To know God, live a godly life No one can force you to listen to Christian teaching, says St. Ephrem the Syrian. If you really want to listen, though, you need to live a life worthy of your adoption as a child of God. The doctrine is not of compulsion; the word of life is of free will. If you are willing to hear the doctrine, cleanse the field of your will, so that the good seed will not fall... Read more
Laura is back with her review of another great volume from Pauline Books and Media’s Encounter the Saints series. Saint Gianna Beretta Molla: The Gift of Life (Encounter the Saints)written by Susan Helen Wallace, FSP and Patricia Edward Jablonski, FSP is a heartwarming story of a modern saint who was not only a loving wife and mother, but also a beloved doctor. At a time when very few women studied to become doctors, Gianna persevered and studied hard to earn... Read more
Find the temple in your heart When the Epistle of Barnabas was written, the Temple in Jerusalem—the center of the worship of God for a thousand years—had been destroyed, never to be rebuilt. But there is still a temple of God, says Barnabas. Is there still a temple of God? There is—where he himself declared he would make and complete it. Learn, then, how it will be built in the name of the Lord. Before we believed in God, the... Read more
Welcome back to “The Clergy Speaks”, a recurring feature here at The Catholic Book Blogger. “The Clergy Speaks” is a column focusing on one question I have asked various members of the clergy. That question is: What five books would you recommend as must-reads for Catholics today? I left the responses open to current or classic books with the only restriction being that the Bible and the Catechism could not be used as they are a given. This week we... Read more
Imitate God, not the animals The gifts of language and thought, says St. Ephrem the Syrian, are what distinguish us from the animals and make us the image of God. What a terrible thing it is, then, when we use these gifts to be like animals instead of like God! God gave us speech that is free like himself, in order that free speech might serve our independent free will. And by speech, too, we are the likeness of the... Read more
PETE: In your latest book, The Feasts, you point out that the Church calendar of feasts is a sort of living catechism of our faith. How much have the feasts played in your own faith journey as priest, bishop and now cardinal? CARDINAL WUERL: I couldn’t begin to calculate the degree of influence the calendar has had on my life. Every year, since I was an infant, I’ve reviewed and meditated upon the life of Jesus Christ, simply by living... Read more
Put the right value on created things Creation is good, says St. Leo the Great, and we should praise the Creator for its beauties. But the world to come is far greater. Use the things of this world properly, but don’t let them capture all your attention. Wake up and recognize the dignity of your nature! Remember that you were made in the image of God—which, although it was corrupted in Adam, was still re-molded in Christ. Use the visible... Read more
Learn to be like God St. Gregory of Nyssa gives us a daunting assignment: study the attributes of the Father, then learn to be like him. After baptism, we are called God’s children. Therefore we should carefully examine our Father’s characteristics, so that, by molding and framing ourselves in the likeness of our Father, we may appear true children of him who calls us to adoption by grace. For the illegitimate son who belies his father’s nobility in what he... Read more
This week the Pauline Books & Media Back to School Blog Tour continues with Marilee Haynes. She is the author of A.K.A. Genius and Genius Under Construction. Now I will bow out and leave the floor to Marilee Haynes…….welcome Marilee! Just Like Me There is a big movement in the world of children’s literature right now focusing on the need for more diverse books. The fact is that the majority of children’s books feature characters who are white. Children of... Read more
Know that you are God’s image God made human beings in the image of God. St. Irenaeus reminds us that we are a special creation. The story in Genesis tells how God spoke all other things into being, but formed human beings with his own hands. God by His Word has created the whole world, and to all the world he has given laws in which each different thing should exist, and according to what is determined by God should... Read more
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