One wouldn’t automatically think that the above title belongs to a reflection on the resurrection of Christ, but all things are possible with Mother Angelica. This is from the same book I mentioned a few posts ago. She always does seem to make a good point, however she happens to arrive at it! She first [...]
America has been celebrating Thanksgiving Day as a national holiday for 145 years, though it had been celebrated in this country a long time before that. There is something good in the human spirit, I believe, that spontaneously wishes to give thanks when gifts or blessings are received. It is true that some respond to [...]
In reading through some texts I’ve collected from various sources, I found a number of them that should offer us some insight and encouragement into regarding people more lovingly or at least giving them the benefit of the doubt. There’s a constant temptation (even, or perhaps—alas—especially among Christians) to judge or bitterly criticize others. Perhaps [...]
We’re well into the time of preparation for the feast of the Nativity of Christ, as least as far as the ascetical preparation goes, since the fast began on the 15th. Curiously, though, the Byzantine tradition doesn’t offer us any liturgical support during this time, beginning only two Sundays before Christmas. So the Sunday Gospels [...]
“Today let the heavens above greatly rejoice and let the clouds pour down gladness at the mighty and marvelous acts of our God. For behold, the gate that looks toward the East, born from a barren womb according to the promise, and consecrated to God as his dwelling, is now being brought into the temple, [...]
[I know I said I wasn’t going to deal with politics anymore—and this is only partly about politics, anyway—but I had this once in a lifetime (thank God!) opportunity. The devil himself agreed to grant me an interview. I had to insist that he appear in a form I would find tolerable, for I’ve heard [...]
I’m reading, unto both edification and amusement, the latest offering from Mother Angelica entitled, Mother Angelica’s Private and Pithy Lessons from the Scriptures (ed. Raymond Arroyo). It’s a collection of biblical meditations in her inimitable style. Here’s how she introduces her commentary on Abraham and Sarah: “When Abraham was ninety years old the Lord said, [...]
We read in both Luke 8 and Mark 16 that Mary Magdalen once had seven devils within her and they were cast out. In Luke it simply says that the demons went out of her, but it is explicit in Mark that it was Jesus who had cast them out. It ought to give us [...]
I’ve noticed that some Christian organizations have “last days” ministries, in which they try to help the faithful prepare for coming tribulations or apocalyptic showdowns. I have no idea how close we are to the Second Coming (and if they’re honest, they don’t either). Yet instead of a “last days” ministry, I’ve been inspired to [...]
There are a couple of loose ends I’d like to tie up here, before I begin totally to ignore politics once again. Oddly enough, though, in recent years religion and politics have been more inextricably entwined than they have been for quite some time. The first concerns the happy passage of California’s Proposition 8 (something [...]
