Blog of the Archdiocese of Washington
There is a tendency in the modern age, at least in the Western world, to trivialize the human person. One of the ways we do this is to say, in so many words, that it does not really matter what a person thinks or believes. All that matters is that they behave well. Hence if …
Continue reading “Mind your Mind: On The Reverence of God for the Mind”
In today’s Gospel there is a Scripture passage that is “too well known.” I say this because the world has picked it up almost as a club to swing at Christians. The text is used almost as if it were the whole Bible and it is used to shut down any discussion of what is …
Last week in the blog I penned what was intended as a humorous post based on a video which asked: Is the Church a Cruise Ship or a Battleship? The video rather humorously depicts how many people want their parish to be like a cruise ship: comfortable, pleasant, with a popular captain and crew, fundamentally existing …
Continue reading “In Defense of the Use of Military Imagery in the Church”
If Angels could be jealous of men, they would be so for one reason: Holy Communion– St. Maximilian Kolbe Costly Meal – As we prepare for the Feast of Corpus Christi it is proper for us to meditate on the great dignity we have in being fed by Christ with his very own Body and …
At the bottom of this post is a remarkable video from CBS news that indicates that if you have or use a digital copier, everything you have copied on it going back years is stored on a hard drive in the copier. The drive is evidently so large in them that they can store over …
Continue reading “The Problem of Privacy: God is Watching….And So Are Many Others!”
There was an interesting debate segment today on Fox News on the topic of Corporal Punishment, or “paddling.” You can see the debate, hosted by Megyn Kelly at the bottom of this post. (cf also Washington Post article). Not having been born yesterday I realize that the concept of spanking children is controversial to say …
Continue reading “On Prudential Judgment and the Question of Corporal Punishment”
The first reading from today’s Mass is an extraordinary moral tale from the Book of Daniel. It is the story of Susanna. The full passage (which is quite lengthy) can be found here: Daniel 13:1-62. Interestingly it is missing from Protestant Bibles which use a truncated version of the Book of Daniel. It features the …
Early in my priesthood I began to feel a bit embarrassed that there were certain things I did not know more thoroughly and had not committed to memory. Among these things were the Seven Deadly Sins, and the Seven Gift of the Holy Spirit. Priests are like doctors. Imagine going to a doctor who was …
Continue reading “The Seven Deadly Sins: Memorize and Understand Them”