I was reading Fr Z’s excellent blog. He said something in this post on one of the prayers of the liturgy about application of Church teaching being specific. If I can see someone I am to love God right there in that person. If I am to do some task I am to love God right there in that task. We are called to love and desire God’s will in concrete situations, in the details of life, especially when those details are little to our liking. We must love God in this beggar, this annoying creep, thisJesuit, not in beggars, creeps, and … Continue reading
Category Archives: Theology
Pluralism is dead. Our country was founded to be a pluralistic society. Sadly, we are now living in a relativistic society that has replaced the belief that truth is objective and can be known, with the belief that it is subjective and everyone is correct even when they hold contradictory beliefs. I also think most Americans, thanks to the public and private school systems, confuse a pluralistic society and a relativistic society. Pluralism= Objective truth exists and this fact is accepted nearly universally. The right to live by truth as you understand it is respected; disagreements are discussed with civility, … Continue reading
The whole concept of submission in marriage has taken on some very non-catholic baggage these days. I think we need to reframe the Catholic teaching on submission in marriage so as to avoid all the negative stuff and get at the heart of a proper Catholic understanding of “wives submit to your husbands…”(Ephesians 5: 21 etc) Replace the language using “submit” with this: “I am my husband’s second, I have his back in the spiritual war we call life.” I chose this because in Catholic teaching men and women are of equal dignity. We are partners, we are part of … Continue reading
Everyone Knows that prayer is essential for spiritual growth. We seek to grow closer to Jesus, to become better conformed to His plan for our lives, and so we incorporate both planned and spontaneous prayer into our days. Prayer routines are as varied as the people who have them. Some pick up the book, CHRISTIAN PRAYER, and pray the psalms for morning and evening prayer. Others use the full multi-volume LITURGY OF THE HOURS and pray some or even all of it. Some pray one or more Rosaries a day, and some spend a daily time reading in the New … Continue reading
Bishop Athanasius Schneider has asked that this letter be shared widely. I respect this man for his wisdom, learning, and orthodoxy so here is the complete text of his letter, found at Catholic World Report, just click to go there: A Prophetic Voice of Four Cardinals of the Holy Roman Catholic Church. Of course, I would like to have pasted the entire letter here, but for some odd reason I cannot cut and paste from the document I downloaded. Very odd, clearly I am missing some detail of technological skill. If the letter appears here, then I learned something new! … Continue reading
Hating on the Rosary makes the people who do it look foolish and ignorant. Even more ridiculous, they claim the Bible as their justification for speaking out against the Rosary. I think my readers are better than that and if they do not already know the awesomeness of the Rosary they are at least open to knowing what it is and why they should not hate on it. For those who don’t know: The Rosary is a structured meditation on the GOSPELS. The 20 meditations taken from Scripture. The pattern of prayers, the contents of which are also Gospel based, … Continue reading
FOR GOD AND PROFIT is a small book, written by Samuel Gregg, and subtitled, HOW BANKING AND FINANCE CAN SERVE THE COMMON GOOD. The forward is written by George Cardinal Pell. I am simply loving this book. Quotes of Popes and Church Fathers, a clear understanding of our economic system, and written in a way that our High School age students will be able to benefit in their understanding of our economy and how their decisions can influence it so it serves the common good. FINALLY a Catholic book on Finance that actually uses all the documents of the Church … Continue reading
Guess what people? I consider ABORTION=MURDER. There, I have said it. I am against the murder of a baby for any reason. No argument has ever been made that will sway me. No argument has ever been made that would make keeping it legal OK with me. Those, like the Democratic candidate for president, who are in favor of abortion through all 9 months gestation, are in favor of murdering viable full-term babies. If you vote for such a person you are helping to promote that agenda. Turn your back on me–I do not care. If you can stomach voting … Continue reading
I have heard it said that the Catholic and the Orthodox are two different churches but I don’t buy that. There may be a fissure in the full unity, but they are not two different Churches. I believe this because after all these hundreds of years the Holy Spirit has preserved orthodoxy in the whole. Oh there is a fissure, made by man, maintained by man, but the guardianship of the Holy Spirit is evidence to me that both are part of God’s one Church. God has one Church (visit the Bible to read up on this). You can recognize … Continue reading
TERESA OF AVILA:(1515-1582) Institute for Carmelite Studies Publications I recommend: THE COLLECTED WORKS OF ST. TERESA OF AVILA, Vol. 1: Book of Her Life & Interior Castle, Vol. 2: The Way of Perfection, Vol. 3: Foundations, and COLLECTED LETTERS OF ST. TERESA OF AVILA: Vol.1 and Vol. 2. The Study Editions are good too but I prefer the basic collection for reading without a pre-conceived opinion. I suggest beginning with the Book of Her Life, and then reading the Collected Letters 1 & 2 to focus on a woman religious’ view of her life and world. She was quite familiar … Continue reading