Here is an idea I’d like to propose to my brother priests. Make the Sacrament of Confession as accessible as possible. For me, I knew it was difficult (if not impossible), to sit over in Church in the Confessional all day. Parish life is quite a bit more demanding than the days of St. John…
Darwinism can be used to back up two mad moralities, but it cannot be used to back up a single sane one. The kinship and competition of all living creatures can be used as a reason for being insanely cruel or insanely sentimental; but not for a healthy love of animals. On the evolutionary basis…
Enthusiastic about Jesus’ message of love, tolerance and mercy, Abner was one of Christ’s earliest followers. At times, however, he was concerned that Jesus didn’t always deliver this core message of acceptance and compassion. This is his story… All Are Welcome At the beginning of his ministry, Jesus declared, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven…
It’s not every day that a little ol’ city boy from San Francisco gets to have dinner with mega-media-giant-turned-gospel-patriot Glenn Beck. No sir indeed; however, every once in a while, something extraordinary happens and the impossible, well, becomes possible. In this case, it took the murder of a girl and a friendship with her brother,…
Several years ago my Pastor, Fr. Dennis Gordon, FSSP, asked me if I would build him a portable altar to house an altar stone from the Cristeros era. He had seen some of my carpentry skills through work I had done at a relative’s house, so he thought I might be up for the challenge. I first…
For most Americans, it was a brutal winter. We live in a house with drafty old windows, and our heating system — designed for a more temperate climate — was not up to the task of fighting off the incessant cold. The greatest weapon in our arsenal in our war against shivering has been our trusty kerosene heater. Where we…
“[T]he decline of a language must ultimately have political and economic causes: it is not due simply to the bad influence of this or that individual writer. But an effect can become a cause, reinforcing the original cause and producing the same effect in an intensified form…. [Language] becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts…
We all know the story: Adam and Eve, the perfected human beings who are the parents of our entire race, were placed into the lush, fruited environs of the Garden of Eden and given dominion over it. Robed only in their innocent, unblemished flesh, they were called to fecundity, temporal bliss and communion with their…
The sexual revolution, and the Baby Boomer generation that launched it, has often been said to have embraced as its motto Jeremiah’s phrase of “Non Serviam!” “Of old time thou hast broken my yoke, thou hast burst my bands, and thou saidst: I will not serve. For on every high hill, and under every green…
The Lord said to Cain: “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground” (Gen 4:10). The voice of the blood shed by men continues to cry out, from generation to generation, in ever new and different ways. – Evangelium Vitae “Whosoever shall shed man’s blood, his…
Minimalism, in its proper context, can be beautiful. We see this in the peaceful feeling of an uncluttered house, a simple graphic design, the clean lines of good architecture, or the stark contrast of a cherry blossom against the white backdrop of a Japanese silkscreen print. But when it comes to Catholicism, there is a danger in…
