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Readings:Acts 9:26–31Psalm 22:26–28, 30–321 John 3:18–24John 15:1–8 In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us that He is the true vine that God intended Israel to be—the source of divine life and wisdom for the nations (see Sirach 24:17–24). In Baptism, each of us was joined to Him by the Holy Spirit. As a branch grows from a tree, our souls are to draw life from Him, nourished by His word and the Eucharist. Paul in today’s First Reading seeks to be grafted onto the visible expression of Christ the true vine—His Church. Once the chief persecutor of the Church, Paul encounters initial resistance and suspicion. But he is known by his fruits, by his powerful witness to the Lord working in his life (see Matthew 7:16–20). We too are commanded today to bear good fruits as His disciples so that our lives...

The first reading from  Sunday’s Mass features an excerpt from a sermon by  St. Peter. The contents of the sermon are very similar to others recorded in the Acts of the Apostles by Saints Paul and Stephen. What is interesting is that these ancient sermons break almost every rule (written and unwritten) of modern preaching! Consider the clip from yesterday and not the areas highlighted in red: Peter said to the people:“The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus,whom you handed over and denied in Pilate’s presencewhen he had decided to release him.You denied the Holy and Righteous Oneand you asked that a murderer be released to you.The author of life you put to death,but God raised him from the dead; of this we...

The death of Jesus Christ on the cross revealed the greatest act of love that destroyed the works of the Devil, defeated the authority of sin and death, and provided a salvific path for all God’s children to embrace if chosen. Jesus’ death was not an accident or a mistake in judgment by a few unruly men. The entire mystery of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection reveals a divine plan of redemption to free men from the slavery of sin.[1] St. Paul reminds us of this when he proclaims that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures.[2]        Jesus explained his role as the suffering servant to his disciples on the Road to Emmaus carefully narrative the salvific events that had taken place and culminating this narrative with the celebration of the...

Many years ago, a friend visiting an Eastern European country diligently wrote several postcards, stamped them, and then dropped them in what he thought was a mailbox. It turned out to be a very elegant trash can. Of course, his postcards never made it to their intended recipients. In the pro-life movement, messaging can often be like my friend’s simple mistake where we think we are doing one thing, but with unintended results. For decades, pro-lifers have tried to communicate rich and important truths about babies, motherhood, and the family, yet the polls and the culture continually show these efforts are falling upon deaf ears. We make impassioned and intellectually rigorous arguments, and then they dissolve in the red robes and bonnets of “The Handmaid’s Tale” activists. That one image...

By Clement Harrold April 19, 2024 One of the more puzzling elements in the Gospel descriptions of the post-Resurrection appearances of Jesus is the fact that Matthew’s Gospel ends on a mountaintop in Galilee, while Luke’s account concludes near Bethany and the Mount of Olives, just a short distance from Jerusalem and almost a hundred miles south of Galilee. To make matters worse, in Luke 24:49 Jesus is recorded as commanding His disciples to “stay in the city, until you are clothed with power from on high.” This is further corroborated by Acts 1:4: “And while staying with them he charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father.” Being clothed with power from on high and waiting for the promise of the Father seem to be allusions to the event of Pentecost...

By Phil Lawler ( bio – articles – email ) | Apr 19, 2024 “What is truth?” That cynical question, memorably posed by Pontius Pilate, is enjoying new currency today, thanks to public statements by Katherine Maher, the newly installed head of National Public Radio (NPR). ”We all have different truths,” Maher told a TED talk audience, explaining that there are “many different truths.” So she is not worried by the fact that, as she sees it, NPR reporters “are not focused on the truth.” They’re focused on something else, which is the best of what we can know right now. …. Perhaps, for our most tricky disagreements, seeking the truth, and seeking to convince others of the truth, might not be the right place to start. In fact, a reverence for the truth might be a distraction that’s get...

Don’t think that Jesus is only saying sweet consoling words when he proclaims himself the good shepherd on the Fourth Sunday of Easter, Year B. He is, certainly, doing that. But he is also saying something uniquely challenging. What he said about the Good Shepherd almost got him killed. The Gospel we hear on Good Shepherd Sunday is the climax of a three-chapter-long confrontation in the Gospel of John between Jesus and Jewish leaders. It starts with Jesus teaching in the Temple during the Feast of Tabernacles and in the course of the showdown, he compares himself to “living waters” and calls himself “the light of the world.” He twice references his own divinity saying, “Before Abraham was, I am,” and “I and the Father are one.” He doesn’t just teach astonishing things, he does astonishing ...

Skip to content Rosary College is the first-ever college in South Carolina to offer a tradition-oriented education in the Catholic tradition. Apart from offering affordable college-level education for local students, the college will also offer its courses online, enabling students to enroll from anywhere in the world. Father Dwight Longenecker needs no introduction to readers of The Imaginative Conservative. He has written for TIC for many years. His essays are always engaging and thought-provoking and always worth reading. I am blessed to have Father Dwight as a friend. He and I go back many years, from the days when he was just plain Dwight. In those days, having been an Anglican priest prior to his conversion, he was a Catholic layman living in England, an ocean away from his roots in ...

COMMENTARY: We are not infinite as God is infinite, of course, but our dignity is not quantifiable and is indeed radically open-ended, as we are raised by way of participation into God’s inner life. When I was in Rome last October covering the Synod on Synodality I had dinner with a rather well-known priest friend who is frequently, but mildly, critical of Pope Francis.  I asked him why his critique of the Pope is not as harsh as some others who accuse this Pope of heresy. He responded by saying that “it is important to keep in mind that we want an intact papacy left in place once this Pope is gone.” Therefore, he continued, accusations of papal heresy from various sectors, mainly on the internet, serve no valuable purpose and actually work to undermine the legitimacy of the office it...

Experts say there’s one more way to look after your teeth and gums: rinsing your mouth with water after you eat.  Why rinsing your mouth after you eat is an excellent oral health practice In order to understand the power of rinsing out your mouth post-breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner, you first need to understand pH. PH—or potential hydrogen—is the level of acidic and basic compounds in the body, with 0 being the most acidic, 7 being neutral, and 14 being the most basic, or alkaline. Ideally, your mouth should remain at a neutral or basic pH, but mealtime can make your mouth more acidic.  “Every time you eat, your saliva breaks food down for digestion, which will create an acid by-product,” explains Lilya Horowitz, DDS, of Domino Dental in Brooklyn, N.Y. “This leads to more b...

By Dr. Jeff Mirus ( bio – articles – email ) | Apr 16, 2024 | In Reviews It’s a good title, but it’s not mine. Instead, Catholicism Everywhere is a delightful new book from Sophia Institute Press, a coffee-table sort of book which highlights the Catholic origins of and contributions to just about every aspect of our lives from the calendar and health care, through food and fashion and gardening, and on to the Catholic roots of common expressions, including the “Hail Mary” pass in football. Packed with pictures, highlights, and entertaining descriptions of the Catholic impact on an immense variety of things we all take for granted, Catholicism Everywhere was created by Dr. Helen Hoffner, a long-time Catholic educator who is a professor at Holy Family University in Philadelphia. ...

In “the first described [case] about digits amputation,” Canadian doctors surgically removed two healthy fingers from a young man experiencing “body integrity dysphoria” (BID). The sad, bizarre account, published March 27 in the open-access journal Clinical Case Reports, is linked to surgical interventions for gender dysphoria. This similar yet distinct case underscores the dangers of gender ideology from a slightly different vantage point, one which circumvents the deceptive veil of civil rights language which conceals the harms of gender transition procedures. Distress A 20-year-old man felt “profound distress over his left hand’s fourth and fifth fingers,” according to the case report. He hid his fingers by keeping them flexed, which impaired his dexterity and caused localized pain. He ...