Note: Citing what I regard as a significant insight from an important author clearly does not imply an unconditional endorsement of the author’s entire philosophy, theology or worldview. SH ~~ — Excerpt from Mariology by Michael Schmaus in The Concise Sacramentum Mundi edited by theologian Karl Rahner. Michael Schmaus (17 July 1897 – 8 December 1993)… Read More Christology and Mariology. Karl Rahner.
If we meet a Muslim who is hungry we must try to feed him, if he is homeless, we must try to find him shelter; if a Muslim we know is emotionally or physically hurting, we must seek to tend to his wounds as a brother in Adam. Immigration Many of us in the West… Read More Islam and Our Grandchildren
One body, one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one Father of us all” — Eph. 4: 4-6 Every ecclesial community brings its tradition(s) to bear in the exegesis and understanding of Scripture. Even independent Protestant Fundamentalist pastors and larger Protestant denominations(1) employ their traditions [i.e., their received community understanding of texts] as a… Read More Catholicism, Tradition and Protestantism
By Father Gabriel of St Mary Magalene, 1953. O Lord, increase my confidence in Your help and grant that in this confidence, I may always find courage to begin again. What most distresses souls of good will who are seriously trying to live a spiritual life, is to find themselves falling so many times, despite… Read More The Courage To Begin Yet Again
By Robert Coles |The New Oxford Review.September 1983. Note: Edith Stein was martyred in 1942 (aged 50) at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Gau Upper Silesia, German-occupied Poland. She was beatified by Pope John Paul II in Cologne on May 1, 1987. Among the 20th-century conversions to Roman Catholicism, that of Edith Stein is surely one of the most edifying and memorable.… Read More Edith Stein’s Cross
Karol Wojtyla (JPII) wrote, “A non-Catholic philosopher once said to me: ‘You know, I just can’t stop myself reading and rereading and thinking over the first three chapters of Genesis.’ And indeed it seems to me that unless one does so reflect upon that fundamental Ensemble of facts and situations it becomes extremely difficult if… Read More John Paul II on the Most Decisive Confrontation —and History’s ‘Last Lap’
“LORD JESUS CHRIST, Who revealed the infinite mercy of Thy SACRED HEART in saying, Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you (Matt. 5:44), and again, Bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you (Luke 6:28): Give me, I beseech Thee, grace to obey these commandments of Thine and to… Read More Beginning Again. A Prayer of Forgiveness, Reparation, and Penitential Love.
New Oxford Review, May 2025 and Fox News. The Face of Evil. Authorities in Kansas are investigating a possible hate crime after St. Patrick Church in Wichita suffered “extensive vandalism,” including the beheading of a statue of St. Patrick, the breaking of candles and windows, the burning of an American flag, and the scrawling of… Read More Terror in the Church
“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
“When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, 14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from… Read More The Climate Has Changed
“… 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
By Fr. Gabriel of St Mary Magalene, 1953 Grant, O Lord, that by Your grace I may persevere unto the end. 1. To become a saint, it is not enough to be courageous and patient and to practice the other virtues for a few days or a few months, or even for a few years.… Read More Perseverance
“Justice leads us to render to each one what is his due. But when it is a question of justice to God our Creator (Gen. 1:1), we can never succeed in giving Him all that we owe Him, in making Him a suitable return for all His gifts, in paying Him the worship and homage… Read More Why Natural Religion Cannot Save Us
“AT least 750,000 people are on the brink of starvation and death in Sudan, where a devastating civil war has left over half the country’s 48 million people in a situation of chronic hunger, the global authority on famine says. At least 14 areas across the country are near famine, including some in the capital,… Read More Ongoing Starvation and Persecution in Sudan
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
St. Paul. Phillipians 1: “I want you to know, brethren, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, 13 so that it has become known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ; 14 and most of the brethren have been made confident in the Lord… Read More Prison Amidst Rivalry and Good Will
Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen writes, “If we save our life in this world, we lose it in the next; if we lose our life in this world, we save it in the next. If we sow in sin, we reap corruption; if we sow in truth, we reap life everlasting. But we cannot do both.… Read More The fast or the feast?
“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all iniquity. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his… Read More If We Say
“Turn not aside after ill-gotten gain, neither say: This life is all I need―for when the hour of vengeance cometh, the hour when thou shalt have all things taken from thee, this life will be nothing to thee. When thou art lusty, follow not the desire of thine heart, neither say: How can I do… Read More “Turn Not Aside” We Are Told.
Everything is changing. The Medium Is so ubiquitous we often become unaware of it. Which is no small part of the problem. We dwell totally within technological media today and observe it less and less. But (practicing Catholic) Marshall McLuhan saw it clearly and tried to warn us of what was coming — and how… Read More Marshall McLuhan, Prophetic Witness, 1966-7.
By Karl Keating, New Oxford Review “…I have a favorite line from Pope Leo XIII. It’s from Rerum Novarum (1891), the first of the social encyclicals. Nearly every pope since his time has written one or more social encyclicals. The line I remember isn’t quite as Leo wrote it. Often we remember lines a little… Read More A Life’s Worth of Failure, an Abundance of Gratitude
Brother Andre Marie of the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Richmond, New Hampshire writes regarding the memo retraction, “… To what do we owe the change? I believe that there has been a heightened consciousness that the Southern Poverty Law Center is, in the words of C.J. Doyle, “a lucrative bunco scheme which… Read More FBI Retracts Bogus, SPLC-Based Memo
Penitential Practices for Today’s Catholics was originally published as a resource for the Jubilee Year 2000. U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. This resource is presented as a pastoral tool for cultivating the penitential practices in one’s daily life. While its focus is limited to a discussion of the Church’s penitential practices, it serves to promote these… Read More Penitential Practices for Catholics
James 4:2: “you have not, because you ask not.“ The great Doctor of the Church, Saint Alphonsus de Liguori, wrote, “The absolute necessity of prayer is taught throughout the Holy Scriptures, and by all the holy Fathers; while, on the other hand, I see that Christians are very careless in their practice of this great… Read More “Those who pray will be saved, those who do not will be lost”
Catholic Critique 