My thoughts are full of the recent wedding of my son. There is a great deal involved leading up to this major event: the prayerful choice of a vocation, the months of courtship, the endless details, the physical and emotional … Continue reading
Category: Catholic Living
Be an Apostle, and How
In Ad Rem 89, I promised some thoughts on winning converts. Specifically, I said I would answer this question: “How do you tell someone he needs to convert without sounding rude or judgmental, or just turning him off?” Now I … Continue reading
The Gift of Bread
Last Sunday, the Gospel was from the Sixth Sunday after Epiphany, transferred on this year’s liturgical calendar to this time just before Advent. Saint Matthew provides us with the vivid image of Our Lord as Teacher, using richly textured parables, … Continue reading
Metropolitan Andrew Sheptytsky to the Youth
(Webmaster’s Note: We are indebted to the Ukrainian Catholic daily, The New Star, of Chicago, for the following inspirational excerpt.) Throughout his life Metropolitan Andrew Sheptytsky was a friend to Ukrainian youth.
The Pilgrimage for Restoration: In the Footsteps of the Martyrs
In his Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer presents a series of charming stories told by his colorful medieval characters. These holy and not-so-holy fourteenth-century pilgrims were on their merry way to the shrine of St. Thomas á Becket, long before the … Continue reading
An Alternative American Culture III
Having stated the errors we hope to avoid and the goals we hope to accomplish, I would like to point out some good American traditions and cultural achievements upon which we hope to build. The categories I have chosen are … Continue reading
An Alternative American Culture I
Mental pictures can help in illustrating an important point. The reader will excuse me, I hope, if I begin with a mental picture that is not the most pleasant.
The Mystery of the Moral Virtues
In modern theology, biblical criticism, and other sacred sciences, articles are often entitled, “The Problem of X,” or “The X Problem,” as in “The Problem of Free Will” or “The Synoptic Problem.” Modern folk have the bad habit of looking … Continue reading
Where Have the Real Men Gone?
I had occasion recently to be on a college campus. Approaching my appointed destination, I was greeted by a crowd of demonstrators, who happened to be protesting against the event I was attending (that event is a story for another … Continue reading
Epiphany Octave
The Feast of the Epiphany, which the Church celebrated yesterday, formerly had an octave. Although the octave was suppressed in the 1962 Rite, even the rubrics promulgated in that year still recognize the “ghost” of the octave, inasmuch as certain … Continue reading
Christmas and the Catholic Thing
The Roman statesman Cato the Elder (234-149 BC) gave us the pithy Latin proverb rem tene verba sequentur, “grasp the thing and the words will follow.” The lesson is this: once you sufficiently grasp the concept you wish to speak … Continue reading
The Joy of Being Catholic
The idea that the life of a Catholic, even on the natural level, should be markedly different from the life of, say, an Episcopalian, or a Jew, or a Buddhist, is not so readily apparent as some might assume. The … Continue reading
Concerning Palantíri and Blogses: Technology without Grace
A recent news story from the Los Angeles Times tells of a multi-level tragedy that reveals once again the the depravity of fallen human nature in its technologically-enhanced destructive ugliness. In brief, a teenage girl who was subject to depression … Continue reading
The Shire, not the Borg
Recently, on two separate occasions, I discussed our apostolate with a couple of members of the media. One had something of a grasp of our community’s purpose. The other was far less aware and seemed swayed by some of the … Continue reading
Saints X and Y
Below is a little talk I gave this morning to our school students (most of whom are little), who are accustomed to hearing a few minutes’ meditation about the saint of the day before each Mass. Since today is a … Continue reading
