Want to be great? Imitate the Lord of all: he humbled himself before all and became a servant for all. Seek not your own material gain at the expense of others but work for the improvement of all through charity and justice. True justice, not revenge. True charity will give so that others can thrive; true charity requires us to die to the self so that others can live. True charity seeks the outcast, the oppressed, the weak, the needy,... Read more
In medieval times, it was not uncommon for unsavory clerics, religious and laity to be waiting near a dying saint, not for the sake of comforting them, but with the hope of getting first dibs at the saint’s body for the creation of relics. Of course, many who were not saints also had similar relic hunters at their side. Bodies were routinely desecrated for the sake of personal gain. Now, it is the bodies of dead infants which are searched... Read more
When the holy Abba Anthony lived in the desert he was beset by accidie, and attacked by many sinful thoughts. He said to God, “Lord, I wand to be saved but these thoughts do not leave me alone; what shall I do in my affliction? How can I be saved?” A short while afterwards, when he got up to go out, Anthony say a man like himself sitting at his work, getting up from his work to pray, then sitting... Read more
Praised be You, my Lord, through our Sister Bodily Death, from whom no living man can escape. – St. Francis of Assisi Doctor Strange. Strange as it might seem, Doctor Strange is one of my favorite comic books from my youth. I loved stories with magic, mystery, and the supernatural. D.C.’s House of Mystery and Swamp Thing, and Marvel’s Doctor Strange were my early staples. When both House of Mystery and Doctor Strange were cancelled, I would eventually find myself... Read more
When we are talking about God, we are talking about that which is absolute, that which is supreme, whatever it is. This is why everyone holds something in the position of God. As Augustine indicated (in part 1), it can be the truth itself. Those who deny God believe it is true that there is no God, and so believe in some form of truth. This, then, should bring them back to the realization that truth exists, and so God,... Read more
Many, if not most, of those who want to argue against the existence of God focus their criticism on conceptions of God which few, if any, actually believe in. They engage absurd misreadings of theistic beliefs, thinking that if they can show such particular formulations of divinity to be non-existent, they somehow have demonstrated why God does not exist. At best, what they have done is show why such formulations of divinity are false, not that God does not exist.... Read more
While we can read about many who have been killed for the sake of the Christian faith throughout the centuries, nonetheless, there is something unique to the early persecutions of the Christians in the Ante-Nicene era. At the inception of the Christian faith, Christians understood that there was at least a slight risk to becoming Christian, that they could be asked to lay down their lives for Christ. They knew they had to take their faith seriously as they likely... Read more
This is the last of four posts looking to the way various Ante-Nicene Fathers engaged the image of God seen in the Old Testament, with a specific concern on how they dealt with the way God’s anger was represented within it. For the first part, click here, for the second, click here, and for the third, click here. We have briefly explored examples of two different traditions from the Ante-Nicene era in regards to the way Scripture was interpreted. The... Read more
The best way to spend 30 pieces of silver. By now, you probably have heard that Donald Trump is going to be interviewed on EWTN. This, after a radio program cancelled an interview for the American Solidarity Party’s Presidential candidate. Are you really that surprised? They once gave an unwelcome defense of torture, so it should not be a surprise they torture us with Trump’s nonsense. But this is not anything new. Mother Angelica once used her own show to... Read more
This is the third of four posts looking to the way various Ante-Nicene Fathers engaged the image of God seen in the Old Testament, with a specific concern on how they dealt with the way God’s anger was represented within it. For the first part, click here, and for the second, click here. While some Ante-Nicenes desired to engage Scripture in as simple and straightforward manner as possible, others thought the text was written with all kinds of hidden meanings,... Read more
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