Countless articles, memoirs and studies explore why so many marriages in our society deteriorate and ultimately fail. Just recently, a blog post at USA TODAY by Anthony D’Ambrosio gained attention for identifying the top five reasons that marriages don’t work: intimacy issues, financial strife, failure to truly connect, desire for attention, and an obsession with […]
Pope Francis continued his catechesis on the family on Wednesday in his general audience by explaining the central aspect of the family:” that of the great gift that God made to humanity with the creation of man and woman and with the Sacrament of Marriage. This catechesis and the next are concerned with the difference […]
Jesus Christ didn’t save us with an idea, with an intellectual program, no. He saved us with his flesh, with the concreteness of the flesh.” -Pope Francis This quote from Pope Francis slipped across my screen as I was scrolling through my Facebook news feed. I didn’t slow down as I was looking for something […]
Reality TV about five young women discerning their vocation at three different convents? How could this be the proper vehicle? Won’t the cameras interfere with or even hamstring this very personal and intimate process? Will it “work”? When I heard that such an animal was coming down the pike, I had great apprehension, even when […]
When John Paul II used his first years as pope forming the Theology of the Body, he meant it as a springboard for further reflection by theologians. In Theology of the Body, Extended: the Spiritual Signs of Birth, Impairment, and Dying, Susan Windley-Daoust takes that invitation and runs with it. John Paul II focused on […]
Sister Jane Dominic Laurel, a Dominican nun who has recently come under fire for a presentation she made to a group of Catholic students in North Carolina, has been doing the same type of presentation for years. Her subject matter is Catholic teaching on the truth about human sexuality—popularized by Pope John Paul II as […]
Nebraska–the latest offering from director Alexander Payne (Sideways, The Descendants)–is more of Payne’s unblinking look at the difficulty of human relationships and relatedness. Reminiscent of David Fincher’s The Straight Story, Nebraska is in the road trip film genre, a physical journey of an old man (an unbelievable performance by Bruce Dern) trying to set things […]
When I first heard about the subject matter of Don Jon, a new film written by, directed by, and starring child-star-turned-very-successful-adult-star, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, I was thrilled. Gordon-Levitt was taking on porn addiction! Astoundingly, the very existence of porn addiction is often considered “controversial,” and is questioned as a true malady. Then I saw that Don […]
A founding principle of the Knights of Columbus was to help men protect their families from financial ruin should disaster strike the husband and father. As the son of a woman who was widowed with four children ages 5-15, and a member of the Order, I support this work. Yet a husband’s job goes far […]
Which woman has the perfect body? Unquestionably, it’s the Blessed Virgin Mary. She is “the masterpiece of embodied creaturely existence,” according to Donald Calloway’s The Virgin Mary and the Theology of the Body. This idea is logical, but it sounds strange to us. What most people mean when they talk about a perfect body is […]
Polls show that most young people today, even those who identify themselves as Christians, have no problem with “same-sex marriage.” If young people today are at all aware of what the Catholic Church teaches about marriage and human sexuality, what they think they know is often only a caricature of the truth. They see it as […]
How do you present Theology of the Body in a novel that people will not only like, but want to share and passionately recommend? You couldn’t have convinced me that it could be done well until I read the debut novel by AnnMarie Creedon. Angela’s Song is a novel that I should probably categorize as chick […]
A while back, we began a 4-part exploration of the four marks of God’s love (Free, Total, Faithful, Fruitful) as explained in Humanae Vitae, and, for me anyway, it has been a good experience. We’ve explored the true fulfillment of hippy love. We’ve brushed up on our Latin and, consequently, our swag. We’ve even taken […]
In an attempt to stay plugged in to American culture while I live overseas for 16 months, I have regularly acquainted myself with the Billboard Top 40. Not surprisingly, in reflecting on the love proposed by Humanae Vitae, the concept of faithfulness is glaringly absent from mainstream media and culture. Not that freedom, totality, and […]
If we look at the four components of God’s love for us (free, total, faithful, fruitful) and compare God’s love to marital love, we can discover how to live the Sacrament of marriage as the ultimate expression of spousal love. Free: We need to be able love our spouse freely. If we ask for conditions, […]
At the Heart of the Gospel, the new book by Christopher West, is the fruit of West’s sabbatical from speaking after controversy broke following a television interview. West’s new book is primarily two things. First, it’s a summary of the main points of West’s lectures and writings over the years. West takes a deep breath, […]
Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth—for your love is more delightful than wine. Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfumes; your name is like perfume poured out. No wonder the young women love you! Take me away with you—let us hurry! Let the king bring me into his chambers. (Song of […]
There are many programs currently on cable dedicated to the issue of hoarding. For those of you who are unaware of what hoarding is, let me try and explain. Hoarding is the collecting and or keeping of possessions. The common word would be “stuff”. The “stuff” that hoarders keep is piled up so high that, […]
Congressman Anthony Weiner, who last week apologized for his reprehensible behavior, has now resigned from the House of Representatives. I have only a few things to say about this whole fiasco. First and foremost as a society we have lost our understanding of how wonderful shame can be. What? Shame is a good thing? Yes, […]
This week I’ve been reading Christopher West’s Heaven’s Song, an unforgettable reflection on marriage as a metaphor for the perfect union God longs to have with us. When I reached a section called “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Becoming ‘One Flesh,” I was so struck by the boldfaced truth of one passage, I had […]
Take one quick look at the culture and it is easy to see that marriage is in big trouble. There’s a very high divorce rate (somewhere near half of all marriages in America end in divorce), and that rate is improving only because many people are deciding to skip it altogether and simply cohabitate. There […]
A popular speaker on theology of the body once received an enthusiastic comment from a fan: “Gosh, I really love your talk on the hygiene of women.” It only took him a moment to realize what she meant to say: “I really love your talk on the genius of women.” While the hygiene of women […]
