By Thomas Merton. ONE of the most disturbing facts that came out in the Eichmann trial was that a psychiatrist examined him and pronounced him perfectly sane. I do not doubt it at all, and that is precisely why I find it disturbing. If all the Nazis had been psychotics, as some of their leaders… Read More A Devout Meditation in Memory of Adolf Eichmann
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
by Stephen Hand In Evelyn Waugh’s stunning classic, Brideshead Revisited, there is a scene which presses on my mind these days as I ponder so many forces gathering against a Church weakened greatly by the sins of her own children, both clerical and lay. All of us. It is the time when Sebastian, Lord Alex… Read More Lord Marchmain’s Long Hate
“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.
“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
“I wrote Letters from the Desert sitting on the arid dunes of the Sahara. They cost me ten years of suffering, and I love them for that. I tried to place myself naked, poor and alone, in the presence of God’s eternal majesty, totally committed to penetrating the logic of the Gospels, which is inexhaustible. I tried… Read More Carlo Carretto on the Pain of Failing
On overcoming. St. Augustine teaches, “When the unlawful pleasure of concupiscence tempts you, fight, resist, do not consent; and the saying is fulfilled, Go not after thy desires.” Still further, he says elsewhere that of two persons who have the same temptation to impurity, it sometimes happens that one consents to it and the other… Read More Predominant Sin of Our Times
St. Bernard declared forcefully, “[You may say] I have committed a great sin. My conscience will be troubled but I will not despair because I remember the wounds of my Lord. For indeed, He was wounded for our iniquities. What sin is there so deadly that it cannot be remitted through the death of Christ?… Read More Never to despair
Galatians 2:20. “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalene, who died… Read More Reparation
This is no ordinary talk / book (perfectly narrated here). It is extraordinary even by Fulton J. Sheen’s standard. Lay persons and clergy both need to hear its message in our troublesome time. A time which assaults our very souls: “Day after day, Christians struggle to do good, to avoid evil, and to take up… Read More Spiritual Warfare: Victory Over Vice by Archbishop Fulton J Sheen
… in the face of Tribulations. The great modern Thomist, Josef Pieper, writes, “Fortitude … does not mean mere fearlessness. That man alone is brave who cannot be forced, through fear of transitory and lesser evils, to give up the greater and actual good, and thereby bring upon himself that which is ultimately and absolutely… Read More Christians, Called to Endure
Trent Horn: “A lot of people think St. Francis of Assisi was just a hippie who preached the “serenity prayer” to animals. But did you know St. Francis actually preached on the fires of hell and didn’t say many of the sayings we attribute to him? It’s time to meet “the real St. Francis”! “…What… Read More The Real St. Francis
The Imitation of Christ, Thomas a Kempis. “All men naturally desire to know; but what good is knowledge without the fear of God? Indeed a humble husbandman who serves God is better than a proud philosopher who neglects his soul to study the course of the stars. He who knows himself well becomes mean in… Read More Every man naturally desires knowledge
How many futile roads there are in this life. I have strayed or backslid into some of them in the course of my life. Somehow the Lord reached after me and pointed the way to repentance and penance. 2 Cor. 7:10: “For the sorrow that is according to God worketh penance, steadfast unto salvation; but the… Read More Penance
Amy Welborn. When Andre Dubus passed away in his Haverhill, Massachusetts home February 25, [1999] obituaries noted the loss of one of America’s finest writers of the short story and certainly one of the most interesting and inspiring figures on the contemporary literary scene. What the secular newspapers failed to emphasize, however, was Dubus’ faith… Read More Andre Dubus 1936-1999
Day after day a million confused emotions ebbed and flowed and sometimes clashed within him. After a time, when he had come to feel particularly ill, and knew that he would soon be placing himself into Hospice, he wondered what he should do at last. It is said that there are two kinds of people:… Read More Seeing The First time
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