There are several important stories going on right now, but I do not have the time to write on them. Instead, I thought I would point them out, and see what conversation develops from them. Pope Benedict pointed out on Saturday that no matter how just a state is, such justice will not end the need for charity. This confirms the point of my post, Love Never Ends, So How Could a Just Society Bring an End to Charity? In... Read more
I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself. A bird will fall frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself. — D. H. Lawrence, Self Pity ‘Abba, Father!’ he said, ‘For you everything is possible. Take this cup away from me. But let it be as you, not I, would have it.’ —Mark 14:36 (NJB) Is there more “mad eros” (N. Cabasilas, Vita in Cristo, 648) than that which led the Son of God to... Read more
I’ve talked many times now about the different standards applied to the proximity of taxpayer funds to abortion and the proximity of private premiums to abortion. Of course, from a moral perspective, there is really no difference, and yet the widespread funding of abortion by private health insurance seems a matter of small concern. Guttmacher claims that 87 percent of employer-based plans covered abortion, while 13 percent of abortions are billed directly to insurers (this excludes people who seek later reimbursement from... Read more
While it is true that humanity has been made in the image and likeness of God, I have always found it difficult to believe that this is true only for humanity. I admit, it is the assumption of many, and this is what we find in the majority of Christian literature. The Catechism of the Catholic Church itself suggests this: “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created... Read more
In the East, today is the Sunday of the Adoration (Veneration) of the Holy Cross. Here are some videos I’ve found on youtube for this feast: (more…) Read more
Natural law has an important place in Catholic tradition. Nonetheless, as with much of Catholic tradition, it has often been misunderstood and even abused. Many who have suggested that we abandon the notion of natural law have done so mostly because of such misunderstandings — what they want to dismiss often is something which should be rejected. What is needed is an understanding of what natural law is, its applicability, and its limits. What is offered here can only serve... Read more
Radical political thought is always about more than the setting forth of a programme, more than the diagnosis of the ills of society, more than the sketching of the architecture of a just polity. It should also be about the education of political desire… and the expansion of the social imaginary. This is not a question of positing the impossible but realistically and rigorously both exploring and expanding the ever changing limit of the possible. Richard Fitch, “The Pelagian Mentality:... Read more
While paging through my Bible before noon Mass, I came across this passage from Deuteronomy 10: 12-22 (NJB) entitled, “Circumcision of the Heart.” With a heading like that, I just had to read this little gem and it moved me greatly. (more…) Read more
The power of the mysterious transmutation permeates the nature of the bread and wine and changes it. They become other than themselves, other than what they are as things of the physical world. But the bread and wine do not lose their thingness within the limits of this world; their breadness and wineness — their smell, taste, weight, color, physical and chemical properties — remain unchanged. The change in their nature that has occurred is not manifested in their physical... Read more
I have recently invested some effort in trying to convey the doctrine of transubstantiation in the comment thread following a recent post on the Eucharist. Then I found this and thought, “Why do I even waste my time?” Ladies and gentlemen, Frank Sheed could just plain write: At this stage, we must be content with only the simplest statement of the meaning of, and distinction between substance and accidents, without which we should make nothing at all of transubstantiation. We... Read more
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