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 Carlo Carretto, 1910 – 1988 (*). Carlo Carretto PFE was an Italian Catholic and member of the Little Brothers of the Gospel. See other links at this website. His books can be purchased at Amazon.com. ~~~ “Charles de Foucauld said one day: “If the contemplative life were possible only behind monastic walls or in the silence… Read More Contemplation in the Streets
Good Fences, Shared Bounty. Can it ever be wise to separate compassion, reasonable limits and common sense? If you have followed the immigration debates in the West in recent decades you will have long ago gotten a glimpse of the fears, greed, fanaticism and wars which, often enough, make many peoples in our post 9/11… Read More Immigration, Birds of a Feather and Trojan Horses
And Fulton J Sheen on the meaning of Palm Sunday. Homily of Benedict XVI, Palm Sunday, 2006. To understand what occurred on Palm Sunday and to know what it meant not only for that time but for all times, a detail is important, which became for his disciples the key to understand that event when,… Read More “The Cross Is the Tree of Life” – Benedict XVI
The hollowest sunken-eyed 90 poundforsaken waif, kicking papers under the night’s dim street lamps, is looking for repose, every bit as much as you or I, loaded with sins and hope. It is wrong. It’s wrong, to walk by without a look at him or her who could have been you or I, servicing another… Read More You or I
“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.
“Dickens must have known it would have worked on the consciences of the Parliamentarians too, as it did!” At least for a time. “By advocating that population should be controlled voluntarily through birth control, abstinence, or delayed marriage – or involuntarily, and through the scourges “of war, famine, and disease,” [Thomas] Malthus was derided by his peers… Read More Scrooge and Thomas Malthus
National Catholic Register. With a saintly long-ranging spiritual vision, Ven. Fulton J. Sheen saw the roots of today’s crisis firmly planted and growing in 1974, but he gave us an antidote. Joseph Pronechen July 29, 2018 “First of all, we are at the end of Christendom,” Archbishop Fulton Sheen solemnly said during a television show in… Read More Archbishop Sheen’s Warning of a Crisis in Christendom. 1974.
And the Deep Truths in Fritz Eichenberg’s ‘The Lord’s Supper‘. The other side of the Eucharist is friendship. It often happens that week after week, year after year, Christians sit and kneel next to practical strangers in church on Sundays. They leave Mass as they entered, nodding and saying hello to people they do not… Read More Strangers in the Pews
Updated. Is the local government and local church involved in seeking to help? Why do some US cities struggle more with homelessness? A new book explores a key component of the issue: housing supply. [ Note / SH]: Illegal Substance Use Data also “show high rates of comorbid disorders such as anxiety disorders—which include generalized… Read More Homelessness, Housing Supply — and Co-morbid Disorders.
In one of Saint Therese of Lisieux’s favorite books, End of the Present World and the Mysteries of the Future Life, the author, Fr. Charles Arminjon (1824-1885) writes among many important things on the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus. And he draws a most important moral Gospel lesson: “There are circumstances when even… Read More Even the Wicked Are Rewarded In This Life.
“If You wish me to be in darkness, I shall bless You. And if You wish me to be in light, again I shall bless You. If You stoop down to comfort me, I shall bless You, and if You wish me to be afflicted, I shall bless You forever.” — Thomas a Kempis, Imitation of Christ,… Read More In Darkness, A Light Too Bright for Our Eyes
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
I DECLARE I have the grace I need for today. I am full of power, strength, and determination. Nothing I face will be too much for me. I will overcome every obstacle, outlast every challenge, and come through every difficulty better off than I was before. This is my declaration. — via #women of prayer
Kills Babies, Injures Women The Supreme Court is allowing continued sales of the dangerous abortion pill that kills babies and has killed and injured women. The vote was 7-2, with Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissenting. The nation’s highest court ruled [April 21] in an unsigned order that the abortion drug mifepristone can continue… Read More Supreme Court Allows Continued Sales of Abortion Pill
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
By Pieter Vree | New Oxford Review. We all must beg God’s mercy. It was a Thursday afternoon. I was working from home and had just finished a coffee break with my wife when one of the neighbors called through my front screen door, “Come quickly. There’s been an emergency.” I rushed to her house,… Read More Death Doesn’t Discriminate
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