The Holy Angels
Today, September 29th, the Church celebrates the feast of the Archangels, St. Michael, St. Gabriel, and St. Raphael, and on October 2nd celebrates the memorial of the Guardian Angels. In light of these liturgical celebrations, it would be good to have a basic understanding of angels and the role they…
The Argument from Existence: Aquinas’s Philosophical Approach to God
Aquinas’s argument for the existence of God starts from his commonsense theory of existence for particular things. For Aquinas, existence is something things present in reality actually have or participate in. Existence, in other words, is that in virtue of which something is included in reality, or actually is, instead…
30th Anniversary of Veritatis Splendor
St. John Paul II wrote, during his relatively lengthy reign as Supreme Pontiff, many noteworthy and helpful documents. His first encyclical, Redemptor Hominis, reminded the faithful of the efficacy and universal scope of Jesus’s salvific work, setting the stage and tone for his entire pontificate; his last, Ecclesia de Eucharistia,…
St. Irenaeus on the Holy Eucharist
St. Irenaeus of Lyons, a second-century Greek bishop that established churches in what is now the south of France, is a go-to Church Father when it comes to establishing the early Christian belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. His teaching is very clear: “the mixed cup…
Are you Vicious?
Are you a vicious person? The answer to this question depends on whether you have vice. But what is vice? Perhaps it’s best to contrast it with virtue. Where virtue is an enduring disposition, or habit, to perform good human acts—acts that are befitting our nature as human beings, vice…
Stay Connected!
The Evangelical Ministry of Fulton Sheen
When I was still a Lutheran pastor, I regularly flipped around cable channels in the evening hours after everyone had gone to bed. Whenever I landed on EWTN and saw Bishop Fulton Sheen on “Life is Worth Living,” the channel surfing came to an end. Initially, I was attracted by…
The Metaphysics of Beauty
Fyodor Dostoevsky’s main character in The Idiot famously claims that “beauty will save the world.” Ever since its publication in 1869, and increasingly in recent years, this enigmatic phrase has been used to express an enduring hope in the possibility of restoring an authentic Christian culture in an modern, increasingly…
A“Living Man”: the Martyrdom of St. Blandina
In the fifth chapter of Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History, Eusebius quotes from a letter scholars believe to have been written by Saint Irenaeus. It is a letter written to the Churches in Asia and Phrygia regarding the persecutions occurring in the Churches of Lyons and Vienne. Eusebius includes the letter in…
May’s Treasures
May is a relatively unassuming month. Though we are still in the holy season of Easter, we have celebrated the day itself and await the great day of Pentecost. Between these two important days, however, there is much to celebrate. In fact, there is so much going on in May…
Faith of our Fathers: St. Justin Martyr
Not much is known about the life of St. Justin Martyr. A second-century apologist and martyr born around 100 A.D., Justin first began life as a pagan Greek. Dissatisfied with his early studies, he began wandering among the fashionable philosophical schools of his day—from Stoics to Peripatetics to Pythagoreans. Finally,…
Hector, First of the Nine Worthies
Amongst the stone filigree of the 13th century city hall of Cologne stand statues of men called the “Nine Worthies.” These exemplars of chivalric virtue were first presented by Jacques de Longuyon in his 13th century work, “The Vows of the Peacock.” Also known as the “Nine Good Heroes,” these…
Divine Mercy Sunday Indulgence and Graces
In private revelations to St. Faustina Kowalska in the 1930s, Jesus called for the Second Sunday of Easter to be celebrated as the Feast of Mercy or Divine Mercy Sunday. He promised the complete remission of all sin and all punishment due to sin for those who go to Confession…
The Development of Doctrine
John Henry Cardinal Newman, canonized by Pope Francis in 2019, was the most famous convert to Catholicism of the 19th century. Prior to his reception into the Catholic Church in 1845, Newman was an Anglican priest and member of the so-called Oxford Movement. This movement, in opposition to various “protestantizing”…
Augustine: Confessing God & the Soul
In these few elliptic sentences of the opening paragraph of what might be the most resonate of Christian texts outside of Scripture—the Confessions—Augustine articulates the human condition as a quest to know where he comes from and who he is. In short, a quest to know God and the soul. …
10 Uses for Mortification
These are the dim days of Lent, where the shining lure of slipping back into the modern comforts of life is ever enticing. With Easter Sunday in sight, the temptation of slowing the pace of our ascetic practices creeps into our thoughts. However, it is not the time to shorten…
Recent Comments