If you’re looking for something to do with the Amazon gift card you got for Christmas, take a look at Chris Kaczor’s new book, The Seven Big Myths About the Catholic Church. In a recent interview, he focuses the mind a bit on that faith-and-reason front that we sometimes find ourselves talking about more often than not at gatherings around this time of year: Faith does transcend reason, but faith does not contradict reason. Faith involves trusting someone and accepting what... Read more
There is a welcome, refreshing “starting again” feeling about the new year, isn’t there? I think eyes focused on Times Square are about much more than an excuse for champagne, but this longing to get to the finish line in glory. That is, with God, seeing his loving face. The resolutions and the rest of it, are a great reminders of what we ought to be doing daily, of course. Advent, Christmas, and the new year are calendar dates for... Read more
Today in his Ubi et Orbi message, Pope Benedict challenges us with the reality of Christmas: In this world there is a good soil which God has prepared, that he might come to dwell among us. A dwelling place for his presence in the world. This good earth exists, and today too, in 2012, from this earth truth has sprung up! Consequently, there is hope in the world, a hope in which we can trust, even at the most difficult... Read more
From B16 at the Christmas vigil Mass: Let us go over to Bethlehem, says the Church’s liturgy to us today. Trans-eamus is what the Latin Bible says: let us go “across”, daring to step beyond, to make the “transition” by which we step outside our habits of thought and habits of life, across the purely material world into the real one, across to the God who in his turn has come across to us. Let us ask the Lord to... Read more
(And mine!) How about a little Saint Augustine to get us into the Christmas Eve groove? Via the Liturgy of the Hours today: Awake, mankind! For your sake God has become man. Awake, you who sleep, rise up from the dead, and Christ will enlighten you. I tell you again: for your sake, God became man. You would have suffered eternal death, had he not been born in time. Never would you have been freed from sinful flesh, had he... Read more
Are you a glass half empty or half full kind of person? I think a good test is what you find more fascinating news story here: That Benedictine nuns managed to knock the 50 Shades of Grey soundtrack off the top of the Billboard charts this fall (or that the sadomasochistic novel even has a soundtrack). The Benedictines of Mary, Queen of the Apostles are cloistered women religious at the priory of Ephesus in northwest Missouri. Their beautiful CD, Advent... Read more
At the Council of Ephesus, Saint Cyril of Alexandria delivered a sermon in praise of Mary, Mother of God: Mary, Mother of God, we salute you. Precious vessel, worthy of the whole world’s reverence, you are an ever-shining light, the crown of virginity, the symbol of orthodoxy, an indestructible temple, the place that held him whom no place can contain, mother and virgin. Because of you the holy gospels could say: Blessed is he who comes in the name of... Read more
Christmas gratitude to those who preserved and shared this letter from a young Joseph Ratzinger: Dear Baby Jesus, quickly come down to earth. You will bring joy to children. Also bring me joy. According to translations in the news, he wrote: I would like a Volks-Schott (a Mass prayers book), green clothing for Mass (clerical clothing) and a heart of Jesus. I will always be good. Greetings from Joseph Ratzinger That’s a good commercial for having the Sacred Heart image... Read more
People hear things about what Catholics believe. Some of it is true. A lot of it is not. The most compelling education about what exactly it is Catholicism is and teaches comes from the example of lived witness. In an interview about his conversion to Catholicism at age 76, the late Judge Robert H. Bork said: There is an advantage in waiting until you’re 76 to be baptized, because you’re forgiven all of your prior sins. Plus, at that age... Read more
Yesterday in Rome, before his op-ed hit the Financial Times, Pope Benedict XVI alluded again to silence and contemplation at perhaps the busiest time of year. Cliff! Family arrangements! Lines! (And don’t forget to thank the delivery men!). During his Wednesday audience B16 reflected on that woman who said yes and pondered the Incarnation of our Lord and all of its power and glory and responsibilities and sorrows in her heart: As part of our catechesis for this Year of... Read more
Kathryn Lopez
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