I hate to admit this, but it’s probably true: We are who we are in the dark. That doesn’t bode well when I’m bouncing a shrieking, fussy newborn in the waning hours of the night. And I’m only up until 11pm, it’s my wife that has the middle-of-the-night shift. (St. Gianna Molla, pray for us!) But, reticent as we may be to admit it, we know it’s true. Our true, unvarnished, completely non-gussed-up self is the one that’s often really in... Read more
As a Christian of no real denominational or theological affiliation, I always struggled with Paul’s seemingly off-the-cuff remark in his epistle to the Colossians, Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions. (1:24; NASB) What exactly did Paul mean when he implied that Jesus’ “afflictions” were lacking? How did he make up for a... Read more
I like to people watch, it’s always fascinating. This past Sunday I sat in the narthex area of our bustling little church. It’s a tiny old church, a chapel really, with a number of tasteful additions holding it all together. With my wife and our newborn baby at home, the toddler and I made the trek to church alone this morning. The negotiation to get him through the door of his Sunday School class was a bit lengthy and by the time... Read more
Because of the wackiness that is this year’s liturgical calendar many Catholics in North America are scratching their hands, trying to figure out exactly how many times they need to be at church this upcoming Christmas Weekend. Or, rather, trying to determine exactly how to get out of it. Unfortunately, for the latter group, the answer isn’t very encouraging: basically, twice. You have to be at church twice. And, in some cases, it might even be twice on the same day.... Read more
The Catholic Church, sprawled across every corner of the globe, is full of some truly bizarre customs and traditions. Understanding why we do what, what it means, and how to explain it to others can often be fundamental to sharing our faith—and to appreciating it deeper. The custom of kissing the Pope’s ring, of sometimes kneeling down before him or bowing, is one of those strange habits that we Catholics do and in a society increasingly blurring the lines between... Read more
One of the most responding, human impulses that St. Paul describes in his letters to the early churches is the idea of wanting to do what he doesn’t do. “For what I want to do, I do not do,” Paul writes in his letter to the Romans. In this, Paul captures something so profound that scholars and poets alike have spent the last two millennia working to unpack it. The want to do something other than what we do and, sometimes, the mere want... Read more
As an Evangelical convert to Catholicism, I love all this in-fighting. Let me explain. Read more
One of the incredible gifts of becoming a Catholic is knowing that my theology, what I believe, has been figured out by people much smarter than I am over thousands of years. Read more
One of the enormous graces of becoming Catholic has been exposure to a whole new world of prayer--specifically, the Liturgy of the Hours. Read more
How we understand our own history shapes almost everything about how we live out our faith today. Read more
The Cordial Catholic
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