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By Dr. Jeff Mirus ( bio – articles – email ) | Aug 29, 2023 The problem of authentic Catholic renewal is very much in the air leading up to the Synod on Synodality. Indeed, the preparations for the Synod itself often highlight the problem by giving worldly participants an opportunity to advocate changes that undermine authentic Catholic renewal. Of course, in Church affairs there is often significant good behind the scenes which seems far too boring to report. But one thing has become clear through this synodal process: There is a great deal of confusion about what it means to renew the Catholic Church. Probably for this reason, the better publishing houses are trying to promote new books that get renewal right despite the more popular theorizing and reporting that gets it wron...

Among those born of women there have arisen many mediocrities like Herod Antipas, who feared his family and friends more than he feared God It is impossible to imagine the terror that surely struck the heart of John the Baptist as the executioner approached his prison cell. The executioner would have been hurrying, since the king, Herod Antipas, was waiting for the bloody deed to be done. The man would have been flanked by soldiers, who were there to drag the chained man out of his cell. John was probably someone people gawked at because he wore animal skins, lived alone in the desert, and dined on honey and locusts. Because of his bare-bones existence, he eventually became the patron saint of hermits. He was the first person to reveal Jesus’ true identity to people: “Behold the Lamb of Go...

A rock and roll legend is taking on woke culture and the transgender agenda, despite the backlash. In an interview last week with Stereogum, shock-rocker Alice Cooper shared his thoughts on how ridiculous woke culture is. “The whole woke thing … who’s making the rules?” he asked. “Is there a building somewhere in New York where people sit down every day and say, ‘Okay, we can’t say ‘mother’ now. We have to say ‘birthing person.’ Get that out on the wire right now?’ Who is this person that’s making these rules?” The 75-year-old rock star clarified, “I’m not being old school about it. I’m being logical about it.” “It’s getting to the point now where it’s laughable,” Cooper continued. “If anybody was trying to make a point on this thing, they turned it into a huge comedy. I don’t know one per...

[embedded content] Share via: Fr. Michael Rennier grew up in a Pentecostal environment, and the worship services he went to focused on contemporary praise music, with a sermon as the centerpiece. When he discovered liturgical worship, with Holy Communion at the center, he was both intrigued and uneasy; he wanted to know more, but wasn’t sure at first how to enter into it fully. His Pentecostal formation led him to wonder if it were possible to experience the movement of the Holy Spirit in a structured liturgical setting; but as he began to explore it more deeply, he found an unexpected spiritual richness and freedom in the Mass that continued to draw him closer to Christ. Watch Fr. Rennier on The Journey Home Services Marketplace – Listings, Bookings & Reviews Entertainment blogs...

Anyone who doubts St. Augustine’s centrality to Catholic theology has to consider that (a) he is considered the greatest among the Western Fathers of the Church during the Patristic era and that (b) nobody else is as much quoted in Western theology until St. Thomas Aquinas comes around in about 850 years.  Born in Tagaste (today’s Souk-Ahras in Algeria) in November 354 to a Christian mother (St. Monica) and a pagan (later convert) father (Patricius), Augustine was intelligent. Monica enrolled him as a catechumen but, when danger to his life passed, Augustine deferred receiving the sacrament. His father sent him to Carthage to be educated, but he succumbed to the blandishments of the big city, including fornication, having a son (Adeodatus, “given by God”) while there. Exposure to phil...