When after hundreds of years the LORD finally heard the prayers and cries of his people in Egypt and delivered them from slavery under Pharaoh, he led them into the desert where they suffered for another 40 or so years. And the people were not happy about it: Then they said to Moses, “Was it because there… Read More Real Faith is Not For the Fainthearted
…Last Sermon on the Immaculate Conception by Pope John Paul II Wednesday, 8 December 2004 1. “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!” (Lk 1: 28). We address the Virgin Mary several times a day with these words of the Archangel Gabriel. Let us repeat them with fervent joy today, on the Solemnity… Read More “By One and the Same Decree.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, “Being in the image of God the human individual possesses the dignity of a person, who is not just something, but someone. He is capable of self-knowledge, of self-possession and of freely giving himself and entering into communion with other persons. And he is called by grace to… Read More The Image of God in Our Turning Techno-logical Moment
Josef Pieper, the renowned Thomist, in his 1953 study, The Silence of St. Thomas (St. Augustine’s Press, South Bend, Indiana) reminds theologians and students of St. Thomas Aquinas that while Pope Pius XI in his 1923 Encyclical Studiorum Ducem insisted that the Angelic Doctor is to be esteemed by all Schools of Theology, he also reminded all… Read More St. Thomas Aquinas and the “Life-blood” of Catholic Theology
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.
“…that you may know how you ought to behave yourself self in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” — 1 Timothy 3:15 The living Word of God dwells within, and never apart from, the Pillar and Ground of Truth, the Interpreting Church… Read More White Lies
Fundamentalist Protestant incomprehension of the Catholic doctrine regarding Mary as the Mother of God is largely and essentially an incomprehension of the Incarnation itself, whereby the Word, who is God, was made flesh (John 1:1; 14). It is rooted in a failure to contemplate, with the Catholic Church, the stupendous implications of this wondrous mystery.… Read More Our Blessed Mother, Mary, in the Order of Grace
Everything which comes to pass has been foreseen by God from all eternity, and has been willed or at least permitted by Him. (Rom.8:28) Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange “Nothing comes to pass either in the material or in the spiritual world, but God has foreseen it from all eternity; because with Him there is no passing from… Read More Garrigou-Lagrange: Everything Which Comes to Pass…
Reginald Garrigou Lagrange and St. Alphonsus Ligouri 1. Catholic Thomist Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange’s Summary of Predestination: “Herein lies the great mystery of grace: it’s two aspects which are to be harmonized, may be expressed in the following manner: this mystery contains a striking light and shade: The light is expressed in two principles; the shade is… Read More Harmony and Differences on Predestination in Catholic Theology
Catholic Critique 