On the Monday after the Orlando bloodbath, I read in Crux Edward Beck’s scripted recollection of the homily he delivered in church the previous morning. The two did not quite square. Between the spoken address and the published account, something crucial was omitted and something ugly added. Fr. Beck is a visiting Passionist priest who…
Hands up everyone who is a) a woman, b) single, between the ages of 40 and 50 and c) believed she had a vocation to religious life from her earliest memory. Come on, get ‘em up… you know who you are. What happened? Was it something like this? Reaching the age bracket, about 22-35, you…
On 25 June, Catholic News Agency published an article about an interview with Archbishop Georg Gänswein, which was originally conducted on 27 May 2016 by the German veteran journalist and EWTN Rome correspondent, Paul Badde. The German archbishop currently serves Pope Francis as Prefect of the Papal Household, but he has also maintained his duties as the…
In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’ … But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance. –…
In July 1655, Poland was invaded by Swedish Protestant forces. Warsaw had fallen, and the Swedish soldiers plundered and pillaged even the churches and religious houses, killing all in their path. A young seminarian named Stanislaus Papczynski, along with a university companion, was walking along the street after studies in the Old City and was…
In May of 2016, a relative of mine was blessed to participate in a retreat in Germany about the spirituality of Saint Maximilian Kolbe and his Militia Immaculatae (MI). The retreat master was Father Karl Stehlin of the Society of St. Pius X, who himself helped to re-start the MI with its original charism and…
I know a lot of Catholic dads, and I’m pretty sure the Father’s Day card makers don’t know the same dads I do. The problem is not just the clichés (neckties), and it’s not just the cheesiness (“For The Man I Love” in a font with lots of curlicues). They miss so much about these…
When it comes to fatherhood, I’m a bit of a mess. Despite all the opportunities seven children provide, I’ve realized I’m not very good at it. Despite the feelings of paternal affection I have for my amazing children, I struggle immensely in my attempts to understand, on a practical level, what they truly require from me. I…
“For the wages of sin is death. But the grace of God, life everlasting, in Christ Jesus our Lord.” – Romans 6:23 “Out of one hundred thousand sinners who continue in sin until death, scarcely one will be saved.” -Saint Jerome When I was a young man, one of my uncles told me about something he…
I have developed a spiritual routine over the past few years that serves me well. It has helped to keep me focused, driven and on track. But, lately I have been reduced by my own willfulness. I was definitely not a shining example of penance and mortification this past Lenten season. I did manage to…
“So you think I’m a sinner?” I had just finished giving a parish talk to a group of about 40 people on the topic of mercy. In my talk I noted that everyone needs mercy, because we’re all sinners. I didn’t particularly dwell on the topic, but I made clear that our sinful nature, and…
