VOLUNTARY CHARITY IS THE WAY GOD MEANS FOR MAN TO CARE FOR THE POOR. “The wealthy should help the poor. Jesus taught that. The Church Fathers taught that long before modern popes wrote encyclicals (just read St. John Chrysostom or St. Augustine of Hippo). But what Jesus, the Acts of the Apostles and the Church Fathers all had in common in this regard is that they were talking about voluntary charity. They were not talking about the state.” <http://wdtprs.com/blog/2012/03/why-a-religious-model-for-the-state-is-not-good/> (boldface my emphasis) I’ve written on this topic on a number of occasions and am delighted to present to you the … Continue reading
Category Archives: Applied Moral Theology
Lent is a part of our Liturgical year set aside for penance. There is a lot out there about the Rules for Lent and Archbishop Chaput did a video on practices proper to Lent. FASTING–giving up some good in order to gain spiritually Minimally: All persons 14 yrs of age or older are bound to abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday, all Fridays of Lent and Good Friday. NOT by replacing it with Lobster or other treat. Going meatless is supposed to be a penance. All persons age 18 or older but not yet 59 yrs old are bound to … Continue reading
Here are some excellent blog posts to add to your reading for Lent. They pertain to current events and may be useful as an aid to developing your own answers for the questions we Catholics get asked about Lent and what it means and the current political battles between the Culture of Life and the Culture of Death. Lent is 40 Days of Spiritual Battle. Fr. Z has a good post on spiritual warfare and prayers for Ash Wednesday. A Current Battle in our secular world is on who has the authority to determine religious practices; specifically, on those issues … Continue reading
Novena for Religious Freedom! I found my way to this delightful blog of novena prayers and decided to join in on this one. Starting on Ash Wednesday, I am joining nearly 10,000 Catholics to pray a Novena for Religious Freedom! With so many faithful Catholics around the world praying this novena, I thought you’d like to join too! This is a special novena because of all that has been going on in the US. But, it is also special because it is focused specifically on praying to Saints who were persecuted or martyred. You can sign up for handy email … Continue reading
BURNING INCENSE BEFORE IDOLS Our fight against the HHS mandate is only the tip of the iceberg. Caesar is determined to force all to bow before his idol. Caesar is determined to claim the authority to define religious belief for all citizens of the United States, first amendment be damned. Clearly, the days of Rome have returned complete with all the evils of abortion and infanticide in addition to the worship of the ruler as a god. CONTRACEPTION AND ABORTION AND THE EARLY CHURCH FATHERS We have a Church that preserves by the power of the Holy Spirit the full … Continue reading
We face a major crisis with our own government ignoring the First Amendment of the Constitution and legislating to religious groups how they must abide by a practice that violates a major tenet of their religion. Here we have an article that I will be blogging around. it is a good article as far as it goes. It lacks some finesse in the history department and lacks some definitions. However, as a starting point for our discussion it is useful. God desires that we live according to His will because we have chosen to do so freely. Free will naturally … Continue reading
There are a lot of people writing about the problems with the HHS mandate. The Bishops conference posted a list of things everyone should know about this mandate. Fr. Z blogged a bit on this HHS mandate and on the new Washington State unnatural marriage bill. Fr. Barron videos on the Anti-Catholic and Un-American HHS mandate. Why I am Catholic has a piece on The HHS Mandate and the Lord of the Rings that is truly marvelous. This battle is bigger than the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America. The Constitution merely enumerates a FEW … Continue reading
The Bishops have spoken out against the birth control and abortion mandate and urged people to take the action of signing a petition. This is a toothless effort. The time for signing petitions is long past. Petitions let people feel good about having done something when in reality they did nothing. What is needed is action with TEETH. Our representatives have voted for bad policies over and over, eroding our God-given freedoms with impunity. Catholics need to respond to these thefts with our VOTES. The incumbents are responsible for this mess– vote them out. Elected officials are failing to serve … Continue reading
Applied Moral Theology is when you take the precepts of moral theology and begin to see how those ideas apply to the modern world. What does moral theology have to do with social media like the internet, twitter, facebook, email, texting, phone calls, etc.? A LOT. We know that we are to place God first in our lives. We also know that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. How does that look in practice? What has that to do with social media? First, putting God first means quiet times to pray, and Mass on Sundays and Holy Days … Continue reading