(1) The Odyssey, an epic Greek poem [attributed to Homer], tells the story of King Odysseus and his heroic struggle against the gods. The tale begins when the ship of Odysseus is blown off course on the way home from the Trojan Wars. In his effort to get home, Odysseus lands on an island where… Read More Lashed to the Mast
How can we know the Way? “Thy Word is a light to my feet and a lamp to my path.” Psalm 119:105 By Way of The Cross He leads us through both light and darkness. “My son, trust not to thy present feeling, for it will soon give way to another. As long as you… Read More Thomas a Kempis: “Do Not Trust Feelings”
Originally Titled ‘A Catholic Flavored Commentary on Romans 7. By Craig Truglia, Sept. 2015. With the help of Augustine, we undergo exegeting perhaps the most confusing chapter of the Bible. Does a Christian, who is dead to sin, still sin? Can he lose his salvation? Is he even the one sinning? What is the Flesh?… Read More Romans 7 and our Spiritual – Existential Predicament
In a time of deep confusions, as the Church appears to be receding from the market places and thought of the world, all the more the Cross emerges in our lives. Hard as it is, this cannot be bad news. There is joy, then, even here where we are. With Him The mystery.
“All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,” Christians and non-Christians alike. “If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”— 1 Jn.1:10 All we, like sheep, have gone astray,each of us has turned to our own way; — Isaiah 53:6 “For… Read More Truth and “Catholic Guilt”
The story is told of an archaeologist scholar who specialized in the earliest era of Christianity. He decided to take some students to visit ancient monasteries near the Sinai in Egypt. He was no believer. Upon arriving at one such site after a long journey he knocked on the entrance door hoping to be allowed… Read More The Scholar and the Abbot
… and a present or future faithful and deeply spiritual Pope. Acts ch. 2: “‘In the latter time, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.18 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit… Read More Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich On the Infiltrations of a Dark Theology…
Aridity and Spiritual Progress By Father Gabriel of St Mary Magdalene, O.C.D. Even without the presence of other causes, it is possible to pass from a state of sensible spiritual fervor to one of absolute aridity. This happens by the direct work of God which makes it impossible for the soul to pray with the help of… Read More If God invites the soul by means of aridity…
“May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. — St. Paul, Galatians 6:14. “Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent,… Read More Kerygma. Finding Our Way Home Again.
Malicious gossip and hatred delights in the troubles of another. It is often manifest, sometimes very subtly, by the sins of whispering and detraction. The apostle John warns: “He who says he is in the light and hates his brother is in the darkness.”— 1 Jn. 2:9 We Christians— no matter how nice, proper or… Read More Religious Whisperers. The Sin of Detraction. “Triple Murder.”
“May the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of all the Saints, whatever good you do and whatever evil you endure, be for you a remedy for sin, an increase of grace, and the reward of eternal life. Go in peace”. — Traditional priestly prayer used with… Read More May the Passion Be For You A Remedy
[As used by the Franciscan Fathers on their missions]. See also: Christ’s Victory Over Death and Postmodern Despair. + First Station: Jesus is Condemned to Death 0 Jesus So meek and uncomplaining, teach me resignation + Second Station: Jesus Carries His Cross My Jesus This Cross should be mine, not Thine! My sins crucified thee!… Read More A Short Way of The Cross
“In an enlightening and profound episode, Michael Knowles sits down with the esteemed Bishop Barron to explore the deep spiritual significance of Easter Sunday and the solemn observances of Holy Week. This interview delves into the heart of the Christian faith, unpacking the mysteries and traditions that define this pivotal time in the Christian calendar.… Read More The Authority of Christ v. The Power of Pontius Pilate
Must listen talks given by the Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen during the season of Lent in 1944. These recordings come from the radio addresses he gave on the Catholic Hour program. Talk 1 – A Word to HumanistsTalk 2 – A Word to SinnersTalk 3 – A Word to the SelfishTalk 4 – A… Read More Archbishop Sheen. A Word to Humanists.
This young woman gets what many theologians have long forgotten or forsaken. May God give her -and all of us- perseverance unto the end. Romans 5:6-11: with a powerful and encouraging word for each of us. Through the blood of Jesus we receive grace to be conformed to the righteousness of God! The life of… Read More Saved From Wrath. Rachel Shares Romans 5:6-11.
“Tribulation worketh patience“—Rom. 5:3 St. Francis de Sales writing of tribulations and patience says that there is always the danger that, “Some word will escape that may sour the heart, and disturb its peace for a considerable time,” But “when nothing is said … the storm subsides, anger and indiscretion are put to flight…” “A… Read More On Patience. By St. Francis de Sales
What Fulton J. Sheen saw so clearly that others seek to forget: We are only sojourners here in a strange and foreign land. “Our whole life ought to be one continued penance“. — Frs. Francis Spirago, Richard F. Clarke on Penance. Joel 2:12-13 “Yet even now,” says the Lord, “return to me with all of your heart,with… Read More Repentance and / or the American Dialectic
“Our peace in this life is found in humbly enduring suffering rather than in being free from it. He who knows best how to suffer will enjoy the greater peace, because he is the conqueror of himself, the master of the world, a friend of Christ, and an heir of heaven.”— Thomas a Kempis, Imitation… Read More The Cross of Jesus Christ and Suffering Love.
Physical condition Besides the stigmata which he bore most of his life and the lifelong periods of the dark Night of the soul, “Padre Pio’s medical reports [from the time he was a young man and then friar], as was evident from the symptoms mentioned in the letters, never showed a clean bill of health.… Read More The Divine Illnesses and “Wasted Body” of Padre Pio of Pietrelcina
“Man cannot get back onto his feet unaided: he needs the help of the Holy Spirit. If he refuses this help, he commits what Christ called “the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit”, “the sin which “will not be forgiven” (Mt 12:31). Why will it not be forgiven? Because it means there is no desire for… Read More Pope John Paul II on the Unpardonable sin
“… don’t think that I am a fool to talk like this. But even if you do, listen to me, as you would to a foolish person, while I also boast a little. I have been put in prison more often, been whipped times without number, and faced death again and again. 24 Five different times the… Read More St. Paul’s Cross
The value of sufferings in Christ By Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, O.C.D. O Jesus Crucified, teach me the science of the Cross. 1. The Passion of Jesus teaches us in a concrete way that in the Christian life we must be able to accept suffering for the love of God. This is a… Read More Personal knowledge of the Cross
“For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you.”— Romans 11 Historian Tom Holland writes, “Not even the gift of the Promised Land had been able to keep Israel from idolatry. ‘They chose new gods.’ In book after book the same cycle was repeated: apostasy, punishment, repentance. Jews, reading of… Read More As It Was For Our Forefathers, So for Ourselves
When Scripture’s creation-based, anthropocentric revelation is rejected, and an evolutionary animal continuum (from amoeba to man) is presupposed as the only reality, then human beings begin taking their cues for behavior from the animal-insect world. This rationalization has reached tragically absurd levels today as witness postmodernist writer Steven Shaviro’s longing for the sexual autonomy of… Read More From Creation and Family to the Petri Dish
This morning I heard some politicians in the UK bemoaning the bewildering numbers of suicides, especially among men, in the West. It was difficult to hear their reports and stories. Mental health. It is not enough to throw more and more money at the problem. If at bottom our deepest unattended personal problems are fundamentally… Read More Politics cannot heal what ails us
CCC 2784: “The free gift of adoption requires on our part continual conversion and new life.“ Philippians 1: 6 I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5: 24 The one who calls you is… Read More Continual Conversion in and towards Christ Daily
“With Romano Guardini, Fr. Pius Parsch is another key player from across the Rhine in the Liturgical Movement. Like Guardini, he was both a theorist and a liturgical “experimenter,” seeking to embody his ideas in new ceremonies. Johann Bruno Parsch was born on May 18, 1884 in Neustift, in Moravia, which was then under the… Read More 50 Years of the New Mass: Pius Parsch
Why did our Lord thirst? It Is Finished. “28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I thirst!” 29 Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there; and they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and put it to His mouth. 30 So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He… Read More The Lord Said ‘I Thirst’
Updated. Fox News: “Pentagon denies secret UFO retrieval program after whistleblower bombshell“. In any case, whatever it all turns out to be, whether altogether mundane or something else, we know that one day Christians can expect “wicked deceptions” to descend upon the earth, originating from “principalities and powers … the rulers of the world of… Read More Rumors of “Aliens”. Deep State(s) Psy-Ops? ‘Signs and Lying Wonders’?
Seven priorities of the next Conclave. A profile of the next Pope, writes Cardinal –two years after the text signed ‘Demos’ (later revealed to have been written by Cardinal Pell) a new anonymous document, linked to the first, defines the seven priorities of the next Conclave to repair the confusion and crisis created by this… Read More Demos II. Seven priorities of the next Conclave.
Modern de facto Paganism often caves to the passions, but in ancient times it was not always so. Stoic wisdom is not theology, but is often good psychology in harmony with Christian ideals. The Magi also brought their gifts. “Finally, brethren, whatsoever is true, whatsoever is honorable, whatsoever is just, whatsoever is pure, whatsoever is… Read More Stoic Gems: The Porch and the Cross
Strive for peace with all men, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. — Hebrews 12:14. I hope. I hope holiness means the striving for holiness. I’ve wanted it, holiness, ever since I was an aimless teenager. Today I am in my seventh decade and I know I am not… Read More How I Hope for Us All.
“It is the truth which is assailed in any age which tests our fidelity. It is to confess we are called, not merely to profess. If I profess, with the loudest voice and the clearest exposition, every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are… Read More Confessing the Faith
Conversion to Truth, while totally fulfilling, is never a light matter (Jn. 14:6; Mt. 11:28-39), because the Truth is the Cross, and the Cross is no picnic. “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” — Jn. 16:33 Jn. 15:20,21 “Remember the word that I said to you,… Read More Converts who take root learn fast that the Church and the Cross are one.
… in Liberalism. And why I can never see the Crucifixion of Our Lord in the same way after Holland’s momentous book Dominion. SH “Crucifixion, the Romans believed, was the worst fate imaginable, a punishment reserved for slaves. How astonishing it was, then, that people should have come to believe that one particular victim of… Read More Historian Tom Holland on Losing His Faith
What did the first Christians believe about the Eucharist? How did they follow Jesus’ command, “Do this in remembrance of me”? How did they celebrate the Lord’s Day? What would they recognize in today’s Mass? The answers may surprise you. In The Mass of the Early Christians, respected author, scholar, and television host Mike Aquilina reveals… Read More The Mass of the Early Christians. Mike Aquilina.
By Thomas a Kempis(b)1380 – (d)1471 It is good for us to have sometimes troubles and adversities: for they make a man enter into himself, that he may know that he is in a state of banishment, and may not place his hopes in anything of this world. It is good that we sometimes suffer contradictions… Read More The Utility of Adversity
Why Catholic Critique? To confess the Faith to any who wish to hear or see. “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom. 10:9)…” “If you continue in my word, then you are my disciples…” (Jn. 8:31) This website is a small,… Read More Catholic Critique
On Confession, by Fr.Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalene, OCD. “Penance is the sacrament of Christ’s Precious Blood in which God — according to the eloquent words of St. Catherine of Siena — “has bathed us in order to cleanse the face of our souls from the leprosy of sin.” If mortal sin only is the… Read More On Confession. By Fr.Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalene, OCD.
Never more timely. Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen (1895-1979). A formidable scholar, prolific author, and Catholic University professor for 23 years, Archbishop Sheen was also a pioneer of the new evangelization. A charismatic radio and television personality and a zealous preacher of the Gospel, his whole-hearted embrace of modern means of communication gave him access… Read More Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen on False Compassion
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