I begin here by admitting that I never heard of Charlie Kirk until the day he was killed earlier this week. Like you, I know that we will hear and learn much more about him in the weeks, months, and years ahead, especially his movement, Turning Point USA, that engages young people in community affairs […]
In the early 1940s, C. S. Lewis wrote in his famous book, Mere Christianity, “Already the new people are dotted here and there all over the earth. Some are hardly recognizable: but others can be quickly recognized. Every now and then you’ll meet one. Their very voices and faces are different from ours: stronger, quieter, […]
The book of Proverbs (Chapter 21) states: “A good name is greater than riches; high esteem is more valuable that silver or gold.” When we are born, our parents give us a name. That name helps to shape our identity. The Catholic baptismal ritual begins by parents stating their child’s name because the infant’s identity […]
In 1891 Pope Leo XIII wrote a famous encyclical called Rerum Novarum; the title translates into English roughly as “Of These Things” or “In New Times.” The document became the forerunner to the Catholic Worker Movement and the Catholic Social Teachings that help us maneuver through societal changes with Christ as our compass and guide. […]
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), which represents the church’s moral and political views, seems to be at an impasse with the Trump Administration regarding issues of immigration. The irreconcilable differences are rooted in The Catholic Social Teachings, specifically the dignity of personhood that calls us to look at illegal aliens and see, […]
Within the Saint Therese Little Flower faith community, parishioners sometimes refer to common Catholics as “pips” or “people in pews.” Many pips are interested in what lies ahead for parishes, worldwide and local, since the election of Pope Leo XIV. There is much speculation based on descriptors of the new pontiff: unifier, multi-cultural, missionary-minded, Christ-centered, […]
The French term for hospital, Hotel-Dieu, translates into English as “House of God.” Usually sponsored by religious groups and often operated by nuns or representatives of the church, hospitals served originally as places of care for the suffering, triage centers for those wounded in battle, and hospice facilities that offer solace and peace to the […]
Michaelangelo Buonarotti’s famous Pieta depicts the lifeless body of Jesus taken down from the cross and placed on his mother’s lap and in her loving arms. The horrific anguish of the scene illustrates that Christ’s rejection, condemnation, and killing by our world fulfilled the prophecy that a sword of great sorrow would pierce Mary’s heart. […]
Herman Melville once wrote, “We cannot live for ourselves alone. Our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads and, along these sympathetic fibers, our actions run as causes, and they return to us as results.” “Catholic” means universal. The Catholic Church has been a good reminder through time that all humanity is part of […]
When nineteenth century French scholar Pierre-Simon Laplace was asked by Napolean how God fit into academic equations, he famously responded, “I have no need of that hypothesis.” Though he was quick to admit that what humans know about our existence is extremely limited and what we don’t know about it is immense, many have used […]
UPON THIS ROCK 