Beyond All Telling
If the problem is clericalism, what is the solution? It is axiomatic that vices cannot simply be eliminated—they have to be replaced with something better, or else they will just come back, often in a form that is even worse. Read more
If the problem is clericalism, what is the solution? It is axiomatic that vices cannot simply be eliminated—they have to be replaced with something better, or else they will just come back, often in a form that is even worse. Read more
January 18 to 25 is the annual international Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Christians of all sects gather together in prayer across doctrinal differences to remember Jesus’s prayer in John 17:21 “that they may all be one… so that the world may believe.” It is an opportunity for me to reflect on the tragedies caused by a divided Church, and the meaning of being one in the Lord. Read more
Yesterday’s matins reading from Saint Gregory Nazianzen for the feast of two of the Cappadocian theological giants provides warmth in our emotional Pleistocene. Gregory presents an intensity of friendship that this loveless age with its queer puritanism of right and left cannot seem to fathom. Eros, the impassioned journey from self to other (the perfective transcendence of embodied spirit not simply reducible to sexuality) has been exiled from the American soul, and all sides have colluded in this fundamental act... Read more
The final readings of the liturgical year reveal that the Tree of Life produces fruit twelve times a year, once each month… my eschatological curiosity was piqued. A monthly cycle, not of blood, but of fruit. Read more
Ohio is expected to pass soon, even over the veto of Gov. Kasich, a prohibition on performing abortion when a fetal heartbeat is detected. This would generally prohibit abortions after about 6 weeks of gestation, and clearly violate the Constitutional standard enunciated by Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. The Ohio legislature is well aware of this, and the bill is explicitly crafted to go into full effect if and when the Supreme Court overturns Roe. Testing the... Read more
Who knows what to make of the Holy See’s move to forestall the American bishops’ deliberations on the Catholic abuse crisis at the fall USCCB meeting? One might hope it means that the Congregation for Bishops wishes to see a more fundamental reform in the hierarchical constitution of the Church: beyond necessary procedural changes, there must be a revolution in, and renovation of, Church order, to give pastoral charity a chance to have effect in this loveless realm of human... Read more
The Bishops aren’t going to save the Church. That was clear to me as I read the rough Google translation of the final document of the recent Synod. Synodality is not going to save the Church. Pope Francis is not going to save the Church. His successor chosen by and from among the College of Cardinals, whoever and whenever that is, will not save the Church. Stop holding your breath; the cavalry is not coming. Yet we know that the... Read more
“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it.” — Mark 8:34b-35 (Gospel for 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time) “Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry)… you must get rid of all such things—anger, wrath,... Read more
Moral imagination can be as important to training the conscience as logic, and probably more so for some. This metaphor of a hedge maze with God at the center is offered to help readers better understand progress through the Christian life, sin of various kinds, and the grace of being within the shelter of the Church and its teachings and Sacraments. Imagine the Christian life as a hedge maze garden. At the center is the fountain of God’s pure Presence and... Read more
Collect: O God, who willed that your Only Begotten Son should undergo the Cross to save the human race, grant, we pray, that we, who have known his mystery on earth, may merit the grace of his redemption in heaven. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/091418.cfm Preface: It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation,... Read more
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