Our faith-conviction that God is the primordial Source and Resource for all creation and human life inspires our gratitude for all as gift, and our boundless hope that the best is yet to come. The abundance of God is the ultimate Source and … [Read more...]
Yes, We Can Know Truth Today
How astonishing it is to be a human person! Like vegetables, it is wonderful enough to be able to assimilate inanimate minerals and grow, as well as to reproduce our own kind. Like our dear pets, it is amazing that we have senses to know … [Read more...]
Our Act of Faith
This is what God does with us, he asks everything of us. Why does he do this? ...he needs from us an attitude toward him that the persons of the Blessed Trinity have toward each other, and that God has toward us ... an attitude of total … [Read more...]
Grace and Reason According to St. Paul and St. Thomas
...the world we live in is overwhelmingly irrational. Our popular discourse doesn’t make any sense at all. As Catholics, we need to understand what our faith teaches about this irrationality. We need to look to Scripture and t … [Read more...]
Faith, Hope, and Charity
I would like to propose what I believe is the solution to a major source of misunderstanding between Catholics and Protestants on the one hand, and theologians and exegetes on the other. Christ Sleeping Through the Storm at Sea by … [Read more...]
The Role of Doctrine in Inspiring Believers to Moral Greatness
In order to demonstrate this essential coexistence of nature and grace in the life of the Church, and the life of the believer, it must be shown that doctrine is necessary for salvation, not superfluous, but essential to the Church’s m … [Read more...]
Remembering Who We Are: Recovering from Cultural Amnesia.
The western loss of the larger and smaller narratives which depicted the horizons of life, is a loss of memory on a grand scale, a sign of some deep disorder for those who see it. Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus, Western Civilization … [Read more...]
The Value of Philosophy
True philosophy throws light on all other forms of knowledge, revealing their relation to each other...with philosophy underpinning them all. Especially does it help in the study of sacred theology, the supreme science based on God’s s … [Read more...]
Positive Psychology and Pastoral Practice
The interventions advocated in positive psychology show, not just a surprising overlap with pastoral theology, but can also be used to deepen and aid Christian practice. Are psychology and religion fundamentally incompatible? … [Read more...]
Pope Benedict XVI: Theologian of the Bible
The Pastores Dabo Vobis Award in Honor of Fr. Kenneth Baker, S.J. (learn more)
The twentieth century was a tumultuous time in the Catholic Church for all concerned with the interpretation of the Bible. For the past few decades, this topic has been a principal concern of one prominent theologian. His interest in the … [Read more...]
The divine will and human freedom: A Thomistic analysis
The unity of divine and human wills, as well as human freedom, are vital to Aquinas’ theology.
At the center of Nietzsche’s rejection of Christianity is the idea that Christianity involves an attack upon the human will. In The Antichrist he says the following: "The Christian conception of God…is one of the most corrupt conceptions of … [Read more...]
The sacrament of baptism as a participation in the death of Christ
To be baptized in Christ is to be baptized into his death as well as his Resurrection.
The Easter season is ultimately a time for rebirth, expressed most dramatically at the Easter Vigil by the life-giving waters of baptism. To impart new life, however, baptism must destroy the old life of sin and our fallen aversions to … [Read more...]
“And unto dust you shall return”
Ash Wednesday is more than an empty ritual—it is a reminder of our mortality and frailty.
Rosary beads, holy water, incense, ashes, et cetera—the “sacramentals” used in prayer and liturgy give Catholicism much of its distinctive flavor. As we are physical creatures in love with a God-made-flesh, the Church encourages the use of m … [Read more...]
Three in One
Editorial, February 2010
Every year priests are called upon to preach on the Holy Trinity on Trinity Sunday. That is a sermon I very much like to give because it gives me the opportunity to explain for our people the most fundamental mystery of all the great … [Read more...]
The ambiguity of Islam
“When some fanatics kill children, women, and men in the name of pure and authentic Islam, or in the name of the Qur’an or of the Muslim tradition, nobody can tell them: ‘You are not true and authentic Muslims.’ All they can say is: ‘Your re … [Read more...]
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