Leave Fr. James Martin Alone!
For the few of you who actually live human lives without social media, and don't know who Fr. James Martin SJ is, here you go: Fr. Martin is a highly influential Jesuit Catholic priest who is editor at large of America Magazine, located just off Columbus circle and Central Park in Manhattan. On 12 April 2017, Fr. Martin was also promoted as a consultor to the Vatican's Secretariat for Communications. Now, I rarely name people by name in my blog posts, but this priest has over half a million Facebook followers. Fr. Martin has a wide footprint in the social justice world, but the most controversial of his teachings is that he implies on a weekly basis that sodomy can sometimes be morally acceptable for two Catholics. He recently said at an interview after speaking at Villanova the following [...]
What Muslim Invaders Could Not Accomplish
I am rarely shocked by what I see in the media, but this one got me: https://youtu.be/npj5MqcNPJU This 60 second video is Dutch children learning to pray to Allah in a small mosque in the Netherlands. So, the full title of this blog post will be “What Muslim invaders could not do against Europe, Europe did to herself.” But it is actually a hopeful blog post with a strong resolution. I want to get a little into the world of Divine Providence to ask why God would allow this. I don’t know the mind of God, but I think I may have a decent answer. Let’s consider that the only country in Europe which was conquered by the Muslims was Spain. Mohammed died in 632 AD but within that same century, his Muslim invaders were astonishingly capable of conquering the [...]
14th Sunday After Pentecost
You'll hear a lot of reverberation in this sermon in an old Florida basilica (my new home) but you'll need to tweak your volume until I adjust the basilica microphones for future podcasts. In this sermon, you'll hear about the Gospel of the day applied to Hurricane Irma.
Undivided Hearts: The Power of Celibacy
What does it mean to have an undivided heart for the Lord? "The unmarried or betrothed woman is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit."—1 Cor 7:34 I gave this talk to homeschooling families that have taken literally God's command to "be fruitful and multiply" as the Old Testament says. But the New Testament generally holds it to be a calling to be fruitful and multiply for the salvation of more souls for Jesus Christ's kingdom. Therefore, this talk is about why to encourage your children to be very open to the calling of celibacy for the salvation of even more souls than physical generation. The how to encourage this was mentioned only at the end, during the Question/Answers. I subtitled this talk: Undivided Hearts: Allowing Your Child to Choose the Higher [...]
Annulments Sermon
This sermon is about the beauty of marriage by way of the pain of annulments, and it is sure to be controversial. It might sound excessively traditional, but it is based on a key line that I forgot to quote from Pope John Paul II. He said that for a declaration of nullity to be granted, run-of-the-mill difficulties in marriage were not sufficient, but rather, "real incapacity is to be considered [for an annulment analysis] only when an anomaly of a serious nature is present"—Pope John Paul II's exhortation on Canon 1095, written on 25 February 1987. One example of "an anomaly of a serious nature" would be the couple's decision during engagement to have no children. That is, they were not just using the Pill (albeit an abortifacient that kills and also a mortal sin for both spouses in [...]
The Conversion of Gloria Polo
On the 5th of May 1995, Gloria Polo, a dentist and mother, was struck by lightning just outside the University of Bogotá, Columbia. She died shortly afterwards in the trauma unit. She went before God and her sentence was hell. God gave her another chance, and this is the account she has given to millions of South Americans with the approbation of the South American Bishops. You will see while reading this rather-long but worthwhile blogpost why she was given another chance by God. Although not a word of this blog post is mine, it is the most important blog post I have ever produced. This is Gloria Polo’s conversion story, with translations from the Italian by Fr. Orlando, posted originally by Fr. Joseph Dwight, and with final touch-ups to the translation by me. THE TESTIMONY OF GLORIA POLO Good [...]
11th Sunday After Pentecost
Extreme Unction: This sermon is about the last rites a priest will pray over you, as well as the last words that a dying Catholic is supposed to say. Photo credit Fr. Richard Heilman.
Assumption Sermon
How to be holy like Mary (kind of.)
Demonology Q and A
These are the questions and answers that I gave on the topic of exorcism and demonology. This talk was cut and paste into Q and A format by a friend who runs a radio show.
Transfiguration Sermon
This sermon is about Mount Tabor and the Transfiguration by way of the Sermon on the Mount and the countercultural calling of the Maccabean martyrs.