What is faith? The Baltimore Catechism gives a very simple definition of faith as the first of the three theological virtues: “Faith is a Divine virtue by which we firmly believe the truths which God has revealed on the authority … Continue reading
Category: Theology
The Synod is Over
The 2015 Synod of Bishops has concluded. Now begins the process of studying, understanding, implementing, or resisting the various provisions of its final document. Much of this will be in the form of “spin.” Modernists will cheer. “Conservatives” will defend the … Continue reading
Why Is Total Consecration the Remedy to Our Ills?
The following is an excerpt from my recent conference talk. I am probably not alone — I hope I am not — in considering much of devotional literature a bit tiresome when it presents one or another special devotion as if … Continue reading
The Challenge of Tradition
Tradition as Challenge is the title of Josef Pieper’s recently published and long awaited English translation of Tradition als Herausforderung — his deeply reflective and engagingly varied book of collected essays and speeches first published as a whole in Munich, … Continue reading
Noah’s Ark and Peter’s Bark
In this number of the Ad Rem, I wish to consider the interesting and dogmatically significant subject of Ark-Church typology. In order to do so, I am going to excerpt from two other pieces — one written by Brother Thomas … Continue reading
‘Lead Us Not Into Temptation’ — What Does This Mean?
And lead us not into temptation… Have you ever wondered about this petition in the Lord’s Prayer? What exactly are we asking of God our Father? This petition of the Our Father must be taken in conjunction with the next, … Continue reading
Auxiliary Bishop Elect of LA Prefers Rahner and Von Balthasar to Doctors of the Church
CNA December 2012: Dr. Ralph Martin, Professor of Systematic Theology at Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit, has written an important book titled “Will Many Be Saved?” The text received a good deal of attention at the recent synod on the New … Continue reading
The Apostles Creed
The feast day of Saint Thomas the Apostle on the traditional Roman calendar is December 21. In the new calendar it is July 3, so I took the liberty of giving him honor on this day too. Saint Jerome had … Continue reading
The Father, an Appreciation
The First Person of the Holy Trinity gets shabby treatment. I say that without any irony whatsoever. God the Father gets shabby treatment in His Person, in His works, by the disregarding of His Law, and by the current, widespread … Continue reading
To Be the Handmaid of the Handmaid of the Lord
“What manner of salutation is this”? Luke 1:29) Our Lady, with wonderful modesty and humility, related today’s event to the Evangelist, Saint Luke. The account is so chaste, so simple, so childlike. We begin with an angel, Gabriel the Archangel. … Continue reading
The Twenty-One Slain Copts: Martyrs?
The savage infidels who call themselves ISIL have added to their brutal crimes recently by simultaneously beheading twenty-one Egyptian Coptic Christians on a beach in Libya. This grievous crime against defenseless civilians should rouse our just indignation. Further, such a persecution of … Continue reading
Epiclesis and Filioque: Church Unity and the Schismatics January 19
In praying for the return of the schismatics to Church unity under the pope, I thought, by way of contrast, to clarify my own mind on two issues that, as I see it, have no basis being controversial at all. … Continue reading
Looking on Jesus, the Prince of Peace
Far from being what the world thinks it is, namely, the shopping season between Black Friday and Christmas Day, Advent is the Church’s time of penitential preparation for the feast of the Nativity. More than that, Advent prepares us for … Continue reading
Christian Certitude
All our knowledge of God is analogical. In brief, this means that every concept that we rightly apply to God is partly the same as, but also partly different from, that same concept as applied to creatures. (Click here for … Continue reading
Analogical Knowledge of God
What does it mean when we say that “all our knowledge of God is analogical”? In brief, it means that every concept that we rightly apply to God is partly the same as, but also partly different from, that same … Continue reading
