The enemies of Christ, those who serve the cause of the ruler of this world, include the soothsayers of all false peace, the clients of easy accommodations, the mystical whisperers of seductive but superficial harmony draped in the fading popularity of this world. John 14: 27-31a comes right after Jesus’ teaching on the indwelling of [...]
When we encounter Christ and he asks, “Do you love me?” we can say “Yes” and know that all will be made well, for love will make good all the defects in our work and in ourselves. But without it, all our good work is nothing. No one would confuse my sisters’ and my art [...]
"The 'contact' between seen and unseen is not a secret formula but a person," says artist Martin Earle. "The ultimate justification for Christian art is that the infinite God has taken the initiative, revealing Himself in a finite form. This is the form we encounter sacramentally in the Mass, and it is the form sacred [...]
Were Tolkien and Chesterton correct in defining the English as inherently inert and slavishly slothful? Smile at us, pay us, pass us; but do not quite forget; For we are the people of England, that never have spoken yet. —G. K. Chesterton (The Secret People) It is June 9, 1941. Britain is at war. J. [...]
Here is Nazareth, the neediest of Israel’s villages, well known as a place of dishonour. And yet, instead of celebrating their local celebrity, the people were filled with scepticism at Jesus’ works. "Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary?" Matthew 13: 54-58 recounts an episode in which Jesus visits Nazareth [...]
For the wage-earner of today, access to the resources of nature can be had only through wages. This means that the industrial community in which he lives, and for which he labors, shall provide him with the requisites of a decent livelihood in the form of living wages. When we consider man’s position in relation [...]
True union with God comes not by escaping time but by coursing through it with Christ, its creator and consummator. If God is the author of time, and if by His divine decree we find ourselves immersed in time, fated to swim amid the ebb and flow of temporality, is it even thinkable that God [...]
It requires no great zeal in us, no great charity, to come to you at no risk, and entreat you to turn from the path of death, and be saved. It requires nothing great, nothing heroic, nothing saint-like; it does but require conviction, and that we have, that the Catholic Religion is given from God [...]
At Baptism, all of us became like Christ, and were entrusted with a mission like his as priest, prophet, and king. During this Easter season, may we rejoice in the gift of sharing this unique identity and mission with the resurrected Christ. Have you noticed any themes in the prayers at Mass this Easter season? [...]
Ambrose successfully drove out the Arian heresy from his diocese. The odds were often stacked against the saint. But in these difficulties, Ambrose relied on the spiritual weapons that Christ gave him. Imagine that your city has been breached by attackers. You are tasked with defending your homeland, but you have no weapons. What should [...]
Since we are not greater than our Master, the recourse He invokes is our recourse also: we can, like Him, call upon the name of the Lord, of the Father, and thus we will in the end be delivered from our enemies because we know the Father. John 15: 18-21 comes from the discourse of [...]
Peter Giersch's "Talking of Michelangelo" is an account of his trip to a French monastery to plunge into a week-long Ignatian retreat. But who wants to read about the inner musings of someone’s religious retreat? Happily, the most likely answer is: You do. Peter Giersch has been a French teacher, a catechist, a business entrepreneur [...]
Your very hands, once folded peacefully beneath the earth, will once again be vigorously poised up high to the praise of God. And in that eternal moment of sharing God’s perfect victory, we can even enjoy a most glorious high five with our triumphant Savior, our Lord, and our friend. After straining your whole being [...]
There are within all of us innumerable drives and urges that if allowed to rule would destroy us. If we are not consciously and daily engaged in the spiritual combat that calls upon us to act selflessly, then we will be unable to admit the New Man which is Christ, so that he can do [...]