Although prayer and service have many splendors within Christianity, one cannot exist without the other. Prayer is spiritual respiration to the soul, which oxygenates Christian service. Pope John XXIII said, “Perfume all your actions with t … [Read more...]
“The Indelible Mark”
Sacramental Character in Patristic and Scholastic Theology
May 12, 2015 by Nicholas Senz
The history of the development of doctrine is, in many ways, a history of language. It is a story of the perpetual struggle to adequately communicate the divine realities in human words, or at the very least, to attempt to do so without … [Read more...]
Jansenism and Ireland
February 24, 2015 by Fr. Brian Van Hove, SJ
Too often, writers claim that classic Irish religious culture was “Jansenistic,” or pessimistic, and that Ireland was nothing more than an island with a dark and dreary religious history. Harsh critics point to the recent “scandal” in Galway … [Read more...]
Breaking Free of Our Metaphysical Winter
On Why Christians Must Study Philosophy
January 12, 2015 by Brian Jones
In diagnosing the philosophical mentality of modernity, the Catholic novelist-physician-philosopher, Walker Percy, once wrote the following: The distinction which must be kept in mind is that between science and what can only be called … [Read more...]
A Holy Priesthood for a Holy People
December 27, 2014 by R. Thomas Richard, PhD
A groaning in the heart, of one seeking and waiting for God, is appropriate for Advent. A thirsting in the heart for his living water, in this world of dryness, is proper. In this waiting for the holy season of The Incarnation, however, a … [Read more...]
Private Revelation and the Revelations of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque
October 29, 2014 by Dr. William R. Luckey, PhD
The Nature of Private Revelation When thinking about the idea of private revelation, it occurs to one that there is, and has been, a lot of it going around for centuries; and the reason that it is so successful, both the true and the … [Read more...]
The Beauty of Chastity Today
August 25, 2014 by Carolyn Humphreys, OCDS
Chastity is a costly pearl that must be guarded well. Well-lived chastity is a habitual disposition of the heart and mind that makes a person gracious and approachable. The transparent beauty of chastity sees life through a lens of … [Read more...]
Memory: Wired for God in the Eucharist
June 26, 2014 by Dr. Joseph R. Hollcraft
So, as we reflect on the principle of memory, we are drawn into what lies at the center of it all, Christ and his words in the institution of the Eucharist: “Do this in remembrance of me” (Lk 22:19; 1 Cor.15:25). No Ordinary Pil … [Read more...]
Giving Our Grief over to the “Man Acquainted with Grief”
June 11, 2014 by Deacon James Keating
With the coming of Christ into the depths of all things human, we now know that even our grief can be given over to the good God ... All losses can become places of life, places of intimacy with Christ, if we show him these wounds caused by … [Read more...]
Believing in the Justice of the Cross: Jesus Christ as the Alpha and Omega of Faith
June 11, 2014 by Fr. Lorenzo Rossetti
Adhering with love to the Lord, Victim and Priest, Obedient and Merciful, we embrace him in the real and veiled presence of the broken Bread, and we celebrate the victory against evil, sin, and death. This essay focuses on the … [Read more...]
On Catholic History
April 9, 2014 by Richard J. Janet, PhD
The Catholic sacramental perspective continues (consciously or not) to inspire the works of historians who recognize the importance of material reality—of politics, society, economics, the arts, and all the habits and institutions of human c … [Read more...]
Contemplation, Action, and the Good Life
February 22, 2014 by Dr. Richard Becka, PhD
Everyone is seeking knowledge, but is the knowledge they are seeking really worth the trade-off in terms of the life’s cost? Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas Everyone familiar with the Aristotelian-Thomistic tradition will recognize … [Read more...]
An Essay on Natural Family Planning
February 8, 2014 by Dr. Charles W. Norris, M.D.
The Catholic Church has never opposed family planning, but she teaches through her Magisterium, or teaching authority, that man may not, of his own volition, separate the two meanings of the conjugal act, the unitive and the procreative, … [Read more...]
Toward a Theology of Infertility: The Trinity in Richard of St. Victor
January 16, 2014 by Dr. Michael Brummond
Richard of St. Victor explores an understanding of the Trinity based on an understanding of the nature of interpersonal love ... in which God is viewed as a community of persons ... he conceives of the Holy Spirit ... as a third person: the … [Read more...]
Communion, Community, and Communication
January 14, 2014 by Fr. John Navone, SJ
The Gospel summons us to authentic human development in communion, community, and communication under the sovereignty of God’s love. Our Christian conversion is both an event and a lifelong process of ongoing response to the grace and call o … [Read more...]
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