7 Quick Takes #4- Church History edition
These are two days late and posted in a hurry. . 1. I am taking a Church History course at the Seminary that I work at, and I am finding it really interesting to learn about the early Church. Here are...
View ArticleThe Three Divorces II: Love and Responsibility
In the previous post, I observed that what is true of a married couple—what God has joined, man must not put asunder—is true of other things as well. Just as the divorce between a husband and his wife...
View ArticleThe Three Divorces I: Faith and Reason
In his book, The Great Divorce, the Christian philosopher and theologian wrote about two things that ought never to have been joined, heaven and hell. The two were never meant to be joined, but often...
View ArticleCutting the Wives Out of Ephesians 5
Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ.Ephesians 5:21Yesterday, the twenty-firstSunday in Ordinary Time, the second reading at Mass was the famous (or infamous) excerpt from St....
View ArticleNew Blog... Backward Medievalist
I've been working on putting together a new blog for some time now. I've finally launched. We'll keep this one up and maybe still use it sometime, but just wanted to advertise my new...
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St. Augustine and a Blanket
It has been quite a while since I have written a blog post. But I found this blog (through another blog) that hosts a link-up that includes two of my recent activities: reading and knitting. This...
View ArticleConscience and Tyranny
A little while ago, I was hiking up a mountain in Lake George, NY with my father, two brothers, and youngest sister. Happily the mountain was a very small one, for my father and I probably could have...
View ArticleLove and Tolerance
As modern society moves toward redefining marriage to include romantic attachments between members of the same sex, the rallying cry of the redefiners is “tolerance” and “acceptance.” One should...
View ArticleImagine No Religion...
In 1971, John Lennon composed one of his more popular songs, “Imagine,” where he asked listeners to imagine a world with no heaven, hell, or religion:“Imagine there's no heavenIt's easy if you tryNo...
View ArticleSolemnity and Joy
A short time ago, on April 9, the popular Jesuit writer Fr. James Martin spoke to a large audience of Catholic students on the subject of joy, humor, and the spiritual life. He gave a wonderfully...
View ArticleAs a Catholic, I Support Marriage Equality
Equality is one of those interesting words that everyone claims to want, but no one is quite sure what it means. W.C. Fields once proclaimed himself to be free of all prejudices, “I hate everyone...
View ArticleIs the Church "Out of Touch"?
A recent poll in the New York Times found that a significant majority self professed Catholics claim that the Catholic Church is "out of touch" with the world (1). The complaint is hardly a new one as...
View ArticlePope Benedict XVI
Thoughts about the last eight years with Benedict as Pope As of yesterday, Benedict XVI is no longer Pope; the Sede Vacante has begun. I remember how strange it seemed when he became pope. For my...
View ArticleChristianity and Gun Control
G.K. Chesterton once remarked that the expression “birth control” was something of a misnomer since those who used the expression typically favored neither birth nor control. The dangers of discussing...
View ArticleBeginning the Protestant Reformation
I think I have mentioned before that I am taking a graduate course on Church History. This semester I am in the second part of the course, which covers the Protestant Reformation up to the present day...
View ArticleCelebrity Divorce, Same-Sex Marriage
“[This] is the huge heresy of Precedent. It is the view that because we have got into a mess we must grow messier to suit it; that because we have taken a wrong turn some time ago, we must go forward...
View ArticleManhattan for Beads, Mankind for Condoms
Tradition generally holds that in 1626, Peter Minuit, leader of the Dutch colony in the New World, purchased the Island of Manhattan for about 24 dollars worth of trinkets. Today, this is often...
View ArticleThe Touch of the Master's Hand
Our pastor (Fr. Tom- St. Peter the Apostle Church) recently offered the parishioners a copy of the book, Rediscover Catholicism, in one of the chapters, the author Matthew Kelly offers the following...
View ArticleThe Adventure of Monogamy
The great English essayist and possibly best prose writer of the twentieth century, G. K. Chesterton once remarked to a man who claimed that Christianity had been tried and found wanting that, on the...
View ArticleBlack Friday: The High Holy Day of Stuffism
G.K. Chesterton once remarked in several passages some idea to the effect that when a man will no longer believe in God, it is not so much that be believes nothing, rather, it is more the case that he...
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