Today is traditionally the Feast of the Purity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (see liturgical prayers here and a reflection by Father Lovasik here). In my book My Peace I Give You: Healing Sexual Wounds with the Help of the Saints, I talk about how I used to be afraid of Mary’s purity. The story begins with my entering into the fullness of faith in the Catholic Church after a journey that had taken me from the Judaism... Read more
My Patheos colleague Marc Barnes asserts on his Bad Catholic blog that Andy Warhol was not only “gay and Catholic,” but was also “intentionally celibate” in a manner that reveals “an effort at communion with the teachings of the Catholic Church”: Whether his understanding of the amoral nature of art (by which recording and artistically expressing a sinful thing not necessarily sinful in itself) is some sort exoneration is not important. It’d be a fool who’d make him a Saint... Read more
Today, as the Church began its Year of Faith. a historic moment occurred when two Catholic vice presidential candidates faced each other in a nationally televised debate. How chilling, then, to see one candidate effectively claim, in that same debate, that he was violating his own conscience on the issue of abortion. But that is Vice President Joe Biden said tonight: My religion defines who I am, and I’ve been a practicing Catholic my whole life. It is particularly informed... Read more
Donald Cardinal Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington, D.C., in delivered a report yesterday at the Synod of Bishops in which he named several saints as examples of the “boldness born of confidence in Christ,” a “quiet boldness,” to which the Church’s members are called in the New Evangelization. First on the list? St. Maximilian Kolbe, the Franciscan Friar canonized by John Paul II as a “martyr of charity,” whose intercession led me into the Catholic Church (as I share in a... Read more
Just a note for readers interested in my faith journey or in my apostolate spreading the word about healing sexual wounds with the help of the saints: Yesterday I had the great pleasure of taping an interview for EWTN’s “The Journey Home,” which will air November 12. My personal blog, The Dawn Patrol, has some reflections on the experience, as well as my itinerary of speaking appearances, which includes talks later this month in Northern California. Read more
On this day that the Church honors Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman, here is a passage from his sermon “The Cross of Christ the Measure of the World” (found via Enlarging the Heart) in which he writes beautifully of the theology of wounds: It must not be supposed, because the doctrine of the Cross makes us sad, that therefore the Gospel is a sad religion. The Psalmist says, “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy;”... Read more
One of my favorite quotations from one of my favorite apostles of spiritual healing: “There is a negative approach from agnosticism. This was the approach of Peter the Apostle. “Lord, to whom shall we go?” … I don’t think we should despise the negative. I have a feeling that if I ever find myself in Heaven, it will be from backing away from Hell.” — Father Edward Dowling S.J. (1898-1960), addressing the Alcoholics Anonymous 20th anniversary conference in 1955. The... Read more
It’s a familiar tale in atheist circles: a child of fundamentalist Christian parents rebels against the strictures of organized religion. But Arizona State University student Joshua Horn’s story has a glorious twist, one which shocked his skeptic friends. In January 2010, as president of ASU’s Secular Free Thought Society, Horn was a dedicated spokesman for skepticism, as you can see from this video clip: Less than two months later, Horn had an encounter that transformed his life, as he recently... Read more
It’s my own soul. So says Father Daniel A. Lord, S.J. (1888-1955), in a passage I have been quoting to friends concerned about the upcoming presidential election and about the various cultural conflicts in which the Church is on one side and the world on the other. The passage appears in “Thanksgiving on the Call of Christ,” one of the beautiful offerings in Father Lord’s Christ in Me (1952, Bruce Publishing, currently out of print), a collection of thanksgiving prayers... Read more
On this day when the Church honors the Guardian Angels, I remember the first time I ever heard a real-life story about angelic intervention, which was well before I was Catholic or even Christian. It was about 1993 or perhaps the spring of 1994, and my mother and I were visiting our friend Charles E. Striffler, who had recently been released from the hospital after a long stay being treated for a disease of the immune system. Not having seen... Read more
Feast of Eden
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In