[A little update here on the reality of spiritual warfare, and that Halloween is a time of increased satanic activity. We have some little wayside shrines along the mountain path on our property, and today we noticed that the crosses have been broken off and thrown on the ground, or driven upside-down into the ground. [...]
[This was published in a slightly different form in one of our newsletters quite a few years ago. But perhaps it still is worth reflecting upon today. It begins with the issue of feast days (“extraordinary times”) introduced into “ordinary time”] Why must ordinary time be interrupted with extraordinary time? Is it to relieve the [...]
The outer world is in a rather frightful state, with its wars, corruption, immorality, blasphemy, etc. The inner world of our minds and hearts may also be in rather serious disorder, at least at times. All of the inner and outer chaos is basically the result of sin, but we aren’t always aware, first of [...]
This is sort of a follow-up to my last post, and it is based on Pope John Paul II’s Apostolic Letter, Salvifici Doloris, which literally means “salvific suffering,” but the document in English usually is rendered: “On the Christian meaning of human suffering.” It is a kind of extended commentary on St Paul’s enigmatic saying: [...]
As you may have noticed in some recent posts, I’ve lately been re-reading the Diary of St. Faustina. This is certainly a worthwhile endeavor, since Pope John Paul II, in 1994, described her as “a great mystic, one of the greatest in the history of the Church.” One can hardly receive higher praise than that. [...]
Today we have a familiar Gospel reading (Lk. 8:5-15), the parable of the sower. There’s always a danger, though, with familiar readings, that we think we understand them because we know the usual interpretation, and therefore we fail to reflect upon them deeply enough to discover the ways in which God wants us to apply [...]
The “embodiments” of the Word in the cosmos and in Scripture find their true and complete meaning only in the person of Christ: in his incarnation, life, death, and resurrection. Without Christ the Old Testament is an unfinished book. Without Christ, the universe itself can be (and often is) mistakenly understood as a kind of [...]
[Praise the Lord, I found another one. This was written way back in 2001—when I was evidently reading some fairly heady, but very good, stuff—in preparation for Christmas, though its scope is as wide as the universe. So it’s only October now, but our thoughts can still be directed toward the awesome mystery of the [...]
In the last post I wrote about the Body of Christ primarily as the Church here on Earth. There is more to the mystery, however, since the Body of Christ also refers to the saints in Heaven. Really, the Church is one, both on Earth and in Heaven, for Christ has only one Mystical Body, [...]
There seems to be some disagreement among Christians as to the relative value and authority of the Bible and the Church, so perhaps we ought to look at some facts of history and divine revelation in order to help settle the matter. I think that all Christians accept the Bible as the word of God, [...]
