Plato said that God is thought thinking thought. As Father Leonard Feeney wrote, this is about as close as a philosopher can get to the knowledge of the Holy Trinity with his unaided intellect, and it is a loose approximation … Continue reading
Category: Theology
Science vs. God
Modern man derives much of his sense of himself as master of all he surveys from science and technology in general, but nothing feeds his notion of being the master of life itself more than the new birth technologies. They … Continue reading
Gregory of Nyssa on the Holy Eucharist
Catholic Exchange, Stephen Beale: If the truth of the Eucharist has ever seemed strange to you, that’s because it should. St. Paul said, “We preach Christ crucified, to the Jews indeed a stumbling block, and to the Gentiles foolishness.” The Eucharist … Continue reading
Joseph Ratzinger on the Priesthood and on the Resurrection
In the latter part of 2006, after the April 2005 installation of Joseph Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI, I had occasion to tell a professor friend of mine confidentially that I have always had difficulties reading with understanding the varied … Continue reading
To God’s Image and Likeness
The internal counsels of the Blessed Trinity when He deigned to create man have been mercifully revealed to us in the book of Genesis: “Let us make man to our image and likeness” (1:26). The passage, frequently cited, is not … Continue reading
Saint John Eudes and the Middle Age Controversy Over the Immaculate Conception
I am reading Part One (of three parts) of The Wondrous Childhood of the Most Holy Mother of God by Saint John Eudes. It is a masterpiece of filial devotion to the Mother of God, reflecting on her holy childhood, … Continue reading
Protestantism and the Filioque, a Good Argument
Currently reading and enjoying H J A Sire’s Phoenix from the Ashes, I came upon a passage that presented an argument worth spreading far and wide. It involves the doctrinal incongruity within Protestantism resulting from the so-called “Reformers’” acceptance of … Continue reading
To Honour and be Honoured
Our culture is one that enshrines the dishonorable. In the place of statesmen, we honor stooges and scoundrels; in the place of religious and philosophical truth, moral goodness, and genuine artistic beauty, we exalt overpaid athletes, morally bankrupt Hollywood celebrities, … Continue reading
Testimony of Three Second Century Fathers on Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist
Tom Nash, Catholic Answers: In a recent article that has received a lot of attention online, Protestant apologist Brian Culliton argues that a close reading of the early Church Fathers illustrates they didn’t believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. The … Continue reading
He Descended into Hell
We have entered into the drama of Holy Week. As the events of these days are each momentous, there is too little time, especially during the Triduum, to confront each of them as they are presented to us by Holy … Continue reading
Show Us Thy Face and We Shall Be Saved
The experience is probably a common one. You find yourself out in public and see a person from the back or side and say to yourself, “Hey, that’s Mike! (or Sarah, Ted, Mary, etc.),” only to discover when the person … Continue reading
CDF’s Archbishop Luis F. Ladaria: ‘Salvation in the Church, Body of Christ’
From…. CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH Letter Placuit Deo To the Bishops of the Catholic Church On Certain Aspects of Christian Salvation V. Salvation in the Church, Body of Christ 12. The place where we receive the salvation brought … Continue reading
Is Jesus Really Our Friend?
There is a popular old Protestant hymn by Charles Crozat Converse that readers may have heard: “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.” The hymn dates from 1868, but the words were borrowed from an 1855 poem called “Pray Without … Continue reading
The Jewish Nation will Enter the Church
Though it is not a defined dogma, the future conversion of the Jewish nation to the Faith is a common teaching of the Fathers and Doctors, inferred directly from Holy Scripture. This mass conversion (which need not be absolutely total) … Continue reading
Abandonment of the Holy Eucharist Is the Cause of Loss of Faith in Incarnation
Catholic Culture, Father James V. Schall: The first lines of Belloc’s 1936 book, The Characters of the Reformation, are these: “The break-up of united western Christendom with the coming of the Reformation was by far the most important thing in history … Continue reading
