I am grateful to him who has strengthened me, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he considered me trustworthy in appointing me to the ministry. Once I was a blasphemer and a persecutor of the Church, an arrogant man. But I have I have been treated mercifully because I acted out of ignorance in my unbelief. […]
One of my friends at the University of Washington was Milt Gordon (God rest his soul). Milt was a real scientist, and Chairman of the University’s Department of Microbiology. After I had left academia, Milt did some successful work (not just theory or studies) in plant genetics. Trapping Milt Gordon One evening, as Milt and […]
One of the most famous stories from the Bible is that of “The Prodigal Son,” a tale that has resonated with parents across times and cultures. The basic plot of the story is straightforward: a rebellious youth sets off from home in search of worldly pleasures, and having wasted his father’s money and reputation, eventually […]
“We are a growing Church, and each year around 1000 people find their way to the Faith.” This was the report of a bishop from India during a visit to international Catholic pastoral charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). Bishop Cyprian Monis, from the Diocese of Asansol in West Bengal, on the eastern […]
Chapter 4 Mary’s Immaculate Conception In the Constitution Ineffabilis Deus of 8 December, 1854, Pope Pius IX declared that the Blessed Virgin Mary “in the first instance of her conception, by a singular privilege and grace granted by God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved […]
As you know, East Africa is in the grip of a horrible drought. We have all seen images of the hungry and malnourished arriving in refugee camps, many after walking for weeks or months, surviving not only the bleak landscape but also bandits and even wild animals. The perseverance of these people, of mothers sacrificing […]
Not too long ago I came across a news piece on the mission of Barbara Harris, a woman who started a group called Project Prevention which offers $300 cash to drug addicts if they agree to get on “long term” birth control. According to their most recent statistics, they have paid 3,848 addicts, with tubal […]
I used to think that God’s law was like those dumb rules we had to put up with in grammar school, like “Thou shalt not chew gum in class.” They are arbitrary laws that bureaucrats came up with to keep them happy and the rest of us miserable. The goal of students is to break […]
The Epistle of Saint Jude is the final letter in the New Testament before the Apocalypse and one of the shortest books in the Bible. Only once does a selection from Jude appear in the lectionary, on the eight Saturday of Ordinary Time in Year II but the brevity and obscurity of the letter is […]
If you missed Part One of this interview with the Canons Regular of St. Augustine, you can find it here . In Part Two, the Canons talk about their return to the U.S. and how you can support their mission. Q: Did you think you’d ever come back to serve a parish in the U.S? […]
A couple of years ago, a pastor asked me to provide a catechetical training day for teachers in his Catholic school and CCD program. One of my first questions to him was what issues had developed that required my assistance. The Pastor voiced to me his concern over poor doctrinal formation he suspected the children […]
The Canons Regular of St. Augustine, a group of priests who live in community and serve parishes, recently landed in Long Island, New York. Their blend of community life and diocesan ministry is ancient, but a first for the U.S. The Order’s new American foundation, the Canonry of St. Leopold, offers fresh possibilities for U.S. […]
Our family didn’t make it to an amusement park this summer, but when I was a kid, summer always meant two things: a trip to King’s Island and a new pair of shoes. My dad’s company had a company picnic every year in June, and from the time I was about 6, that picnic took […]
Jesus declared to the pharisees, “The kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21). This enigmatic saying challenges what Father Stephen Freemancalls “two-storey Christianity,” which views the Creator as radically separated from His creation. Two-storey Christianity is responsible for the fixation on “getting to heaven,” so commonplace among modern western believers. In contradistinction, the Gospel […]
Christians in Orissa, who suffered the worst persecution in India in modern times, have continued to be targeted and harassed in 2011, according to a new report. Three years after the series of attacks on Christians beginning in August 2008 – which saw 18,000 injured, 50,000 displaced and perhaps up to 500 killed after 4,104 […]
Chapter 3 Mary, the New Eve When Adam and his wife were expelled from Paradise, Adam gave her the name Eve (mother) “because she was the mother of all living” (Genesis 3, 20). In 1 Corinthians 15, 22 St. Paul teaches us: “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be […]
Truth in advertizing — after all the glowing reports of the benefits of a product, potential side effects need to be mentioned. Informed consent — before surgery, patients have to be told of all the things that could possibly go wrong. That way, they have the chance to opt out before it’s too late. As […]
The disciple Ananias hurried along the Via Recta through Damascus to the house of a man named Judas, a leading synagogue member. The door opened and the occupant admitted Ananias and then led him through a hallway to a room at the back of the house where he found a young man rapt in prayer. […]
A man I know was sitting on a boardwalk bench several weeks ago watching the ocean and thinking about nothing special. Two young men, maybe 18 or 20, came up and sat down beside him. The one nearest him leaned over and said: “Excuse me, sir, do you mind if I ask you a question?” […]
Rosaries and medals blessed by Pope John Paul II were given to young Catholics from persecuted countries at World Youth Day. Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), which held an exhibition about Christian persecution as part of World Youth Day’s cultural program in Madrid, gave the blessed objects to visitors to the […]
Chapter 2 Mary, the Ark of the New Covenant The meaning of Sacred Scripture has been placed there by the Holy Spirit. This has been done in such way that we will never be able to plumb the depths of wisdom that can be found in the Bible. With the eyes of faith we are […]
If we were to really take an honest look at our lives, we would probably be struck by how far we still have to go in the spiritual life. For one seeking to grow spiritually there is no such thing as good enough. No matter how good others think we are we will always see that we still […]
When Saint Paul met Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus he was about thirty years old. Paul was the son, as he testified in his own letters, of a Pharisee, who also was the son of a Pharisee. Circumcised eight days after his birth according to the Law of Moses, Paul came from a […]
There is a well-known story about a young man throwing starfish out into the ocean. An older man walked by and asked him what he was doing. The young man replied that he was throwing the starfish out into the ocean so that they would not die in the heat of the sun. At that, […]
