This week publisher Sophia Institute Press sponsors the giveaway. One lucky winner will receive a copy of Filling Our Father’s House: What Converts Can Teach Us about Evangelization by Shaun McAfee (you can read my review here). I use Rafflecopter to run my giveaways which makes it simple for you and me! Enter below. The contest starts at midnight tonight EST and will end 12AM EST 6/12 with a winner being announced later that day. a Rafflecopter giveaway Read more
Fear the death of the soul, not of the body The soul is immortal, say St. Augustine, but in a sense it dies when God withdraws from it. This is the real death to fear—not the death of the body when the soul leaves it, but the death of the soul when God leaves it. But I see that I must speak a little more carefully of the nature of death. We are right to say that the human soul... Read more
Shaun McAfee is a former Evangelical Protestant that converted to the Catholic faith. The thing with converts is they can bring a particular energy to the faith that can renew and energize an entire parish. What are some of the things converts and everyone can do to breath new life into their parishes? Shaun provides readers with a few suggestions in his book Filling Our Father’s House: What Converts Can Teach Us about Evangelization. If you haven’t taken notice lately there... Read more
Remember, your life belongs to God alone Asterius of Amasea reminds us that our lives really belong only to God. The things we think of as permanently ours will pass to dozens of other people after us, but God alone has eternal life to give us. You possess an estate, having either inherited it from your fathers, or obtained it by some exchange. So call up in memory and count over, if you can, all who have occupied it before... Read more
Think of yourself as a guest in this life We think of ourselves as owners of all we possess, says Asterius of Amasea, but we’re not. We should think of all our possessions, and life itself, as simply on loan to us. I have often said to you in my sermons that there is one fictitious and false conception prevalent among us that multiplies our transgressions and diminishes the good that each of us ought to do. And this false... Read more
PETE: In your new book Broken Gods you set forth the notion that we are meant to be gods. We have heard it said we are to strive to be saints, but gods? Can you tell us what it means to be a god? GREGORY K. POPCAK: It sounds blasphemous, doesn’t it? But the Catechism #460 provides the launching point for this book The Word became flesh to make us “partakers of the divine nature” (2Ptr 1:4): “For this is why... Read more
Live like a visitor to this world If we remember that we must die and move on, says Aphrahat, we will live like visitors to this world, not regarding anything in it as permanently ours. The sons of peace remember death; and they forsake and remove from them wrath and enmity. As visitors they live in this world, and prepare for themselves a provision for the journey before them. On that which is above they set their thoughts, on that... Read more
Remember death, and live When you pile up earthly wealth and plunder your neighbors, says Aphrahat, you are forgetting that you must die, and you cannot use your wealth on the day of judgment. Therefore, you children of Adam, all of you over whom Death has ruled, be mindful of Death and remember life; and do not break the commandment as your first father did. Kings, crowned with the diadem, remember Death, which will take away the diadems that are... Read more
Keep your perspective We get so caught up in our hopes and fears that we forget what’s really important. If we keep our eyes on eternity, says St. Augustine, nothing we’re afraid of and nothing we want can seduce us away from the right path. Remember that Christ has promised us eternal life. “And this,” says John, “is what he has promised us, eternal life. I write this to you about those who would deceive you.” Don’t let anyone seduce... Read more
Don’t worship idols in your heart All the sins we secretly serve are idols we worship in our hearts, says St. Ephrem the Syrian. Cast out those sins, and the Enemy retreats. Narrow is the way of life, and broad the way of torment; prayer is able to bring a man to the house of the Kingdom. This is the perfect work: prayer that is pure from iniquity. Human righteousness counts for nothing. Our labor is altogether vanity. From you,... Read more
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