A particular “hot-button” issue facing contemporary American culture concerns homosexuality and the Catholic Church. The general position of the Catholic Church on homosexuality is fairly well-known: homosexual acts are a sin and the inclination to these acts is intrinsically disordered. Despite the above formulation, many people do not understand why the Church has taken the […]
Having offered my initial response to the election of 2012, I promised a more positive column, and that promise is easy to fulfill—Christ is risen, and faith in him is stronger than death. Although I missed living in the 1950’s by a hair’s breadth, that decades’s culture was long celebrated in movies, books, and music. […]
“Absolute power,” Lord Acton wrote, “corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.” Good and bad can be a matter of degree, something that can be adjusted like the volume dial on a radio. If power is relative then that it means different things to different people, and its abuse becomes a matter […]
No family really lives a Norman Rockwell Thanksgiving. Life is easier once you accept that. Then the unbearable happens. We lose someone in our family’s holiday portrait. The first year is the hardest. The bigger the presence, the bigger the gap. Sometimes at that first holiday we feel as though we will never laugh again. Joy […]
For Part I of this series, go here; for Part II, here; for Part III, here. This is the final installment. “And nothing you can say or do will stop me, And a thousand dead friends can’t stop me…” –Mountain Goats, “All Up the Seething Coast” Dan Barden, author of the excellent noir tragicomedy The Next Right […]
“As for me and my household, we shall serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15 “What does it mean to be a holy family?” I asked my second grade First Communion class. Most of the eager young hands in the room went up. “Be nice.” “Obey your parents.” “Do the 10 Commandments.” “Pray.” “Good answers,” I encouraged […]
Meditation and Questions for Reflection or Group Discussion (Daniel 7:13-14; Psalm 93:1-2,5; Revelation 1:5-8; John 18:33-37) Jesus Christ, King Over All Creation and Our King “Are you the King of the Jews?” (John 18:33) In honor of this great feast, let’s take some time to dwell on what it means that Jesus is King of […]
“Anyone who is so ‘progressive’ as not to remain in the teaching of the Christ does not have God” (2 John 9). Saint John the Apostle wrote of progressivism in his second letter 1,900 years ago. He directed his argument to the “lady elect and her children,” that is, to the community of believers who […]
Got prayer? We don’t always make time for it as we should, but as with all good habits, real change and real growth in the spiritual life comes with practice. Here are six simple practices that will increase your prayer time. Don’t attempt them all. Do the one or two that appeal to you, and […]
What comes to your mind when you hear the familiar Bible passage from Luke 2:8-10, where the angels appear to the shepherds to proclaim the birth of a savior and His peace? Do you picture cute, little, cherub-faced boys and girls? Do you imagine shepherds that look like those sappy Precious Moments figurines you see […]
In the days following last week’s U.S. presidential election, a staggering amount of analysis has focused on Republican messaging, demographics and core constituencies — so much so that the fundamental point has been missed entirely. If the Second Coming of Obama is evidence of anything, it is the godlessness of our nation, the majority of […]
“Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple…So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.” […]
Meditation and Questions for Reflection or Group Discussion (Daniel 12:1-3; Psalm 16:5,8-11; Hebrews 10:11-14,18; Mark 13:24-32) Preparing for Jesus Second Coming: Live Each Day As If It Were Your Last “Of that day or hour, no one knows.” (Mark 13:32) Let’s take a short quiz. The first question is a general one: what goals do […]
Suddenly the world isn’t what it used to be. You notice that the way people talk is overwhelmingly vulgar, because now your ears are accustomed to the sweet song of Christ. When the Lord’s name is taken in vain, you wince, or feel a pang in your heart. When the Blessed Virgin is treated as […]
“You know what I’m most scared of, Mom?” Last week, Christopher snuggled up to me as we savored our all-too-short time together. “The riots. The kids at school said there’s going to be rioting if Obama doesn’t win.” I considered this a moment. My first instinct was to reassure him, to tell him it was […]
What is one activity that every family should do together daily? No matter how functional or dysfunctional a family is, this activity will make things better. Answer: Pray together. Holy Family Prayer Book, Prayers for Every Family by the Missionaries of the Holy Family is a simple yet practical book. Rather than overwhelming one with […]
It’s busy season for debates over the role of women in Christianity. First, there was the so-called “war on nuns,” the high-profile skirmish between the Vatican and the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. Then followed Harvard divinity professor Karen King’s revelation of a now widely discredited papyrus suggesting that Jesus had a wife. Now comes […]
Almost two thousand years ago, the Roman historian Livy assessed the situation in Rome by noting, “We can bear neither our vices nor the remedies.” This comment was highlighted recently on the blog of a well-known priest, who saw similarities between the decline of Rome and the current state of affairs in the United States. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
I’ll never forget that bleak January day when my father died. It was very hard to believe in the resurrection as I watched the undertakers carry away his lifeless corpse in a body bag. But imagine this scene. You are an unborn child who has lived in cozy but cramped quarters with your twin for […]
