Thanksgiving Homily
This is a 10 minute Thanksgiving Homily from today. It ties Jewish sacrificial meals to the Holy Mass. It also ties a little of the history of Israel to a bit of modern history in the United States, and how we thank God in the darkness.
St. John of the Cross and The Buddha
The above picture is a remake of the spiritual life as drawn and described by the greatest ascetical theologian of the past millennium, St. John of the Cross. St. John of the Cross was a 16th century Carmelite whose feast day we celebrate today in the TLM (a couple weeks out in the new calendar.) If you look at that picture (which is hard to see but phenomenal if you can expand it) you will see that the man or woman who sets out to seek God is called to a narrow path that not only despises any earthly attachments that prevent union with God, but also despises any self-centered heavenly attachments that keep one from God. If one succeeds, one arrives “upon this mountain where dwells only the glory and honor of God.” Not to sound emotional, but I [...]
Did Mary Grow in Holiness?
Homily from today's Mass: the Presentation of Mary in the Temple.
Christianity vs. Islam
Today's feast honors St. Felix of Valois, a 13th century saint who gave himself to be the ransom (replacement) of Christians taken hostage by Muslims. At Mass tonight, I preached my sermon on St. Felix and the theology of both Christianity and Islam.
St. Joseph’s Education
St. Joseph, late one night is talking to Mary, amazed at something that Jesus, their five year old, now asleep, said during the day. Over candlelight at table, Joseph shares his bewilderment. “Who is this child?” he asks… “a soon to be prophet?” Mary's eyes well up at what she's known for some time now. “Yes, and greater,” she gently replies. “Greater? You mean like the Messiah, God's chosen one?” Joseph trembles. Mary smiles with tears coming down her face. “Yes.” She replies quietly but strongly. “And more.” “Greater still?” asks Joseph. “Who could be except Adonai, the Almighty One Himself?” Mary lets out a half-cry, half-laugh lasting only a half-second. She looks at Joseph, smiling, with tears now pouring down her face. “God Himself?” whispers Joseph. Mary lovingly gazes into her most chaste husband's eyes.
Dominus Vobiscum
This is my homily from today, the 15th of November 2015. In the TLM calendar, it is the 6th resumed Sunday after Epiphany.
Paris Attacks
I'm about to go offer Mass for the 150+ victims of the Paris terror attack that has been claimed by ISIS. The last time France has seen this much violence (besides abortion) was the French Revolution. How unbelievably insensitive, then, of President Obama to quote the three key words of the French Revolution as the common source of resistance against terrorism: "We are reminded in this time of tragedy that the bonds of liberté, egalité, fraternité are not just the values French people share, but we share."—President Obama, 13 November 2015 So, if it's true that the last time France saw this many murders was the French Revolution, then why has Obama quoted the three suspiciously-delightful red herrings of 18th century terrorism, namely, liberté, egalité, and fraternité? Any cursory look at history reveals that the French Revolution's main goal was to kill as many practicing [...]
Should We Sell Vatican Art for the Poor?
This actually isn't a debate coming out of Rome these days (thankfully) but I write about it because most of you have heard this question from some family member or a person on a plane at one point. Should we sell Vatican Art for the Poor? Of course, my answer is "No," but I want to give you some new answers for your friends. 1) The first great commandment comes before the second great commandment. Jesus said: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself."—Matthew 22:37-39. For the Christian and Jew, any debate must be framed within the universal call of worshipping God before helping people. Both are [...]
Colbert vs. Mother Teresa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5weP79J7bM In this short video, Stephen Colbert (comedian-turned-theologian) says “Faith ultimately can’t be argued; faith has to be felt." Let's cut through his poor philosophy and consider reality: 1) Feelings are often no different from biochemical pleasures. God uses feelings in all stages of prayer, but it is not central to the substance of the soul where the Blessed Trinity resides. If faith must be "felt" as Colbert said, then where does that leave Mother Teresa who couldn't feel anything for 60 years of prayer? But false-positives abound, too: If I drink an enormous Chemex hipster coffee and feel like a saint who could take on the world, did I just "feel" an increase in my faith? Of course not. That is because there is some correlation between good spiritual “feelings" and the release of neurotransmitters like dopamine and norephinephrine. That's why we called coffee in [...]
All Souls Day and Syria
I have no intention of making this blog page a news source (much less a newsletter of personal prayer intentions) but I thought that today, All Souls, would be an important day to highlight the civil war in Syria. Today, I write a very short post to simply beg for your prayers on the behalf of 250,000 who have died. St. Thomas Aquinas said that the greatest work we can do on earth is to pray for the dead, as I blogged about here. It is good to visit the cemeteries and to pray for the repose of the souls of our loved ones, but our family is bigger than that; we can let the internet create a one-world order of evil or we can let the internet unite a one-world family by baptism and charity. Right now, your family [...]