A beauty-first approach recovers a sense of life as a great adventure. To be human is to be disposed to fall in love with reality, to be struck by the beauty of the things of this world and thus, through the wound it opens in our heart, to be drawn into reality, to want to penetrate [...]
Holy Saturday, nestled between two days of such great weight, gives us a chance to ponder the extent of God’s saving plan. Christ descended to the bowels of the earth so that he could bring us up from the pit of sin. When we find ourselves in an abyss of sinfulness, we need not despair: [...]
Unlike the mute stones surrounding Jesus during that great procession of the first Holy Week, let us hail his arrival with shouts. As Jesus approaches our stony hearts, let us cry out, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out” (Luke 19:40). As our Lord [...]
Only a people who accepts a moral foundation of its culture, a protection of its property, the decentralization of power, and a “national humility” will in the long run survive. Once a people forgets its purpose, it will fall into decadence. The nineteenth century witnessed the flourishing of progressivist thought: in social relations, political relations, [...]
Christ has called us each in a particular way to labor in his vineyard here and now and witness to the truth of the gospel in our daily lives. To live that call—that vocation—our hearts must be open to the grace that Christ is offering to us in the circumstances of his providence. In two days, my [...]
Our need for affirmation in the workplace easily takes the place of Jesus, who alone can free us and give us the grace to crush the idols we keep on our desks. We need to receive His easy yoke and reclaim our identities as children of God. Relentless ambition surrounded me when I lived in [...]
Depart from me, Lord. Depart from me, for I am a sinful man. Why have you come to me? Why have you called me? You know me. You’ve searched me . . . And so you already know there’s nothing that you will find in me. I have nothing to offer you. Only weakness. Weakness and [...]
Consider Jesus hanging on the cross. Observe the cuts on his body from being scourged and violently stripped of his clothes. See the gashes made from falling under the weight of his heavy cross. Notice the torn flesh of his pierced hands and feet. Look him in the eyes as blood drips down his face. [...]
Our Blessed Mother wants nothing more for us than to have a true relationship with her Son. In the current storm of misinformation, our Lady acts as a shield to protect the orthodoxy of our faith that keeps our eyes and hearts fixed on Christ. After a previous attempt, I wish to promote another title for [...]
Today, threatened by the new barbarism and the new paganism, we would be wise to postpone speculative reasoning and look to Thomas Aquinas for his example of true reverence before the Holy Eucharist, concentration and recollection in prayer, perfect obedience, love of poverty, and passion for sacred music. The Story A few months before his [...]
Jesus Christ teaches that we totally rely on his grace to possess friendship with him, to resist temptation, and to perform good works. Our Lord taught this to his Apostles the evening before he courageously suffered his Passion and purchased that grace for us: As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides [...]