Love, Christians have always known, believes in both good fences as well as shared pastures. We do this by, as St. Thomas defined love, “willing the good of the other”. Peoples who do not think alike and who would not likely live well together can still share much to the benefit of all, the entire… Read More Good Fences, Shared Bounty
A very fine man and fellow traveler, Vermavkv Hello dear friends, Life has a way of asking us questions in moments we least expect. Recently, I came across a simple yet profound question: “What are you most proud of in your life?” At first, I thought about achievements—degrees earned, career milestones, or public recognition. But… Read More Pride in Life: My Achievements
5/14/25/ I don’t know what it is like where you live, but here where I live in, yes, liberal Massachusetts, most immigrants I see on a daily basis appear to be very good and hard working persons. I’ve worked with some myself in the last couple of years taking care of very elderly clients with… Read More Deport Criminals Not Working Refugees Seeking a Way Out of Poverty
Dorothy Day and the spiritually subversive Works of Mercy. Most of us must pay taxes or else we are forbidden to work, and this would put our families in grave jeopardy. Dorothy Day knew this. She chose to work outside of “the system” in service to those in need. But she counseled the rest of… Read More Dorothy Day Rendered Spiritual Gifts to Caesar
“For a more Christian view of life, the best books I have run across are “In Defense of Purity” by Dietrich von Hildebrand … the Encyclical on “Christian marriage” by Pope Pius XI, and the “Nuptial Mass” in the Missal.” — Dorothy Day. Her Faith was ever the same.. The Distributism Review. Dorothy Day wrote, “I… Read More Dorothy Day’s Cross
Or, how a modern psychologist had it out for the Catholic Church and joined forces with the so-called Progressives to wreck her sacred tradition. Carl Ransom Rogers (January 8, 1902 – February 4, 1987) was an American psychologist who was one of the founders of humanistic psychology and was known especially for his person-centered psychotherapy. Rogers was widely considered… Read More And the ‘Walls’ of Love Came Tumbling Down
“A major area of distress for [Dorothy Day] in the 1970’s was what seemed to her the erosion occurring in the spiritual life of her fellow Catholics, including those in the Catholic Worker movement. More than ever Catholics seemed attentive to social issues she had been raising for forty years, but they were increasingly neglectful… Read More The Real Dorothy Day
“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
CNA. After the Pontifical Academy for Life (PAFL) last month issued a booklet summarizing the Church’s teaching on a number of bioethical issues, the section on “artificial nutrition and hydration” (ANH) has some observers concerned about what they see as a departure from previous Church teaching. The Pontifical Academy for Life was founded in 1994 by St.… Read More Bioethicists scrutinize Pontifical Academy for Life’s new guidance on withdrawing food, water
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
Perhaps most Catholics know her story. Saint Margaret of Castello was born into a well-to-do family near Florence, Italy in 1287. To the great distress of her parents, upon her birth they discovered that she suffered from a variety of severe physical ailments. She was a dwarf, had a curved spine that left her hunched… Read More Patron St. Margaret of Castello
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.
Christs love and service to all, to native born and to foreigners whom we encounter. The Order of Saint John, more commonly called the Order of Malta, lived by its credo, “Our Lords, the Sick and the Poor.” The members of the Order make a promise upon investiture to serve, to the best of their… Read More “Our lords the sick and the poor.”
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
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
“A new generation of communities are integrating hospitality and solidarity with the poor through prayer and Church fidelity, consistent with the vision of the movement’s founders. Emily Lehman, January 10, 2023. National Catholic Register The Catholic Worker movement — with members scattered throughout the U.S. and around the world — provides a compelling encounter with… Read More Putting ‘Catholic’ in the Catholic Worker
Metaphysical Boredom in an Empire of Desire “In the arid wasteland that is academic writing, amid the wider desert that is modern secular thought, R. J. Snell’s book on acedia is an oasis of flowers and fruit and fresh water. Professor Snell reminds us that man must never be made subordinate to work, nor even to the empty… Read More Acedia and Its Discontents
It is not without significance that Divine Mercy Sunday Follows Easter. For Mercy is the fruit of Easter. And Jesus came not to call the righteous but Sinners into his kingdom (Luke 5:32). He came “to seek and to save that which was lost”. Mercy is the revelation of the very heart of God and the Good… Read More Nihilism and the Divine Pity
“We should strive to keep our hearts open to the sufferings and wretchedness of other people, and pray continually that God may grant us that spirit of compassion which is truly the spirit of God.” —Saint Vincent de Paul I have a close friend who recently was in surgery to have a shoulder torn apart… Read More When the Sick Were Expected to Rest When Ill or Broken
Catholic Critique 