about the rich man and Lazarus the Lord gives us some important teachings on judgment and on hell. Now it is a fact that we live in times where many consider the teaching on Hell to be untenable. Many struggle to understand how a God described as loving, merciful and …
Continue reading “The Hell There Is – A Meditation on the Gospel for the 26th Sunday of the Year”
Msgr. Pope did a great job introducing us to the pastoral letter on the New Evangelization and we will continue to write about it as it becomes a way of life for Catholics in the archdiocese. One dimension of the New Evangelization is engaging people in conversation and not missing an opportunity to propose that …
There has been a tendency in the Church in recent decades to divide out the teachings of the Church into separate and often “competing” realms. On the one hand there are said to be the basic moral teachings that include our duty to worship God, tell the truth, obey biblical sexual norms and the like. …