+JMJ+ (This is part 5 of an ongoing series on Christianity.) “Just be Good for Goodness’ Sake.” You probably saw those signs a few years ago. It was an ad campaign by a group implying that we can be good without religion. But can we? And is it enough to be good? What is good or goodness? We use these words all the time but we rarely explain what we mean when we speak of them.
Continue reading “Is good good enough?”
Welcome to part 8 of our weekly series on the soul. We’ve been listening to Thomas Mirus interviewing James Matthew Wilson about his book, The Vision of the Soul: Truth, Goodness and Beauty in the Western Tradition, part 6 and part 7 of our series. This week the podcast is subtitled Reason With Stories, Philosophize With Your Life and will be the end of the Wilson interviews, but our series on the soul will continue. I’ve already got some other texts, videos, etc, lined up for us.
Now I’ve got some snacks and a fresh cup of hot tea. Yes, here in the American South one does have to specify. Joanna Bogle made fun of me for doing that when we spoke once for a few minutes in the parking lot at EWTN. She is so charming and fun. I was already a fan and after that, even more so. But I digress. (Mom, stop with the name-dropping already!) (I’m not name-dropping, Miss Lucy Dawg. Okay, I am, but—) (Mom!) (Okay, okay! Sheesh, everybody’s a critic.) Here we go. Notes and links at the end of this post.
Continue reading “Weekly series on the soul, Part 8”Modernity elevated pure, abstract reasoning as the only way to know about reality. Reason having disenchanted everything else, modernity then became disenchanted with reason. The ascendancy of reason over superstitious myths was viewed by the postmodernists as just another myth to be exposed. — Catholic Culture Podcast, ep 65, Vision of the Soul
Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life. The One and Only True Way, the Way and the Truth Who gives Life.
But people don’t see this Truth, don’t hear Him, don’t know Him, don’t want to know. And all He wants to do is love us and be loved by us. So simple.
And yet we would rather cause ourselves and others endless pain.
“Love is not loved.”
Saint Francis was right.
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”
Fr. Wade Menezes delivered a memorable catechetical instruction disguised as an entertaining talk on Saturday during EWTN’s Family Celebration. And the disguise succeeded. The crowd was certainly entertained and we came away from the concert hall with words of wisdom and light on walking the Catholic path. For all those who think that we have no part to play in our salvation, I’d like to share one of my favorite lines from his talk. Fr. Wade is fond of white water rafting and he quoted his rafting leader as saying: Continue reading “EWTN Family Celebration, continued, Of Rafts, 3-Legged Stools, and Hope”
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?”
Well, I’m not a catechist. Not yet, anyway. But I’ve been grousing about the deplorable state of catechesis in our parishes for a long time now and my theologian friend asked me today, “Why don’t you do it?”
Do what, I said.
“Be a catechist. You could even train catechists.”
You’ve got to be kidding, I said. Continue reading “Who, sir? Me, sir? A catechist?!”
When people discover I’m Catholic, certain questions tend to come up time and time again. Below I’ve listed four that I hear most often, followed by a brief reflection. Continue reading “Why do Catholics…”
The word ecumenism is used everywhere these days. And most often it is used absolutely incorrectly. Ecumenism does not mean, “I’m okay, you’re okay, there’s no reason to bother ourselves about our differences, no need to examine what we teach or what we mean when we teach it…” Ecumenism, properly considered, is not pluralism. Continue reading “Ecumenism, not pluralism”
Catholic Heart and Mind 