Any bit of contrition
Always lost for words, I never knew what to say to God as I tried to focus my attention on him at Sunday Mass. I admit that I did not always find Mass interesting. I attended every week mostly out...
Tagged: faith
Lord, Increase Our Faith
A scripture reflection for October 2, 2022, the 27th Sunday of Ordinary Time. You may remember “The Secret Life of Mother Teresa,” the September 3, 2007 Time Magazine cover story about St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Journalist David Van Biema...
Blessed John Paul I’s Letter to Jesus
Editor’s Note: Today’s beatification of Pope John Paul I came up on me quickly. Earlier this year, I planned to write an apologia in favor of his cause for canonization, in response to critics who say that too many popes...
A faith built upon the love of God
Early in the pontificate of Pope Francis I was, generally speaking, what could be called a “Francis skeptic.” To be honest I didn’t pay that much attention to him at first. As the father of three little kids, I primarily...
Faith, Science, and Trust
A Scripture reflection for the Second Sunday of Easter, April 24, 2022 – Divine Mercy Sunday. Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed. (John 20:29) At first glance, this verse sounds like a trite caricature of religious...
Claiming Your Faith In A Broken Church
On Tuesday of next week, February 22, 2022, I will be taking part in an online event sponsored by the Cenacle Sisters and moderated by Mark Piper, their director for Ministry and Mission Advancement. I will be joined on the...
Benedict’s trust in the Church and his loyalty to Francis
I’ve read much from Pope Benedict on the matter of papal primacy in the last few years, and it strikes me as interesting that unlike the other popes of the last century and a half, he almost always proposes a...
Blame Yourself
On Sunday, August 29th, Pope Francis provided a brief exegesis of the day’s Gospel passage from Mark, in which Jesus berated the hypocrites who “honor God with their lips” but whose hearts are far from him. For those who have...
Empty churches and the “secularization” excuse
The debate that began with Giorgio Gawronski’s February 22 article in L’Osservatore Romano, “Empty churches and integral humanism,” is one of the few interesting discussions currently stirring in Catholic thought. Writing on an issue that has since been taken up...
New Weekly Program from WPI: The Critical Catholic
There is a crisis in Catholicism that is only getting worse, and it is marked by a lack of critical thinking and a disrespect for the actual or empirical truth. Post-truth Catholicism is as much of a threat as the...
Interpreting Scripture’s divine element
Unpacking Vatican II Dei Verbum chapter 3, part 8 In previous posts, I’ve explored what Dei Verbum says about how to interpret Scripture in light of its human authorship. Those principles of exegesis are essential for correctly interpreting what the...
The Self-Defeating Christian Commentariat
The lack of the unity in the Church in recent years has given rise to more than just a penchant for irrational scientific beliefs and moral dogmatism. It has also allowed the sin of vainglory to flourish and find new...
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