Author: S&P
Three Ways to Unthaw Your Frozen Calling
“I’m learning to yield to Your will and timing. Rather than striving to be in control, I need to spend more time seeking Your Face.” – Jesus Listens, February 23 Conflict stirred within as I attempted to blend into the audience. The secret struggles in my heart felt exposed as the conference speaker addressed the crowd. Frozen callings “There are frozen callings in this congregation,” she declared...
Thanks to CT scans, here’s what Ramses II, the possible pharaoh of the Israelite Exodus, probably looked like…..
Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II, who ruled for 66 years during the Nineteenth Dynasty and may have been the pharaoh who persecuted the Israelites in the Bible’s Book of Exodus, is often portrayed as a handsome man. Thanks to advancements in science and technology, we have realistic images of how Ramesses II looked in his prime around age 45. Photo Credit: Pexels To recreate the pharaoh’s face, the he...
Journey through Lent with the help of St. Thomas Aquinas…
“There’s a meditation for every single day of Lent, typically about two pages long…focusing primarily on Scripture and on teachings of the Church Fathers. And yet, there’s enough in each of those two pages — that meditation — that if you started that early in the morning, it will give you plenty to chew on, to ruminate, to ponder again throughout the day, in ways that will ...
How to deal with the “One God Further” objection of atheists like Richard Dawkins…
The atheist Richard Dawkins said, “We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further.” As the philosopher Bill Vallicella put it, “Given that everyone is an atheist with respect to some gods, one may as well make a clean sweep and be an atheist with respect to all gods.” One way of understanding the “one God further” objection is as a...
Cardinal McElroy seems to think the Church has been exaggerating her sexual moral teaching for 2,000 years. This is a serious and dangerous error…..
Joseph F. Naumann is Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas. by Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann I came of age in the 1960s. It was an era of civil unrest, race riots, anti-war protests and the sexual revolution. One of the popular bumper stickers at the time stated: Question Everything. These societal events coincided with the sessions of the Second Vatican Council and its early imple...
Jesus never rejected anyone, we’re often told. True. But plenty of people rejected Him — which is really the point…..
The bishops of Europe – together with dozens of clerical and lay participants – met in Prague last week as part of the “continental phase” of the Synod on Synodality. A final report is expected shortly (for some preliminary indications of tone and substance, click here). Synodality is a concept that many continue to find fuzzy – and worrying. Some Synodal leaders have – paradoxically – tried to re...
Local Catholics ‘Shocked’ at Cardinal McElroy’s Warning of Possible Bankruptcy for Diocese of San Diego After Flood of Sex-Abuse Lawsuits…
SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — Several parishioners leaving Saint Joseph’s Cathedral on Sunday morning were “shocked” to find out the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego is considering filing for bankruptcy. “Everyone was reacting in different ways,” said one man, referring to the moment when a letter revealing financial concerns for the Diocese was read aloud. The letter details...
Spend time before the Blessed Sacrament and learn to do nothing. Silence may save your soul…..
“All of man’s misfortune comes from one thing, which is not knowing how to sit quietly in a room.” Blaise Pascal, who offers this insight, also notes in his Pensées that we fear silence more than anything else and seek constant distraction. No one in the past had as many distractions as we do today, making it entirely possible to spend the whole day immersed in images, text and noise. Without the ...
This trove of prayers can be had for less than the price of a Super Bowl ticket, with a much better return on investment…..
A treasure trove of prayer instruction is available for lots less than the price of a Super Bowl ticket, with a better return on investment. Want to see fewer ads on Aleteia?Sign up for our Premium service. It’s FREE! Click here In 1 Thessalonians 5, we encounter the famous exhortation to pray without ceasing. Some souls, however, question the value of any prayer, let alone the perpetual var...
I don’t like where we are headed. We’re running out of goods to reject or destroy. We’re almost at the point of no return…..
When was the last time you received an awkward compliment? How did you respond? How would you respond to this one? “Father’s homilies are really distinctive—they have a beginning, a middle, and an end!” What do you think the speaker was getting at? Perhaps he was referring to a kind of public speaking (I wouldn’t call it “preaching”) that is illustrated by “The Three C’s—Commence, Continue, Cease....
Loving and Devout, Inside and Out…
6th Sunday in Ordinary TimeBy Fr. Victor Feltes Something Christians may not realize is that the Pharisees and scribes were admired in Israel. Many Jews looked up to them for their religiosity and learning in a culture which celebrated their shared religion. But Jesus criticized the scribes and Pharisees for caring more about outward appearances than the heart of true devotion. “All their works ar...
These two new books will teach you about Christian poetry and help you fall in love with it…..
It might be odd to say, but one prominent virtue of two new anthologies of Christian poetry is their prose. The Saint Mary’s Book of Christian VerseChosen and introduced by Edward Short; foreword by Dana Gioia412 pages, Gracewing, 2022 Christian Poetry in America Since 1940: An AnthologyEdited by Micah Mattix and Sally Thomas205 pages, Iron Pen, 2022 It might be odd to say, but one prominent virtu...
