It’s hard to believe but Advent is right around the corner. Are you searching for a meaningful Advent practice to bring more faith and spiritual growth into this busiest of seasons? O Radiant Dawn: 5-Minute Prayers Around the Advent Wreath (Ave Maria Press, 2012) may be just what you are looking for. Lisa Hendey, founder […]
Noted animal rights philosopher Peter Singer recently delivered an address to students at the Stevens Institute on the topic of “Ethics and the Election.” He was discussing the American elections while speaking to an Australian audience, and what he had to say is of interest on several levels. As a defender of universal healthcare, Singer […]
I was working at Ave Maria University in Florida when a new sculpture of the Annunciation had just been commissioned. I witnessed a massive block of marble transformed into the engaging face of the Blessed Virgin. It would be fascinating to watch a beautiful creation emerge from a cold chunk of stone, I thought. I had always admired artistic inventiveness. With the addition of a spiritual subject, I expected […]
Tom and Barbara came to my office seeking help for their teenage son, who was caught viewing online pornography. Though they continuously monitored the home computer, they were shocked to discover that he had been viewing pornography downloaded onto his Kindle. He and his friends had also been viewing porn on their Playstation system. Tom […]
Answer: More of the Same President Barack Obama has compiled quite a record of abortion advocacy and funding since taking office in January 2009. Let’s review it, issue by issue. Supported Sex-Selection Abortion: In May, 2012, the White House announced President Obama’s opposition to a bill that would ban the use of abortion to kill […]
Timing is everything in politics. For four years, I angered conservatives by insisting Barack Obama would get reelected. I figured that an electorate willing to elect a man with ideas and a record that far to the left in 2008 would do so again. I began changing my view, however, after the first presidential debate. […]
Promises bishops will continue to work to defend life, marriage, religious freedom Urges President to work for most vulnerable, including unborn, poor, immigrants Asks for restoration of civility to the public order Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, congratulated President Barack Obama, November 7, the day after […]
Could failure to follow God’s commands be robbing your family of grace? God not only became one of us, but he was born into a family with parents: Our Blessed Mother Mary, and a father, St. Joseph. There’s no escaping the message that families are intended to be holy places for children to grow […]
First published October 12, 2012 at dailycaller.com. A few months ago, a new group launched called “Young Conservatives for the Freedom to Marry.” This is a group sponsored by a larger organization called “Freedom to Marry.” The objective of these groups is to promote gay marriage. These young conservatives have been beguiled by leftist language, […]
An Early Harvest I hope you and your little winter garden stay safe in this freak fall storm. Have you secured your dented watering cans in the graying wooden shed? The little shed with a patched tin roof. I’ll bet you squeezed the wheelbarrow, Still filled with mulch, Between the push mower and solid, yet […]
Someone should take a poll asking Americans how they feel about polling. I’m pretty sure our shared distaste for it is one thing about which nearly all of us would agree. Of all the polling data released in the week leading up to Tuesday’s election, the one that struck me as most revealing came from […]
File this one under rank hypocrisy. By Baptist Press, Wed, October 24, 2012 WASHINGTON (BP) — Planned Parenthood, the nation’s leading abortion provider, has spent $12 million on this year’s presidential election through its political action committees. That is more than it has ever spent in an election, and about half of it has gone for […]
My parish in northern Virginia has [been engaged in] 55 hours of continuous Eucharistic Adoration and Prayer-including Benediction — “in anticipation of the General Election,” [starting] Sunday, November 4, ending today, Election Day, about the time the polls will close. Catholics never, never endorse any candidate from the pulpit as happens in some Protestant churches. Yet, […]
Meditation and Questions for Reflection or Group Discussion (1 Kings 17:10-16; Psalm 146:7-10; Hebrews 9:24-28; Mark 12:38-44) The Extravagant Love of God “This poor widow put in more than all the other contributors.” (Mark 12:43) Today’s readings give us two illustrations of extravagant love. First, we have the widow who cared for Elijah, and in […]
When Election Day arrives, so do the traps that come with it. In my previous column I examined four of them, and here I present five more. Be sure you avoid these pitfalls, and help others avoid them, too! 5. I’ll show them! — using the election to vent our anger. Sometimes individuals or groups […]
Homosexual advocates never want to make the debate about homosexual rights overseas strictly about violence against homosexuals. Oh, they say they do. They insist that they do. But do they really? They flat out deny that their advocacy for homosexual rights overseas has anything to do with marriage, adoption, or any thing other than violence […]
The highest-grossing movie of all time, Avatar,features a giant willow-like tree that represents the center of culture and religion for the Na’vi inhabitants of the planet Pandora. The tree has extreme spiritual significance because it allows the Na’vi to communicate directly with their Mother Goddess, Eywa. It also allows them to connect at the same […]
(Warning: The following contains disturbing information of a sexual nature.) My strength is as the strength of ten, because my heart is pure. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson My dear friend and colleague Dr. Judith Reisman, a visiting law professor at Liberty University School of Law, recently guest lectured during “Sexual Behavior and the Law,” a […]
On the 6th of November, citizens of Massachusetts will face a critical vote. The choice people make on Question 2 is a choice that literally involves a life or death decision. The so-called “Death with Dignity Act” brings with it a dark deception. The citizens of Massachusetts are being asked to vote for or against the […]
This week I’ve been reading about the “back stories” of the saints. It can be easy, sometimes, to think of holy people in two-dimensional, sanitized terms. Earthbound angels who floated through life, never contradicting, never offending . . . warm and appealing and endlessly agreeable. Yet “niceness” is not a theological virtue, and those who […]
Author Janette Oke’s characters come to life again, in Love’s Christmas Journey. I remember that when I found out that my local library had The Love Comes Softly Series, I quickly began reading all of them. They are wonderful books that provide not only enjoyment, but also present people responding to the ups and downs […]
On October 31, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI observed the 500th anniversary of the Sistine Chapel by offering a prayer—celebrating Vespers beneath Michelangelo’s famed frescoes of biblical stories including, most famously, the Creation of Adam. The Holy Father called the chapel a “liturgical classroom,” explaining that “It is as if during the liturgical action, the entire […]
Today is no particular feast on the ordinary calendar [ferial day]. However harkening back to Sept 15th seems appropriate in light of yesterday’s disaster. Our Lady of Sorrows (Latin: Beata Maria Virgo Perdolens), the Sorrowful Mother or Mother of Sorrows (Latin: Mater Dolorosa, at times just Dolorosa), and Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows or […]
