It’s been going on two years that I’ve been attempting to lead the responsorial psalm for Sunday Mass here at St. Anne’s. The individual who used to do it is no longer with us. No one else has stepped up, so “Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.” I guess I could just […]
This past Lent and Easter I spent a lot of time at a Byzantine (Ruthenian) Catholic parish near my home. As someone who often gets up between 4:30 – 5:30 am for work, making daily Mass is typically pretty hard to do on the average weekday. That’s why I was blessed to have this parish […]
Recently, I attending a conference called “The Symposium on Advancing the New Evangelization”, run by my alma mater, Benedictine College. It was the sixth time that it was run and my third time attending, the first time as a non-student. Most likely, if you are reading from a site such as this, you have heard […]
Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home. John 19:27 I have been reading Saint John Paul the Great’s encyclical, Ecclesia De Eucharistia, and it is a thing of beauty. I wanted to reflect on some of what is said as I pondered […]
“And also with you.” “And with your Spirit.” Six of one half a dozen of the other ? Mox nix ? Who cares? What difference does it make? The difference is all the difference in the world. Actually, all the difference in all the universe and all Heaven. The difference is: Jesus Christ present as […]
Time present and time past Are both perhaps present in time future, And time future contained in time past. If all time is eternally present All time is unredeemable. What might have been is an abstraction Remaining a perpetual possibility Only in a world of speculation. What might have been and what has been Point […]
“Give us this day our daily bread” … what does that mean? On the surface, it’s a simple acknowledgment that the things we need to live all have their source in God, as well as a request that our needs for the day be provided. However, hiding under that simple word “daily” is many centuries’ […]
Vatican II Music If you read what the Second Vatican Council wrote about sacred music (in Chapter VI in the 1963 constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium) you will wonder what has happened over the last fifty years. By reading the documents of Vatican II, we can learn that the Church considers our tradition of sacred music a treasure “greater than that […]
Doctrinal Homily Outlines, a lectionary-based aid for homilists, began as this layman’s response to the Year of Faith Pope Benedict XVI declared for 2012-2013. In Porta Fidei, Benedict’s apostolic letter announcing the Year of Faith, the Holy Father asked each of us to “rediscover the content of the faith that is professed, celebrated, lived and […]
As part of the Mystical Body of Christ, we’ve each received gifts unique to our position in the Body, with graces that equip us for our work within the Church. If that’s the case, why do so few Catholics volunteer to use their gifts for the benefit of the Church? Who’s Doing All the Work? […]
I am a relative newcomer to the Traditional Latin Mass, the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite. My family and I first attended this form of Mass only a short time ago. I think it was the Feast of Christ the King in 2014 at the St. Francis de Sales Oratory in St. Louis, MO, which […]
The Advent season is now upon us. Most people around us seem to be hurrying about looking for the perfect gift, putting up decorations, and planning parties and dinners. It is easy to lose sight of the true significance of this season. Advent is a time of joy and hope, of preparation, and of waiting […]
Next Sunday, November 27, marks the beginning of Advent, the season of hopeful, joyful longing as we wait for the birth of our Lord. This beautiful time of year, which some people refer to as a “mini-Lent,” is an opportunity for purposeful spiritual growth. While both seasons are penitential, the focus during Advent is less […]
My Enemy is My Neighbor: Becoming a Good Samaritan
“Who is my neighbor?” Today, I think, this question is more pertinent than ever. Social media is great at creating the illusion that we’re all in each other’s back pocket. But it comes at the cost of making friendship more of an abstraction, as we make “friends” of people who are little more than an […]
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” Sun Tzu- The Art […]
The eternal recurrence In The Gay Science and other works, Nietzsche presents his idea of the eternal recurrence. The demon in Nietzsche’s work poses this question “Do you want this once more and also for innumerable times?” (The Gay Science, 341). According to Nietzsche, most of us would tremble at this question because we do […]
The Catholic Church’s Commitment to Counteracting Racism
As an African-American Catholic, I revel in the opportunity to share that my father, a convert to the Catholic faith, was initially drawn to Catholicism through the witness of President John F. Kennedy Jr., our first – and, to date, only – Catholic president, who contributed to the setting of the civil rights legislation that […]
Let Christ Rip The Rug Up From Under You
When Jesus invites us to die to ourselves, He is not referring to some pious act of self-sacrifice which will make us look or feel holy. No, He has something much more radical in mind. The kind of inner transformation Christ desires will literally rip the rug up from under our feet and shatter our […]
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