I have commented twice now on Obama’s total commitment to war. (See: Obama defends eternal war as he accepts an award for peace and For the Record: Obama’s War or Obama’s Re-Election?) Since then, I have tried to stay away from the news cycle and focus my writing here on simpler things that convey alternatives to the scourge of politics. But sometimes reality imposes itself on you. Yesterday, I found myself helplessly standing in front of a television set when Obama stepped-up... Read more
Individualism is to Catholicism as Satan is to God. Individualism promotes the Satanic “you can be just like God.” It reinforces the fallen ego, promotes ungodly pride. It bases its credibility based upon greed. We are told that the great achievements of the modern world prove the value of individualism. Those nations which have promoted a rugged individualism have proven successes, those which have promoted Catholic morality have proven to be failures. Of course, if someone forgoes all sense of... Read more
When philosophers reply to metaphysical questions, we usually reveal a certain insecurity about being too simple and revealing a more honest truth: that we don’t know the answers, that we don’t know anything really. (For instance, I am bothered by the phrase “being too simple” in the previous sentence because the term ‘being’ is a technical philosophical term that I am using—I just did it again!—in an ordinary way. This is the sickness I often suffer from. My children are... Read more
Part VII With all that has been said, there is, nonetheless, another aspect of prayer, briefly mentioned throughout, which must be acknowledged a bit further. This is the concept of communal prayer, for it connects us to the sacraments, such as in the celebration of the eucharist (which will be our main example here of communal prayer). What we have described about prayer is especially true about the sacraments. They are a means of grace given to us; if and... Read more
This is interesting. I wish the USCCB would give us the transcript, because it would indicate where the misquotes come from, and I see no reason why an anonymous version of the transcript could not be released to help us know what really happened. Nonetheless, according to Helen Osman at the USCCB website: It appears that Catholic News Agency would benefit from a similar strategy. To put it plain and simple, the quotes they attribute to Cardinal Francis George in... Read more
What I have read about the newest Supreme Court decision has me concerned. According to the Christian Science Monitor: The US Supreme Court has put international humanitarian workers on notice that any assistance to a US-designated terrorist group could land them in an American prison. On Monday, the high court upheld a federal law that outlaws providing “material support” to any group on a State Department list of terrorist organizations. The prohibition extends beyond knowingly facilitating illegal operations. The law... Read more
There seems to be an underlying assumption that the US would be better off if more people rented and fewer people owned dwellings. Often folks point to places like Europe where it isn’t unusual for the middle class to rent their dwellings. Many people will point to economic incentives like the mortgage interest deduction while neglecting to note that price to rent ratios already indicated a significant discount for renters for comparable properties. The magic factor that makes renting in... Read more
Part VI-3. One of the difficulties we have with prayer is that we might understand some theory about it, but we do not seem to get the results we are looking for in our prayer life when we try it out for ourselves. Once again, this shows that we expect prayer to be some sort of technique which brings magical results. While there are, to be sure, good reasons for these expectations — God is good, after all — there... Read more
. …from the Quartet for the End of Time. Read more
Just has the most skillful physicians carefully consider the causes of disease, and thus strive to arrest it with the help of their expertise, in the same way, in my view, the God of all looks within our mind and heart and investigates the causes of the passions within us, and thus checks the diseased mind with appropriate remedies. He charges the people of Israel, therefore, on the basis of prosperity, with falling victim to forgetting the one who provided... Read more
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