heaven/hell

The World: The Great Yes and the Great No.

The world: The Great Yes and the Great No It’s a cryptic but arresting phrase, isn’t it: The great yes and the great no? I tripped on it while searching for something online a couple of weeks ago. After listening twice to a twelve-year-old homily of Bishop Barron’s called—you guessed it—The Great Yes and the […]

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Don't Blame the Devil:

Don’t Blame the Devil: What Blame Me?

Don’t blame the devil Soon after my conversion to Catholic Christianity, I discovered Saint Teresa of Avila. And I fell in love with her. Upon examining that statement, I realize it’s not hyperbole, but truth. Why? Among countless reasons, at this writing, it’s Saint Teresa’s admonition against blaming the devil for my weakness, laziness, and

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thinking about Capernaum

Thinking About Capernaum: Woe Onto You

Thinking about Capernaum Capernaum was Jesus’ town. The ruins pictured above were the great synagogue where Our Lord preached. It’s here where five of the twelve apostles lived: Peter, Andrew, John, James, and Matthew. Jesus’ town was the site of numerous miracles, among them the raising of Jairus’ daughter from the dead and the healing

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Words are not always a blessing

Words are not always a blessing Brother Jerome Leo (RIP )’s understated remark, “Words are not always a blessing,” refers to Saint Benedict’s sixth chapter, The Spirit of Silence. His comment evokes a wry smile of recognition. The Benedictine monk makes us pause at the truth in the fifteen-hundred-year-old words: Let us do what the

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The Struggle for Moral Survival

Photo: Signs and Wonders for Our Times The struggle for moral survival Karol Wojtyla’s {Saint Pope John Paul ll) early life was forged in a crucible. The phrase is no overstatement for the man born in 1920 Poland. By the age of twenty-one Karol was expert in the terror tactics of Nazi Germany. Upon “liberation”

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Lest We Give Offense: Give Twice What We Don’t Owe

Lest we give offense Last Monday’s Gospel passage in the Christian liturgy details the peculiar passage about the Capernaum Temple tax. The disciples are reeling from what Jesus has told them at the start of the Gospel: the Son of Man is to be “…handed over to men. And they will kill him and he

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Stir Into Flame

Stir into flame Saint Paul’s Letter to Timothy from last week’s Christian liturgy feels directed to each of the 8.1 billion living souls in this June of 2024. Although there’s controversy about authorship and dates of these letters, orthodox concensus declares it as Paul’s last letter. He writes to his successor in Ephesus, from prison.

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