“Now, venerable Brethren, you know the times in which we live; they are scarcely less deplorable for the Christian religion than the worst days, which in time past were most full of misery to the Church. We see faith, the…
Sometimes, sharing our faith in our own communities can be one of the biggest challenges we face as evangelizers – even Jesus struggled as a hometown prophet. When Jesus returned to Nazareth in Luke 4, they questioned His authority. They…
Readings for August 11, 2013: Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time I recently visited Italy and was reminded of the religious contrast between America and Europe. In Europe, large numbers of people consider themselves agnostics or even atheists. In America, something…
71 years ago today, on August 9, 1942, St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein) was gassed to death at the Auschwitz death camp. In the eyes of the Nazi government, which had taken over Poland three years before,…
Fellow blogger Ruth Curcuru (who uses the handle RAnn) recently commented on a catechetical post from my blog, observing that the current catechetical model takes “a topic-based approach that uses scripture as a resource, rather than a scripture study approach.” …
The other day I was working on a project with several other men. During the course of the day one of them got several calls and texts from his wife. When his phone chimed, he would exclaim in a mocking…
When Pope Paul VI wrote his (now in hindsight) prophetic work Humanae Vitae, he made clear that marriage is not simply a societal institution or norm. Marriage is a part of God’s plan for humanity. This is an important point…
When it comes to sharing the faith, much of our preparation is interiorly focused. And this makes sense. Before we can share God’s love, we must come to believe in it and respond to it ourselves. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI…
“Let the one who is thirsty come forward, and the one who wants it receive the gift of life-giving water.” (Rev 22:17) In her book Forming Intentional Disciples, Sherry Weddell compares the last threshold to intentional discipleship to “dating with a…