Lent, the great and holy fast, comes upon us again. It is a season of promise and peril. Promise, because we are invited to anticipate in ourselves the paschal mystery, whereby human nature is healed and elevated. Peril, because we risk … [Read more...]
Coming Home for Easter: The Challenge and a Method
Steven Spielberg’s 1982 motion picture classic E. T. — The Extraterrestrial captured the hearts and minds of moviegoers around the world, with its combination of comedy, drama, and tragedy. The plot of the film described E.T.’s quest to “go … [Read more...]
Homily Possibilities for the Sunday Scrutinies
During the three middle Sundays of Lent, the Christian people welcome in a special way the Elect who are presented to Christ’s Church as those seeking full communion. The 3rd, 4th, and 5th Sundays of Lent thus provide great opportunities f … [Read more...]
Book Reviews – February 2020
Habits for a Healthy Marriage: A Handbook for Catholic Couples By Richard P. Fitzgibbons. Reviewed by Christopher Siuzdak. (skip to review) Debating Religious Liberty and Discrimination By John Corvino, Ryan Anderson, and Sherif … [Read more...]
The Temptations of Christ and the Paschal Triduum
A Reflection
I am not sure what to call this. It is not an exegesis. As a theological reflection, it lacks a certain rigor. It does seem to work as a spiritual/homiletic/liturgical reflection, and that’s how I’ve proposed this when I have taught it, and … [Read more...]
The Plain Duty of Fasting
Is not the neglect of this plain duty (I mean fasting, ranked by our Lord with almsgiving and prayer) one general occasion of deadness among Christians? Can anyone willingly neglect it and be guiltless?[1. John Wesley, The Journal of John … [Read more...]
The Pillars of Lent
The purifying Season of Lent is quickly upon us. We human persons are enabled to do something that lower creatures cannot, and higher creatures need not: to sacrifice and thus to learn to delay partial gratifications for even greater … [Read more...]
Make Your Hearts Firm This Lent
During Lent, the Church calls the faithful to conversion by calling to mind the image of Christ being drawn into the desert by the Spirit. There, for forty days and forty nights, Jesus prays, fasts, and is tempted by the devil. By … [Read more...]
Our Lenten Imitation of Christ
Editorial for March, 2014
...Lent is a time of imitating Christ ... a plan to follow Christ, led by the Spirit, to wherever he desires to take us. For the Church’s Season of Lent this year, Pope Francis has invited us all to reflect on the significance of 2 Cor … [Read more...]
Lent: A Time for Conversion
Each and every day, we have the opportunity to be converted, to draw closer to Christ, and to better, and to more fully understand, our Christian responsibility to complete Jesus’ work in our world. Many years ago, while walking with a … [Read more...]
Lenten Reflections: Fasting
Denying material food ... nurtures an interior disposition to listen to Our Lord, and be nourished by his saving word. Through prayer and fasting, we allow Christ to satisfy our deepest hunger and thirst for God. Christ in the Wilderness … [Read more...]
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