Commentary
Aids to perception: Three long and three short books
When I was in college and newly in love I learned the difficulty of concentrating on the things I read simply because they were assigned. Again and again, I would emerge from some imaginative ramble to find that I was twenty pages on in the reading of some book, and had absolutely no recollection of what was on those pages. So I’d go back and read it again, usually (at least) with better results. But to this day I cringe when I receive a really long book for review.
Free childcare as a Ponzi scheme
The suggestion is that many stay-at-home mothers are forced to rely on the government to support their households. Instead, this proposal would force those mothers to rely on the government to care for their children. How is that an improvement?
St. Patrick—Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus
"I don't know which is the cause of the greatest grief for me: whether those who were slain, or those who were captured, or those whom the devil so deeply ensnared."
155—Pilgrimage to the Museum—Stephen Auth
For decades, Steve and Evelyn Auth have been giving tours of NYC's Metropolitan Museum of Art. When Steve (who last appeared on this show talking about his book The Missionary of Wall Street) had a reversion to his Catholic faith 20 years ago, that tour soon enough became a Catholic tour of the Met. Since there is now so much demand for that tour that they can't give it to everyone, they have written its essence in their new book, Pilgrimage to the Museum: Man's Search for God.
Placatory proselytism? Obscuring the challenge of Faith
The foundation of authentic religion is what God knows, not what we perceive. Divine Revelation, through which we come to know what God knows, is not to be bartered away in a continuous adjustment of Christian principles to suit the vagaries of time and place, influence and ascendancy. A placatory Christianity is a Christianity unfaithful to Christ. At the very moment the concession is made, it ceases to be Christianity, and so ceases to matter at all.
The Vatican’s irresolute response to the threat of German schism
The German bishops have done what they have no right to do. The cautionary statements from Rome are now routinely ignored. Sooner or later the Vatican must draw the line.
The Failure of the Persuasion Strategy
Young priests usually overestimate the power of their persuasive abilities. They soon discover that some people protest their homilies when the remarks touch upon the hot-button topics of the day
Catholic review of The Chosen, Season 3
It’s time for another lively discussion of the wildly popular Christian TV series The Chosen, following on the release of its third season, which stretches from the sermon on the mount to the feeding of the five thousand. Since the show is written by Evangelical Protestants, Thomas and James make a point of keeping an eye out for any doctrinal errors, and Br. Joshua Vargas joins to share his knowledge of Scripture and ancient Jewish and Christian culture and practices.
The family: Not for production or consumption, but joy
Societies and their economic engines can be organized more or less beneficially to the life of the family. When this develops in less beneficial ways, we end up with widespread personal instability and distress, the normalization of many individualized forms of immorality, the decline of the family and close-knit societies, and the consequent loss of natural communities of support.
Fourth free ebook on Faith in series by Fr. Pokorsky
The last decade has seen the acceleration of errors in Catholic doctrine. Church officials seem increasingly unable to distinguish between their sacred duties as pastors in promoting Catholic principles and the indispensable role of the laity in applying those principles in everyday politics. Maybe these clusters of articles will help reaffirm our faith and desire for heavenly glory.
Please, not another ‘program’ for evangelization
After the Council of Jerusalem, the apostles quickly spread the Gospel message across the world. After Vatican II, the Church talked about evangelization.
Work of Human Hands: The Fathers and the Revaluing of Labor
Plato scorned manual labor. Aristotle said that "no one who leads the life of a worker or laborer can practice virtue." Pagan religion reflected such precepts of the philosophers. In such a world, Christianity seemed revolutionary. The churches were full of laborers, who worshipped a Laborer — and whose Scriptures preserved NOT the syllogisms of philosophers, but the stories of people who got jobs done. Implicit in the writings of the Fathers is a radical and new idea: a theology of work.
Cardinal McElroy’s refusal to speak the truth
The Catholic Church does not regard herself as a club through which sinners may grow in social acceptance. She regards herself as a Divine institution for the reclamation of sinners and their transforming incorporation into Christ. Those who refuse to accept her authority cannot benefit from her ministry. Those who act in public defiance of her teachings cannot remain in full communion with her. This does not arise from her changeable decision but by virtue of what she is.
Do We Have Sufficient Evidence to Make an Act of Faith?
The Apostles’ Creed is “inclusive” – universal -- and excludes heretical content (including that of prominent prelates in our day). Regardless of personal belief, its realism spans the history of mankind, from creation to redemption and salvation.
Looking Ahead: March 4-20
Upcoming reminders of St. Joseph, St. Patrick, March 4-20 on Liturgical Calendar, Sundays of Lent with the Transfiguration, the Samaritan Woman at the Well and Laetare Sunday.
Children’s Books: Three new ones from Ascension Press
Review of Ascension Press books for children, with their "Ascension Kids" line: Louie's Lent and The Real Presence both by Claude Cangilla McAdam and My First Interactive Mass Book by Jennifer Sharpe.
Will other bishops answer Paprocki’s challenge?
Bishop Paprocki is right; there is no point in pretending that all Catholics— or even all Catholic bishops— are in fundamental accord. There are serious disagreements among us, which must be addressed.
The meaning of the clash between McElroy and Paprocki
The modern experiment has been one of marginalizing the unpleasantness of the important. The result has been not liberty but enslavement to wayward human desire: The selfish championing of the “individual”, if he is from the right group, or possesses the right wealth, or is eager to sing the right tune for his supper.
J.R.R. Tolkien—On Fairy-Stories
"God is the Lord, of angels, and of men—and of elves."
The ERA’s manipulation of thought and culture
Modern politics, as brilliantly exemplified in the Equal Rights Amendment, is radically influenced by the tendency (derived in part from a woefully incomplete Personalism) to believe that we must be forever rebuilding our “thought world” from our own personal subjectivity—a process which, given ever-shifting cultural pressures and the difficulty we find in conforming our impassioned minds to reality, makes us prey to one ideology after another.
The Methods of the Red Supremacist
Turn those stones into bread, he demands of Jesus. The Devil hates nature, God’s handiwork. But the miracles of Jesus do not violate nature.
154—To Muck We Shall Return—Jane Clark Scharl
Jane Clark Scharl discusses her play Sonnez les Matines, in which a young Ignatius of Loyola, Jean Calvin, and Francois Rabelais, together in 1520s Paris, find themselves implicated in a murder.
Evangelization on Ash Wednesday
Our efforts to evangelize— to bring more people into the Church, and recapture those who have drifted away— is undermined by the reluctance to speak boldly about sin and redemption, damnation and salvation.
Ordet (The Word) (1955)
Ordet can be viewed as a provocative critique of a modern Christianity that no longer believes in miracles. Its astonishing onclusion throws down the gauntlet, forcing us to consider what it really means to have faith. It centers on the Borgen family, land-owning farmers in a small village in Denmark. The patriarch, Morton Borgen, is a religious man, but his oldest son Mikkel has lost his faith, while his second son Johannes has gone mad and believes he is Jesus Christ Himself.
In a fallen world, we work miracles only blindly, in faith
We are navigating through a time of widespread secularization and even apostasy right within the Church. Sometimes the strain of swimming against this powerful current can make us forget that there are still plenty of other currents within the Church that we can swim with. There are a great many things wrong, and we have to know what is wrong. But if we do not also immerse ourselves in what is good, we risk becoming cranks or slipping into disillusion and despair.
Understanding the Vatican crusade against tradition
You may (for now, in some places, under certain conditions) be comforted, strengthened, and enriched by the traditional Mass. But you cannot promote it. The Eucharistic sacrifice, in any valid form, is the “source and summit” of Catholic spiritual life. But if the Mass is in Latin, don’t tell anyone about it.
Ex post facto legislation from the Holy See?
Today’s document says that the Pope has “confirmed” the restrictions that Cardinal Roche announced in December (claiming that the Holy See has sole authority to issue dispensations, and thus stripping diocesan bishops of that right), but the rescript looks very much like a new piece of canonical legislation, imposing those restrictions.
Sicily: The Fathers Long Before the Godfathers
To Plato it was an island paradise. To Cicero it was the beginning of the Roman Empire. To Basil it was a name synonymous with luxury. To Augustine it was a place of natural marvels: a mountain that burned perpetually, but was never consumed. To Gregory the Great it was a shrine to his favorite martyrs. Modern Christians know Sicily mostly from the Godfather movies, so they know nothing of its rich Christian history. Till now. Listen up.
Suffering in ourselves, family members, friends…and Lourdes
In the face of the paltry character of our own interventions, we are forced to take prayer more seriously, along with resignation to God’s will. These are two excellent lessons which may not seem to do much here and now, but can make all the difference in eternity. Nonetheless, we have both a natural and a spiritual yearning for something that will be effective in this world: One of those things may be a pilgrimage to Lourdes.
Free Liturgical Year Volume 3 Released: LENT
Our liturgical year ebooks include all the liturgical day information for each season just as it appears on CatholicCulture.org. These offer a rich set of resources for families to use in living the liturgical year in the domestic church. Resources include biographies of the saints to match each feast day, histories of the various celebrations and devotions, descriptions of customs from around the world, prayers, activities and recipes.
A Very Short Course in the Catholic Faith
Our eternal destiny is no longer of the world because, after the fall, it is under the rule of the demonic Prince of the World.
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