Living the Christian faith comes down to these three ways of life: prayer, humility, and obedience. No matter who you are or where you come from, if you truly want to be a committed and faithful Christian: (1) you must spend some serious time engaged in vocal prayer (both privately and with the community in […]
As persons and as a Church we have been challenged during the Year of Faith to reach deep within ourselves to truly know, understand, and live the reality that God is a Most Holy Trinity, that God chose to become incarnate so that we would know Him in the most intimate ways possible, and that […]
Halloween is the only time of year when adults take seriously the idea of spending a night in public as someone or something different. Whatever their reasons (e.g. cultural tradition, social engagement, etc.), they seem to revel in stalking the streets in costumes and cosmetics that they wouldn’t normally where in order to score some […]
No matter how hard we seem to try, we cannot avoid silence altogether. We are obliged, for example, to deal with the natural silence that comes with sleep, sickness, death, and sorrow. We also find ourselves dealing with moments of everyday silence that come right after waking up, during the morning commute, on a lunch […]
Faith is not only the gift that enables us to know God intimately, but also the gift that enables us to act on that which we have come to believe and to understand. In other words, “faith is choosing to stand with the Lord so as to live with him” (Porta Fidei, #10). This is […]
God is generous beyond our imagination: not only in the general sense of creating the universe, giving us life, and offering us the gift of faith, but also in the specific sense of making specific promises to specific people. To understand this, just look at the following passage from the Old Testament. You shall therefore […]
There is a well-known, extremely important, and sacredly joyous phrase from the tenth chapter of The Holy Gospel According to St. Luke, which is to be read at liturgy today. After this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself […]
As I continually read, watch, and listen to the multitudinous stories of the atrocities committed against Christians around the world these days, I have repeatedly found myself meditating deeply and frequently about Christian identity, Christian unity, persecution, and martyrdom. In the midst of such a reflection, I also find that I am asking God if […]
Throughout this Year of Faith we have been looking primarily at what individuals and communities can do to spark a more sincere approach to the faith. We have written and talked a lot about helping ourselves and others commit to regular church attendance, catechetical growth, and finding ways to serve others in such a way […]
The lesson of Dostoyevsky’s works can be summed up like this: It is the Cross that focuses the human condition in all its bitterness and all its horror, and it is the Resurrection that proclaims the final response of God; His promise of freedom from sin, the overcoming of death, and abundant life at last. […]
Far too frequently we look around our lives and find so much going so wrong. Sometimes we know what we can do about our problems, and sometimes we don’t. But that’s where faith comes in. Here’s what I mean: The sixth century before Christ was a time of tremendous pain for the Israelites. The Temple […]
When was the last time any of us stood on a street corner or walked into a room filled with people and passionately proclaimed: “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand!” (Matthew 3:2)? The truth is that most of us never have or ever will. But these words, preached by St. John the […]
Throughout this Year of Faith it has become abundantly clear how important it is for each of us to live and to pray like Mary. Why? In the introduction to his October 1954 encyclical titled Ad Caeli Reginam, Pope Pius XII explains it this way: From the earliest ages of the catholic church a Christian […]
Today is the Feast of the Assumption in the Roman Catholic Church, as well as the Dormition of the Theotokos (the falling asleep of the Mother of God) in the Eastern Catholic and Orthodox Churches. Much of the talk about the feast today will be centered on the theology and meaning of Mary’s bodily assumption […]
Faith leads us into prayer and prayer leads us into God. When the Holy Spirit descends upon us in baptism and confirmation the light of faith is turned on within us. It is renewed and brightened every time we are present for the epiclesis in Liturgy, share in the Eucharist, and sincerely seek God in […]
We all know evil exists. But we also know it’s not some far off truth that doesn’t touch our lives. We’ve seen it in people we don’t know and people we don’t want to know. We’ve seen it in people we work with and go to school with and live near. We’ve seen it in […]
Faith is a gift that is lived out in the material realm. That is why the Church has always said that faith can flower simply by opening our eyes and our ears. If we only try, we can see God in the face of Jesus Christ; we can see Him in the Eucharist, in religious […]
The world is in disarray in large part because we have become a civilization of idol worshippers. The never-ending pursuit of more money, better homes, everlasting leisure, career advancement, political dominance, greater celebrity, religious indifference, and a lack of a clear Christian identity are clouding our ability to sit in the silence where we can […]
In the same way that Eucharist is the conjoining of the past, present and future, personal prayer is a present participation in the time to come. It is a glimpse of the Eschaton and an entry into the kingdom which has been inaugurated but not yet consummated. Prayer unfolds in time, but essentially it transcends […]
Inevitably forced to descend from the sacramental rampart that stands between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of man, the true believer finds himself beset with the indifference, isolation and ignorance born of the neo-pagan rejection of God and His Church. In understanding and anticipating what the true believer would need to survive in […]
Far too often man seeks God in prayer merely to improve his future standing with the kingdom of heaven or in the present kingdom of man. Recognizing his own sins, man seeks forgiveness from God in order to regain God’s favor. Continually afflicted as he is by the wretchedness in others, man seeks God’s help […]
Prayer is the intimate communication between God and His creation. It is the language of heaven gifted to the kingdom of man. It is the word made flesh for our minds and hearts. It is our calling. It is our passion. It is our pain. While in the kingdom of man, the true believer innately […]
Laboring in the desert of the kingdom of man, the true believer finds himself bent by the weight of sin, stiffened by the pain of sorrow and stained by the sweat of fear. While he knows that God created him out of pure love, redeems Him out of pure mercy and awaits his full return […]
Standing in the liminal space between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of man, the true believer often finds himself wrought by two seemingly conflicting realities. On the one hand he knows he is the creation of the one true God, redeemed by the God-man Jesus who is the Christ, and sanctified by the […]
