Thoughts on the Influence of Old Prejudice
One day I was driving a fair distance to a York Regional Forest Trail to walk my dog and realized I had forgotten my phone, so my only other option besides silence was to listen to AM talk radio. I...
Tagged: discernment
A Parable on Immigration
Several years ago, Pope Francis approved the Instruction promulgated by the Dicastery for Consecrated Life called Cor orans. This document laid out precise directions for the updating of the life of contemplative nuns. One of the most startling directions was...
New Vatican rules for Miracles and Apparitions
Today the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) released “Listening to the Spirit Who Works in the Faithful People of God,” a new set of norms for discerning alleged supernatural phenomena, such as apparitions, miracles, visions, and other...
Choosing the Way of Christ
A reflection on the scripture readings for Sunday, August 22, 2023 — the Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time I want to reflect on a simple quote from St. Augustine of Hippo regarding today’s gospel reading: “We are God’s money. But...
Brian Armbrustmacher – Vocation and Discernment
In a Pope Francis Generation first, this interview was recorded in-person at my house. (If you’re watching on Youtube, you’ll see that we recorded this conversation in my wife, Kristina’s, art studio for her business, Painted Sanctuary.) For this episode, I...
World Youth Day: A City of vocations and sacraments
LISBON, August 4, 2023 — Among many other initiatives meant to bring pilgrims into a deeper relationship with Christ, the World Youth Day (WYD) organized the “City of Joy,” promoting vocations and the sacraments. Set in the gardens sprawling before...
How to Get What I Want
Recently, Michael Sean Winters published an article entitled “How will a synodal church embody the virtue of obedience?” He shows that the Paschal mystery is accomplished through the obedience of Jesus, and indeed, the Church itself exists in through the...
Pope Francis: Good discernment requires self-knowledge
This week, Pope Francis delivered part 4 of his Catechesis on Discernment, this time speaking about the vital role of self-knowledge in discernment. Sometimes when we are don’t know what we really want or who we are. We learn who...
Pope Francis, discernment, and spontaneity
One of the transformational moments in my spiritual journey was the realization that in order to grow in faith and my relationship with God, I would have to learn to live with tension and uncertainty. Accepting and living with tension...
Discerning good questions from bad questions
Authentic dialogue depends on asking and answering good questions. It is often hard to distinguish good questions from bad ones, however. Luke’s Gospel records two seemingly similar questions in response to angelic messages. When Zechariah was told that his wife...
The Improvised Life
This article is dedicated to Paul Fahey who by a post published on SmartCatholics galvanized some volatile thoughts to come together and form an article. Thank you, Paul! I enjoy reading articles about science–when they are written in a way...
More Lessons from the 49ers
We saw in an earlier article how the experiences of miners during the Gold Rush can illustrate some facets of the discernment of spirits. An inexperienced gold miner could mistake pyrite or Fool’s Gold for real gold and be led...
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