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If you want to teach the faith, follow the model of the Annunciation…
The progression of sound religious instruction begins with a focus on the nourishment of the student’s soul and culminates with the final end toward heaven. All forms of evangelical practice and catechesis share as their central aim the development of an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ, the former involves an introduction into the God’s plan for salvation and our place within it as revealed in Sacred Scripture. The latter involves a clear articulation of the Word of God and the gift of doctrine that is the fruit of God’s communication to man through His son Jesus Christ. The manner a teacher engages a student is very important because the initial entry point is not the introduction of the topic or theme, instead, the first step involves a proclamation that the student is truly love...
The two commandments of tyranny…
(Image: Clay Banks/Unsplash.com) While away recently for a speaking engagement, I sat down to dinner in a parish hall in the time between Mass and my talk. I chatted affably with a couple at our table until the husband got up to get wine. The wife’s countenance shifted and she seethed, “Why weren’t you wearing a mask in Mass?” Taken off guard, I let out a nervous laugh which she imitated back to me with venom. I asked why she felt threatened by me when I was at least ten feet away from her in Mass, but now at dinner felt safe although unmasked and just two feet away. She answered that she’s vaccinated and has trust in the experts’ policy decisions regarding sitting to dinner. Neither the appeal to the vaccine nor to the experts made up for the absurdity of the situation. There is nothing a...
The socialists who love talking to conservatives, and the conservatives who love them back…..
“We’re never going to storm the barricades,” Adler-Bell admitted. But if you’re willing to temporarily overlook their politics, this small cadre of leftist podcasters doesn’t look totally unlike the band of dissident right-wing intellectuals that gathered around National Review in the middle of the 20th century. Their focus might not be on electoral strategy per se, but it would be a mistake to write their project off as completely detached from the messy business of politics. Instead, it’s possible to see it as a half strategic, half therapeutic effort to put the left’s intellectual house in order before it ventures back into the political thicket. Know Your Enemy is a product of its times, but it is also self-consciously removed from them. On the rare occasion Sitman and Adler-Bell take ...
Pope’s Wednesday Audience: The Dying Need Palliative Care and ‘St. Joseph, the Patron of a Good Death,’ Not Euthanasia or Assisted Suicide …
He said: “The so-called ‘feel-good’ culture tries to remove the reality of death, but the coronavirus pandemic has brought it back into focus in a dramatic way. It was terrible: death was everywhere, and so many brothers and sisters have lost loved ones without being able to be near them, and this has made death even harder to accept and process.” The pope explained that Christianity helped believers to face death by presenting it in the light of Christ’s resurrection. “Dear brothers and sisters, it is only through faith in resurrection that we can face the abyss of death without being overwhelmed by fear. Not only that: we can restore a positive role to death,” he said. Death, he said, helps believers to see the troubles of daily life in perspective and shows the paramount importance of c...
That time Muhammad (didn’t) split the moon…
Apologists for Islam usually say the primary miracle that proves the truth of their religion is the unique literary quality of the Quran. But others offer additional miracles allegedly performed by Muhammad, the founder of Islam. One of the claims I addressed, made in a video put out by Muslim apologist Sheik Uthman, is that Muhammad split the moon in two and that several witnesses, including non-Muslims, saw it. First, he points to the Quran as evidence of Muhammad splitting the moon, specifically Sura 54:1-3, which says “The hour has drawn near, and the moon has split. Yet whenever they see a miracle, they turn away, and say, ‘Continuous magic.’ They lied, and followed their opinions, but everything has its time.” But this doesn’t say Muhammad split the moon, nor does it say who saw this...
What can we do about bad bishops and priests? Among other things, we can become one with Jesus Christ, empty ourselves, and suffer…..
By Dr. Jeff Mirus ( bio – articles – email ) | Feb 08, 2022 In response to my commentary of February 1st (Catholic reinterpretation: From fruitfulness to sterility), more than one reader asked how we can remain in obedient communion with the Church when doctrinal, moral and liturgical deficiencies are permitted or at times even encouraged by so many in ecclesiastical authority. Fortunately, the answer to that is quite simple. But in our righteous anger, we often overlook the obvious. What ought to be obvious is that it almost never happens that even the worst pope, bishops, religious superiors and parish priests actually command the faithful to do something evil. Far more than nine-hundred and ninety-nine times out of a thousand, they simply give bad guidance or, if they comman...
Benedict XVI Issues Letter on Munich Abuse Report…
‘The victims of sexual abuse have my deepest sympathy and I feel great sorrow for each individual case.’ Editor’s Note: Benedict XVI released a letter on Tuesday in response to the Munich abuse report. Please find the full letter published with permission below. Vatican City, February 6, 2022 Dear Sisters and Brothers, Following the presentation of the report on abuse in the Archdiocese of Munich-Freising on 20 January last, I feel the need to address a personal word to all of you. Even though I served as Archbishop of Munich and Freising for a little less than five years, I continue to feel very much a part of the Archdiocese of Munich and to consider it home. I would like first to offer a word of heartfelt thanks. In these days marked by examination of conscience and reflection, I ...
Australian police interrupt Mass to check for mask compliance — local archbishop responds by apologizing to the police…
Parishioners recalled the incident as “troubling” and “confronting.” A Catholic Mass in Perth, Australia, was disrupted when police officers stormed in to check if congregants were wearing masks. The authorities interrupted the liturgy after receiving tips about improper mask behavior in St. Bernadette’s Catholic Church, in Mount Hawthorn. The incident The city of Perth has very strict COVID-19 regulations, which require masks to be worn at all indoor public events. A photograph circulating among news outlets shows the officer in question standing in the nave to check the details of the parishioners. Patrick Horneman, who took the photo, wrote in the caption: “During a Catholic Mass in Perth tonight a policeman allowed himself in, strutting up the ...
The pope vs. tradition? St. Irenaeus “was well named” for charitably handling questions like this…..
After hearing from certain bishops, the pope decided to tamp down on the liturgy. Whereas his predecessors were fine with two different forms of celebration, the pope now insisted that everyone should celebrate in the same way. The pope’s motives seem to have been good: fostering liturgical unity in the Church and weeding out division among Catholics. But it was instead quickly received as a threat to Tradition. After all, the liturgical practice in question was “from an older tradition,” indeed an ancient one dating back to the time of the apostles. Almost overnight, schism or excommunication suddenly seemed possible. Of course, the pope I’m describing is Pope Victor I (reigned c. A.D. 189-199), and the controversy was the so-called Quartodeciman controversy, about when to celebrate Easte...
The galleon, the tyrant, and the 26 Martyrs of Nagasaki…
Raked by frothing waves and howling wind, the galleon San Felipe rode the merciless Pacific bereft of mainmast and rudder, her battered old hull the merest plaything of the tempest. Aboard her were a litany of friars — Franciscan, Dominican and Augustinian — clinging for their lives to whatever handholds the creaking old behemoth could provide and praying for deliverance, if not for themselves, then at least for her proud Spanish captain and his crew. All had been alarmed by signs in the heavens — first, a blazing comet, then crosses burning in the clouds, seemingly pointing toward Japan. The San Felipe had been bound for Acapulco in New Spain. An old workhorse heavy-laden with fine Chinese silks and other riches, she was grossly overloaded, well beyond the limit for safe sailing. She had ...
The curious shadows cast by ‘Nightmare Alley’…
A remake of the 1947 film Nightmare Alley has just been released. Given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the original film is curious source material for today’s cinema audiences. As the Second World War ended, the 1946 novel Nightmare Alley by William Lindsay Gresham became a bestseller. Largely unknown today, the book’s author was the husband of Joy Davidman, the woman who would subsequently marry C.S. Lewis. Lindsay Gresham had been in Spain in the 1930s aiding the Loyalist side during that country’s civil war. While there, he met a former carnival worker who told him a curious tale. It was from that chance meeting in Europe that Gresham’s 1946 novel emerged. Perhaps more than any other genre, the film/literary noir suited the mood of Post-War America. Here was a nation that had not yet e...
Here’s what’s wrong with ‘ersatz’ prayers that pop up in the Mass…
By Dr. Jeff Mirus ( bio – articles – email ) | Feb 03, 2022 I confess that I find the Prayers of the Faithful to be the least important and the least inspiring part of the Mass, just as I find the intercessory prayers to be in the Divine Office. To some extent, that’s a personal problem, and I’m working on it. After all, it is a very good thing for all of us, in common or individually, to offer petitions for the Church, for civil government, for particular special needs, for those who are ill, and for the dead (that is, the souls in purgatory). But sometimes these specific petitionary prayers can be ill-conceived—perhaps trivial, offered for the wrong things, influenced by contemporary fashions, spiritually shallow, or even an apparent effort to instruct God. This can occur eve...
