Everything is (not) broken...
Every so often an article appears that demands to be shared. So I’m doing that here. If you do nothing else in the coming week, read N.S. Lyons’s recent essay on J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and technocracy at his Substack site, The Upheaval. It’s worth every minute of your time. And note that the name “Lyons” is a pseudonym. In real life, the author is an analyst working in the U.S. foreign policy community. The Upheaval is not a religious site; it covers a wide range of global topics. But Lyons’s skills go well beyond the mechanics of foreign policy.
Thy will be done, but why?
There is a solemn anticipation, a stillness of the day and night where all humanity if they so choose, await the coming of a Savior. Our human attitude begins its preparation to embrace a Divine attitude, which proposes to bring sanctification and salvation through the birth of the Incarnate Word. For the Divine attitude to take form, we are called to enter a story that introduces us to our origin as created human beings in the image and likeness of God.
The Vatican is buzzing with conspiracy theories as hackers take down the Pope’s website...
This Christmas, introduce your family to Servant of God Julia Greeley (and be prepared for miracles)...
By all odds, the life of Julia Greeley should have been lost to history. Born into slavery in the 1840s, she came into the world with no last name and few prospects, and by all accounts, was poor all her life. Yet today she qualifies as a true heroic figure — the kind of real-life hero that parents would be eager to introduce to their kids. Now, the accomplished essayist and writer of children’s books, Maura Roan McKeegan, has done just that...
There isn’t anything else quite like it. Marriage stands out in all of creation...
It is the very archetype of the astounding reality called ‘complementarity’: where two are different for the sake of one shared good. A common good. Sometimes, even often, it can feel as though something is simply wrong: Why are the differences between man and woman—and the reasons and implications of the differences—so hard to discern? Why are they so hard to live out? Why do they seem to be unfair, at least sometimes? Isn’t the difference between man and woman commonly the very thing that breaks rather than makes a marriage?
Why Émile Zola was so frightened of Our Lady of Lourdes...
I’m not a fan of Émile Zola (1840–1902), the French novelist who is famous for his dissembling, unrestrained animus toward the Catholic Church. He was a contemporary of St. Bernadette of Lourdes and he had many opportunities to speak the truth and honestly report on what he witnessed at Lourdes — but instead, he took the cowardly way out. On Dec. 8, 1854, Pope Pius IX proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in his bull...
Senate Passes ‘Same-Sex Marriage’ Bill, Sending it Back to the House...
Confession and the Art of Boiler Maintenance...
Jesus alone redeems and saves through the Cross and Resurrection, mediated by Church teaching through the Ten Commandments and the Sacraments. A Catholic church should be an oasis of orthodoxy, fidelity, and sanity. People should fill every Catholic pew, yet inactive Catholics as a group outnumber large Protestant denominations. So let’s make this appeal to our young people: teenagers and young adults. Do you realize how good you have it?
Greg Baylor: How the ‘Respect for Marriage Act’ targets the religious liberty of Catholics...
Now that I’m a father, watching ‘A Christmas Story’ made me realize there’s much more to Ralphie’s dad than meets the eye...
It’s a common trope for movies these days to replay scenes from earlier in the movie, as they explain why characters did certain things. “This is what the *real* importance of this scene was” they tell us, somewhat unsubtly. Maybe I needed the unsubtle treatment, because until recently, I had missed a pretty fundamental character trait of The Old Man. I first saw the movie when I was child, and so I’ve always viewed him through the eyes of Ralphie.
Conservatives have a women problem, and it’s not going to go away on its own...
There has been a lot of chatter since the midterms about how women voted, breaking significantly toward the Democratic Party. Although the issue isn’t new, it has become the elephant in the electoral room. Conservatives can tackle it by understanding the roots that buttress women’s votes instead of hoping it will go away on its own. Much of what informs women’s votes is feminism, which has been an earnest effort by millions for over two centuries now to help improve the lives of women. What most of feminism’s adherents have missed is that the first feminists...
Unforgiveness is serving time for someone else’s crime...
To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that prisoner was you. While true forgiveness is a process and a decision, there are many things forgiveness is not. We’ll learn how to keep your boundaries while forgiving someone who isn’t sorry. As you make room in your heart and mind for Jesus this Advent, enjoy this 4-week video series and small group guide...
Recognize the advantages you may have (and the compassion that should follow)...
I heard the same thing from my own father as Nick Carraway did from his, and John Quincy Adams heard from his mother. Not that I listened very well when I was young. Nick Carraway is the narrator of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel “The Great Gatsby.” At the beginning of the book, he remembers his father telling him, “Whenever you feel like criticizing any one, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.” This will apply to some people more than others...
Your new life in Christ means divinization, and your final goal is to love as God loves...
“We have been placed on earth to learn to love in the school of Jesus,” writes Fr. Jacques Philippe in Interior Freedom. “Learning to love is extremely simple: it means learning to give freely and receive freely. But this simple lesson also is very hard for us to learn, because of sin.” In that short paragraph, Philippe sums up my entire Catholic testimony. I’d grown up in faith, but I lost my way in college. I wanted Jesus, the Jesus of the Gospels, but I couldn’t find him. An abstract Jesus of the written Word and interior experience wasn’t enough. I wanted to see him, touch him, know him.
5 Takeaways From Pope Francis’ Latest Interview...
“Polarization is not Catholic,” the Holy Father said in response to a question about divisive politics. “A Catholic cannot think either-or (aut-aut) and reduce everything to polarization. The essence of what is Catholic is both-and (et-et). The Catholic unites the good and the not-so-good. There is only one people of God. When there is polarization, a divisive mentality arises, which privileges some and leaves others behind. The Catholic always harmonizes differences.”
Vatican Website Taken Down by Suspected Hacker Attack...
Mysterious ‘large object’ detected near Titanic wreck finally identified...
Why is the German Synodal Way so boring? Because they are de facto atheists who believe in secular modernity more than they believe in Jesus Christ...
A lot of ink has been spilled lately on the German Synodal Way — and rightly so. After all, it isn’t every day that one sees an entire episcopal conference face-palm the Vatican and insist that it is going to move forward with its “reforms,” no matter which Roman dicastery tells them to stop. In their recent ad limina visit to the Vatican, the German bishops spoke as if the Synodal Path is irreversible...
Father Otis Young identified as one of the victims of brutal double homicide in Louisiana...
The Vatican, China, and the ‘spirit of dialogue’...
Well that didn’t take long, did it? In October the Vatican renewed an accord with Beijing governing the appointment of new Chinese Catholic bishops. Barely over one month later, China violated the accord. But wait. Was it actually a violation? Although a formal statement from the Holy See was strongly worded, it only expresses “surprise and regret” at the Chinese move...
Thai Buddhist temple emptied after all the monks test positive for meth...
Becciu Meets With Pope Francis to ‘Clarify’ Secret Recording Amid Mounting Scandals...
Amy Coney Barrett is not a threat to pluralism...
What I learned when I suffered a heart attack in the middle of Holy Mass...
A Recipe for Readiness — A Homily for the First Sunday of Advent...
Get this entire Catholic website as an instant digital download...
The full contents of the New Advent website are available as a digital download. It includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more — and it's only $19.99...
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