Category Archives: 3. Church

Here is the link to my essay “At Pentecost: Spread Fire, Not Cancer.” It explores the contrasting images of fire and cancer and how they relate to self-giving love and selfishness, respectively:

I just love a good analogy.  Here is one I recently came across in Catholic Christianity, Peter Kreeft’s summary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.  This is from his section 7, “Faith and Scripture,” and is given to illustrate one … Continue reading →

Several years ago, I came up with this weekly schedule of prayer intentions that correlates with the mysteries of the rosary.  Throughout each day I offer my “prayers, works, joys, and sufferings” for the following intentions. On Mondays we meditate on … Continue reading →

Two intriguing quotations pointing to true freedom:   “In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; in all things, charity.”  (St. Augustine)   “The laws of the Church preserve the freedom of the Holy Spirit.”  (I read this on http://www.canonlaw.info: “Leges Ecclesiae … Continue reading →

As Catholics, we believe that God forgives us the guilt of sin because of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, but we still need to deal with sin’s “temporal consequences” one way or the other (i.e., in this life through practicing … Continue reading →

I came across this passage in The Inklings by Humphrey Carpenter (London:  Harper Collins Publishers, 1997)  that reminded me of a theological train of thought of mine: Barfield examined the history of words, and came to the conclusion that mythology…is … Continue reading →

In the Garden of Eden, we were commanded not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  After we disobeyed, we were cut off from the tree of life. Now we are invited in the Eucharist … Continue reading →

Jesus is the Good Shepherd, God Himself come to shepherd His people as prophesied in Ezekiel 34–both the lost sheep of Israel and the Gentile sheep brought into His one sheepfold (John 10), the Church.  Before His Ascension, He commissioned … Continue reading →

I found this article to address very satisfactorily a question that has occurred to me on more than one occasion (see first paragraph for the question): How can it be simultaneously true that Catholics must follow their consciences and that … Continue reading →