Manos
Dark Night Arrives
Finally, today, I had a box in my mailbox — I was hoping, and it turned out to be the box for which I have been waiting. The Fall catalog of Roman Catholic Books advertised this saucy title from Dr. Alice von Hildebrand: It is precisely what it says: a critique of the Theology of the…
Spring a Friend — the All Souls Day way
“Not by weeping,” says St. John Chrysostom, “but by prayer and almsgiving are the dead relieved.” Know anybody that passed away this past year? Time to visit their grave and pray for them, because you can get a soul out of purgatory today due to that wrinkle which permits a plenary indulgence to be gained for…
Pope Wrestles Mania, Disappoints Some
With my post about the Pope Francis interview the other day, in the aftermath of that interview, we see people picking up their toys to go home and saying things like “the pope doesn’t support this so I give up.” Or, see for example this article from Rorate Coeli blog (FAIR WARNING: the melodrama and…
Francis, the object of Modern Tribalism
If you aren’t laughing at the idiots all fighting amongst themselves in reaction to Pope Francis’s interview, yet, then I hope this post will give you a perch from which you can start to laugh with me. Yes, I was irritated at first, rightly so, but as I think it over, I’m finding a lot…
The Controversial Sign of Redemption: the heart of our logo.
Saint Thomas Aquinas would complete all of his works while meditating upon a Crucifix. It is said that after he finished writing the words to the song, Pange Lingua, the Corpus on his cross came to life and said, “Well done, Thomas”. At the end of his life, while Saint Thomas was meditating again on…
Exorcising the Vatican? Pope Francis style. With Fatima, St. Michael, and Leo XIII
Recently the news ran headlines that Pope Francis called for the Fatima Statue of Mary to be brought to the Vatican — in their words “to consecrate the world.” I…
Mary’s Assumption Stands to Disprove Gnosticism: You aren’t Dragging yourself, or anyone else, to Heaven
Some time ago, and throughout the years, I’ve heard various people say, “I want to drag souls to Heaven.” I’m sure that in the cases where I’ve heard it, the person didn’t realize what they were saying. They can’t drag themselves, let alone anyone else, to Heaven! If we take that phrase literally then it…
The Transfiguration shows that Baptism changes us? Why were Moses and Elijah there? (they fasted)
When Moses returned from the mountain with the tablets of the commandments, we are told that his face shone (the Douay Rheims reports that his face was horned). Moses did not even see the Lord face to face, but yet his body was changed, literally. Today, on the feast of the Transfiguration, we read the Peter,…
Suffering the Ignorant Orthopraxis of Our Day
One of the things I really like about how God ordered this world is precisely how unassuming some of the greatest things He has worked really are to the passer by. If you didn’t look, you wouldn’t notice. It’s so easy to take them for granted until you look with the eyes of faith that…
Gay Marriage is ‘A Sign of Apocalypse’: Russian Patriarch Kiril Speaks His Mind
In America, we are all too familiar with the scene where one person speaks their mind and states an opinion contrary to what others perceive to be the “correct” thing to say. Immediately, that person will be jumped on verbally and accused of being any various number of things, “arrogant,” “intolerant,” or worse, sometimes they…
