Several of the Patheos Catholic Portal bloggers (Elizabeth Scalia, and Deacon Greg Kandra) are in Indianapolis for the Catholic Media Conference. Last night, Archbishop Charles Chaput, my favorite Franciscan, gave an important speech at the conference to set the stage for the kickoff of today’s Fortnight for Freedom call to prayer.
I’ll share a bit of the speech with you below. For the sake of brevity, and for the ease of memorization, I’ve summarized his five main points here. (more…)
Last year around this time for Eastertide, I started exploring Jesus in terms of popular culture through music. There were classical posts, and posts on polyphony, naturally. But there were also posts built around songs about the Lord through pop-rock songs, rhythm & blues, and country tunes as well.
Maybe it is an American phenomenon (though I hope not), but Jesus Christ haunts us. It’s like today he still asks of us, “who do the people say I am?” And then he still asks us individually, “and who do you say I am?” (more…)
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that witnessing to atheists, at least in the manner that seems to be popular in the Catholic blog-o-sphere nowadays, is in a sad state of affairs.
Posts thumbing our noses at atheists, posts basically saying that atheists are idiots, and posts attempting to stick their noses in what some believe to be atheist formed pools of pee-pee (I reckon), is pretty much de rigueur. (more…)
Last year on this day, I shared an off-the-wall poem about Palm Sunday penned by G.K. Chesterton. This time around, I’d like to share the prologue to his collection of four novellas that were published and entitled as, “The Four Faultless Felons.” Tying it all together is a prologue and epilogue on a model of virtue know as Count Raoul de Marillac.
As always, GKC has a way of turning matters on their head, and looking at them upside down in a way that is uniquely Catholic. The Prologue of the Pressman does just that. Reading it, I can’t help but think he was on to something here, with asceticism turned on its head as “the penance of boredom.” Don’t judge a book by its cover… (more…)
But we also have to lead them by example. Sheep leading the shepherds? Bear with me a minute.
The other day, I wrote a post on why we should fight the HHS Mandate. Today, I return to that theme, and expand upon it while clearly sharing the not so earth shattering information that many Catholics in the pews do not care one iota for what the Bishops say about contraception, much less the HHS Mandate. (more…)
My Chinese Catholic friend, John C.H. Wu wrote several works that I have enjoyed reading over the past several years. I’ve shared posts with you from several of his books, namely Beyond East and West, The Science of Love, and Interior Carmel, the Threefold Way of Love. It is not for nothing that Frank Sheed called John “the Chinese Chesterton.” (more…)
What the Obama Administration doesn’t seem to understand is a truth that needs only to be uttered in the calmest and softest of whispers. The Church will never support the HHS Mandate, because the Church can never knowingly commit a sin.
Though She is chock full of sinners (100% certified, grade-A sinners, by the way), with low-end mucky-mucks like me (surely one of the greatest of them) spilling over her gunwales, She herself is supernaturally free from the stain of sin. And that’s not something that Joe Six-Pack just made up to make himself feel better, either. It’s a supernatural truth that needs no banging of gongs or clashing of cymbals to precede it. (more…)
I always liked Wyoming. During the summer between my junior and senior year of college, my wife and I traveled to Jackson Hole for a conference she was attending for work. White water rafting, Yellowstone National Park, the Grand Tetons…what’s not to like? (more…)
Yes, yesterday was Sunday but you know what else it was? It was the Feast of St. Barbara. As a former member of November Battery, 5th Battalion, 14th Marines, let me tell you something: This is a feast day celebrated throughout the entire US Armed Forces in the Artillery Community. Knowing that, doesn’t this prayer intention make more sense? (more…)
At least this has been my experience. Perhaps this poem by Emily Henrietta Hickey can help me explain. (more…)
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