A reader gave me permission to publish her letter to me (anonymously).  I include my reply below, too: Dear Father Nix, I just listened to your homily on Sensus Fidelium about Woman's Submission where you encourage and admonish the husbands to live like Christ in their marriages. I thought it was a wonderful homily and so true as to how easy it is for us wives to submit to and love well such a husband. However, it, and other homilies and conferences on the subject, leave me with a gaping question: How am I, a revert to Catholicism with a secular/agnostic husband (who was also born and baptized Catholic like [...]

The following is "Advice to Parents," by St. Alphonsus Liguori, Saint and Doctor of the Church: The gospel tells us, that a good plant cannot produce bad fruit, and that a bad one cannot produce good fruit. We learn from this, that a good father brings up good children. But, if the parents are wicked, how can the children be virtuous? Our Lord says, in the same gospel, Do men gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles? (Matt. 7:16). So, it is impossible, or rather very difficult, to find children virtuous, who are brought up by immoral parents. Fathers and mothers, be attentive to this sermon, which is of [...]

Lay folks are getting more and more into Carmelite theology.  And that is a great thing.  Carmelite theology is all about detaching from creatures in order to attach to the Creator.  For a Carmelite priest like St. John of the Cross, this was ascetically difficult but strategically simple:  Detaching from creatures will automatically make a soul in grace cling more closely to the Creator.  Thus, a monk can live alone with The Alone. What Eastern Rite Christians call askesis is to detach from all creatures (people, food, pets, comforts, pleasures, locations) in order to go deeper into the prayer life. Some of the greatest authors on this topic of ascetical theology [...]