The historian Eusebius records the last words of Agapius, a martyr who had been brought to the stadium to be murdered for the crowd’s entertainment. If they expected him to plead for his life, they were disappointed: Agapius instead tells the audience that they should all disregard what is mortal to gain an eternal Kingdom. When they had led the martyr Agapius around in the stadium, they asked him in the first place if he would deny his God, but... Read more
Why is it important that Christ’s body was laid in a new tomb, one that had never been used? St. Cyril of Alexandria suggests that it symbolizes the completely new path to paradise (a word that originally meant an enclosed garden) that Christ is mapping out for us. They took the body of Jesus, and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. Now in the place where he was crucified there... Read more
Without being taught, says St. Hilary of Poitiers, we know that we are immortal. Nature teaches us that we were made for greater things than merely satisfying our earthly appetites. I believe that the mass of mankind have rejected from themselves and censured in others this acquiescence in a thoughtless animal life, for no other reason than that nature herself has taught them that it is unworthy of humanity to believe that they are born only to gratify their greed... Read more
Matt Nelson tackles the topic of spiritual indifference in his latest book Just Whatever: How to Help the Spiritually Indifferent Find Beliefs That Really Matter. Matt went through a stage of indifferent-ism himself in college and gives us some insight on the dilemma in this episode of Off the Shelf. Join us as Matt and I discuss the Why’s and What’s of the indifferentism running rampant today. Listen to Off the Shelf Episode 077 exclusively on Breadbox Media below. Bio Matt... Read more
I would dare say that each of us would admit that our prayer life has room for improvement. Our faith and prayer are deeply interwoven. Have a more solid prayer life than you likely will be on fire for the faith. A weak prayer life…well….I think you know what that means. Thankfully we have resources to jump start our prayer life when we need gentle and not-so-gentle nudges. One such resource is Gary Jansen’s Life Everlasting: Catholic Devotions and Mysteries... Read more
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 is immortal, but it does have a certain death of... Read more
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 you. And direct your mind also to... Read more
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 conception is that everything we have to enjoy in... Read more
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 which is above they meditate; and those... Read more
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 set upon your heads,... Read more
The Catholic Book Blogger
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In