Not only was St. Thomas Aquinas a great thinker, philosopher and theologian, he was a devout and faithful Catholic, practicing charity and compassion, keeping almost nothing for himself, generously giving away what he had. Thimk of him as the Saint of Faith and Reason. He also wrote some beautiful hymns, such as the Adoro Te Devote. (Video below.)
Continue reading “Memorial of St Thomas Aquinas, Angelic Doctor”
For days now I have been downloading free stuff from the web, free books at Project Gutenberg and free MP3’s at the Institute of Catholic Culture on their media page. Good thing I have all those external hard drives! Plus I bought some used books and a friend gave me a volume from his voluminous library! Whew! Got my work cut out for me, I do! Continue reading “Filling up my hard drive with MP3’s and eBooks”
A few weeks ago Fr. Wade Menezes gave a talk here in Birmingham about Catholicism, the Church and Truth. During that talk he gave us four questions that we should ask ourselves when considering important issues (such as, legislation, perhaps). I wrote about this earlier in a post about his whole talk but I want to focus on this part of it now. I think these questions are tremendously important, especially in light of the matters currently facing us. To my mind, we Christians need to remember that we are Christians first and anything else is of lesser significance. And we who are Catholic need to remember that we are Catholic Christians and that no political party can take precedence over that. Christ asks us to be the light of the world, letting our light shine before men, His Light which He gives to us in His Church to share with the world. Continue reading “Four Questions to Ask Yourself When Seeking Truth”
I’ve changed the banner on the blog yet again. It’s an obsession. I feel a need to update the look (or at least, the banner) with every change of my focus or interest, no matter how slight. The latest shift of focus is not really a shift in kind but in degree. I’ve been watching the rising tide of atheism and the accompanying tide of immoral “morality” for many years. Continue reading “The heavens show forth the glory of God, another new banner”
Maybe it’s happened to you. Conversations with friends or acquaintances veer somehow onto the topics of creation, evolution, intelligent design, faith and various other equally innocuous notions guaranteed to heat the blood and bring tempers to the boiling point in short order. Perhaps someone you know has thrust a book by Richard Dawkins or Sam Harris in your face, telling you to “read this and get yourself free of those antiquated notions” of God and faith (and, of course, that madman Jesus), Continue reading “Intelligent discussions on evolution and intelligent design”
I downloaded Pope Benedict’s newest encyclical, Love in Truth, a couple of days ago and started reading it last night. It’s about 30,000 words and I’ve only read through section 12 (out of 79), but I can tell you that I am really enjoying it. We’re talking social justice here and the weaving together of many themes that concern the Church today and that concern all people of good will. Continue reading “What the world needs now is Love, Love in Truth”
I’ve had many discussions lately in which people have told me that my views arise from my religion and therefore should have nothing to do with my voting or even my conversations with other human beings, who might be of other religious backgrounds or of none at all. The conclusion would be, I take it, that I am never to discuss anything at all with anyone who might have a view different from mine. And apparently I am never to vote on anything in such a way that might be different from the way another person might vote.
The idiocy of these conclusions is stunning. That I have had so many of these conversations over the last few months is not merely stunning but truly frightening. But I am not alone. Continue reading “Law – natural, moral and imposed”
I mentioned in a couple of earlier posts (Reason versus faith and other false debates and When life begins) that there are those who, upon learning that I am a Christian (and a Catholic one, at that!), expect me to argue every point from a religious point of view. The unspoken assumption is that faith and reason have nothing to do with each other and are imagined to be opposed to each other, mutually exclusive in nature. I am a person of faith; I, therefore, cannot be a person of reason. Continue reading “I’m a Catholic Christian, does that make me stupid?”
For some reason during conversations like last night’s, many people will stereotype me as a “religion-head”. A “believer”. A “fanatic”. Okay, no one’s ever actually called me a “religion-head”, I just made up the label. But at some point during our argument, er, discussion I cease to be merely a human being who is free to look at the various aspects of an issue, using various parts of my brain and mind to glean what I can about the truth of a situation; and I become, instead, someone who is only allowed to have a religious opinion. And I’m not even allowed to have my true religious opinion. Oh, no. Uh uh. I’m only allowed to have a silly, distorted and baseless pseudo-religious opinion foisted upon me by the other party in his or her complete lack of understanding of my views. Continue reading “Reason versus faith and other false debates”
I’ve been reading about the infamous Galileo controversy. And guess what? Everybody who has hurled a dung heap of invective at the Church for denying the “truth” of Galileo’s heliocentric theory, listen up. Galileo’s point was not that our sun was the center of the solar system. Nope. His contention was that our sun was the center of the universe! That idea (which he did not originate and which he presented as fact which he failed to prove) the Church rejected, although she did not forbid Galileo to present the idea as a conjecture. Continue reading “The Galileo Myth, getting at the truth”
Catholic Heart and Mind 