Just as God is known through the uncreated energies (that is, the divine activity), revealing to us what we can know about the divine nature (for we can use them to describe God) , so we are known through our actions. Indeed, it can be said that we are what we do. This is because we establish who we are, our character, by what we do. Others will know us and who we are through our actions. Likewise, when we... Read more
The Sabbath was made for us. The liturgy was established for us. God does not need our worship. We are the ones in need. We need the grace of God in our lives. Worship, authentic worship, is done out of love. When we reach out in love to God, we ready ourselves to receive God’s love in return. Worship allows us to express that love, and indeed, to rejoice and celebrate it. True worship helps us tune ourselves in with... Read more
Pope St. John Paul II tried to prevent the Iraq War, but President G.W. Bush would not listen. The Pope made it clear, especially through Cardinal Pio Laghi, that there were no just grounds for war; whatever good intentions Bush might have had, they were overshadowed by the injustice of the invasion itself. Some tried to justify the war, saying that even if it preemptive in nature, it was actually a defensive war, that the United States was feeling threatened... Read more
In Buddhism, desire is said to be dangerous because it can leads us to attach ourselves to things which are in passing away. Everything is impermanent. What we want will not be with us forever, and when it is gone, we will suffer because our desire will no longer be able to be fulfilled. Desire would not be so dangerous if it were not so powerful. It motivates us and encourages us to act, even if our action does not... Read more
Once, Jesus was called good by someone seeking to flattery him. Not only did Jesus use the situation as an opportunity to denounce the use of such flattery, he also used it to indicate to everyone that only God is unconditionally good: And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. (Lk. 18:18-19 RSV). We must... Read more
What we do in life is important. The way we live, the way we treat others, the way we treat the very earth itself matters. We might have eternity in our sight, but we must remember, time is a part of eternity. What we do matters, for it will help form our eternal existence. We cannot act as if nothing we do matters. We can’t say we seek after eternity as a way to ignore the problems of the present.... Read more
There is trouble brewing in the Catholic Church in the United States. Priests and bishops are not listening to the Pope, but rather, non-Catholic interests, like Jordan Peterson, who stand for principles which run contrary to Catholic teaching. Are they not paying attention? He has already indicated that he thinks Catholics should boycott Mass, which is why it was odd for Bishop Barron in 2019 to suggest that the solution to the problems in the church, the way to get... Read more
The church is full of the spiritually sick and infirm, that is, sinners. As Pope Francis explained, it can be and should be seen as a field hospital. We are its patients. The church, with the graces given to it, has the spiritual draught that not only can heal us, but give us strength to become better than before. However, our sickness is not just our own. When we are sick, we can infect others with our spiritual disease. It... Read more
Tolkien, like his friend C.S. Lewis, contemplated the notion of “unfallen” beings living in a fallen universe. He thought that if they existed, even though they were not tainted by sin, they would still be affected by the fall. It was with this understanding that wrote concerning the Quendi, the Elves, in his writings: The Quendi never “fell” in the sense that Men did. Being “tainted” with the Shadow (as perhaps even the Valar in some degree were, with all... Read more
When we are filled with grace, we must engage it, cooperate with it, live it out by embracing the dictates of Christ, the dictates of love. That is, we should, as Paul said, live our life in such a way as to show ourselves worthy of the calling which we have been given: I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all lowliness and... Read more
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