Last week I wrote about the newly founded “Amazing Parish” movement which, according to their website, “seeks to provide resources to pastors and parish leaders so they can create a thriving parish life.” The group recently held its first ever conference in Denver, featuring a cadre of Catholic speakers and workshops focused on such topics…
Any combat training and tactical planning begins with a process of intelligence collection, analysis, and dissemination. Recon (reconnaissance) is a military term used to determine the enemy force’s disposition and intention, gathering information (or intelligence) about an enemy’s composition and capabilities. Dr. Peter Kreeft wrote: “You cannot win a war if you are unwilling to…
Editor’s note: This is the first in a two-part series on the topic of cultivating a more authentic taste in music. The second part is available here. There is an old saying that “one can find Catholic music performed everywhere except in Catholic Churches.” I was reminded of this tragically accurate quip when I was recently…
You no doubt have already heard the news. If you are like most of us, you may be feeling shock and dismay. The cause for the canonization of Bishop Fulton Sheen has been derailed by the Archdiocese of New York for reasons unknown. And it has been accomplished through what appears to be nothing more…
Last week, the Vatican took pains to deny that Pope Francis is in the crosshairs of the Islamic State (IS). And yet, there is reason to believe that there is more to the threat than the Vatican wants to let on. While on the surface, threats like this from the Islamic State against the pope may seem shocking…
There’s a scene in Evelyn Waugh’s masterpiece novel, Brideshead Revisited, that I often recall, to my amusement. Father Mowbray is giving instructions in the Catholic faith to a lapsed Protestant named Rex Mottram. Mister Mottram isn’t really sincere in his conversion (in fact he’s completely disinterested in spiritual matters), but he very much wants to…
The conception behind minimum wage laws – and any similar notion that supposes that employees should receive payment or benefits unrelated to the transactional value which they bring to their employers – is economically unsound. Though most people in our culture today would disagree with this point, it is at least well understood by most…
The former Archbishop of Mosul, Amel Nona, said that the end of the Church in Iraq at ISIS’s hands is a warning to fellow Catholics throughout the world, particularly in the West: Please, try to understand us. Your liberal and democratic principles are worth nothing here. You must consider again our reality in the Middle…
A distant but rapidly approaching thunderstorm awakens me from a deep sleep. I toss and turn and lie there, but find every attempt to return to sleep a futile effort, so I at last decide to take the pregnancy test that has been on my mind all afternoon. I wait, staring at the little window, willing…
“The unspiritual man does not receive the gifts of the Spirit of God,” writes St. Paul, “for they are foolishness to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Cor 2:14) The unfortunate reality is that the modern campaign of militant secular indoctrination has been so severe that…
Nineteen years ago last month, I married the love of my life and the mother of my children. For me, she was the fulfillment of a dream and many seemingly unanswerable prayers. I was really quite petty with God when I made a checklist of physical and intellectual attributes that I wanted in a spouse.…
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