Tag Archive for saints

Charity Is Hard

August 28, 2015 Intellectual Formation, Obedience No comments

“You don’t serve God by saying: the Church is ineffective, I’ll have none of it. Your pain at its lack of effectiveness is a sign of your nearness to God. We overcome this lack of effectiveness simply by suffering on account of it. To expect too much is to have a sentimental view of life and this is a softness that ends in bitterness. Charity is hard and endures. I don’t want to discourage you from reading St. Thomas but don’t read him with the notion that he is going to clear anything up for you. That is done by

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Like Son, Like Father

August 8, 2015 General Interest 2 comments

I sincerely wish that every man had memories like mine of time spent with their father. When I was young, we worked, hunted, fished, and talked together — and I learned so much of what it means to be a father and a man. Often I wonder how he found time to do it all, and I can be hard on myself sometimes because my sons have not spent nearly as much time in the garage, in the woods, or on the water as I did. Then I recall that I have twice-plus-one the number of children he had, and

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“The Bubble” and the Escriva Option

July 25, 2015 General Interest No comments

As a Junto, we’ve talked about and around the issue of to what extent we should circle the wagons and protect our beautiful Catholic bubble in the face of a hostile culture, versus answer the call to live, suffer, and possibly die as missionaries, bringing the Gospel to that culture. This past week, author and scholar Brad Birzer shared this thought-provoking article from Crisis Magazine, contrasting what’s been called the “Benedict Option” with  the vision St. Josemaria Escriva. Though my interest in the good saint has not diminished since I began to learn about him a few years back, the article has rekindled

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‘We Need a New Boniface’

June 6, 2015 Moral Action, Obedience No comments

Yesterday was the Feast of St. Boniface, patron of the German people. The St. Paul Street Evangelization Facebook page published this photo of the great bishop and missionary whose statue graces our Sanctuary, as well as the excerpt below, taken from his writings: Let us stand fast in what is right, and prepare our souls for trial. Let us wait upon God’s strengthening aid and say to him: “O Lord, you have been our refuge in all generations.” Let us trust in him who has placed this burden upon us. What we ourselves cannot bear let us bear with the

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More Shenanigans:
NYC and Notre Dame

February 22, 2015 Featured No comments

Well, it’s that time of year again: time for the annual pre-St. Patrick’s Day rant. In a few short weeks, Americans of all nationalities, colors, and creeds will dress in green and ignore our nation’s anti-Catholic tendencies in order to get drunk and celebrate all things Irish-ish. What better way to get in the leprechaun-loving spirit of things than to highlight a couple of news stories that would have the Apostle of Ireland feeling green around the gills. First, we turn to New York City, where the annual celebration of the Big Apple’s patron saint and Irish (or Irish Catholic, depending on your agenda) heritage

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The Bastardization of the Feast of St. Patrick

March 17, 2014 Moral Action 2 comments

Over the past few Feasts of St. Patrick, I’ve been keeping a mental log of the peculiar (and often insulting) American traditions that have virtually nothing to do with the good bishop, or even the Emerald Isle. (This article summarizes several.) But this new wrinkle takes the cake: three notable beer brands and big-time St. Paddy’s Day Parade sponsors — Guinness (Ireland’s long-time biggest and best known brewery), Boston Beer Company (brewer of Sam Adams ales in an notably Irish-American city), and Heineken (uh, green bottles?) — have pulled their sponsorships because parade organizers wouldn’t allow certain pro-homosexual groups to

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Miracles and Science: Perhaps Mother Church Has Its Act Together After All

February 21, 2014 Moral Action No comments

Recently I was listening to BBC, and during their Heart and Soul program they were playing part 2 of a show about miracles and how they are regarded and proved by the Church, and the role of miracles in declaring saints, of which I only caught maybe half as it was played live.  As I went back and downloaded via iTunes, I expected a heavy dose of skepticism, but honestly the Catholic host was clearly moved by his experience in compiling his story, and the show was generally very positive. My favorite part may have been the report from the atheist who studied how the

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Time Again For Tolkien

February 13, 2014 Intellectual Formation No comments

I ran across this article, St. Augustine and J.R.R. Tolkien, a few weeks ago, and due to the length of it, bookmarked it for later. I read it today, and realized something: I have not read Tolkien since my conversion. As a youth, I read the covers off The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and devoured The Silmarillion and as many biographies of Tolkien as I could find — but in those days, mine was not a church-going or well-catechized family. As a result, this article was like a freshening breeze, urging me to open those books again

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The Dark Knight Redeemed?

August 7, 2013 Featured, Intellectual Formation 3 comments

In case you missed it: author Bradley Birzer reveals his love for Batman on The Imaginative Conservative web site. I don’t know Batman the way he does — but Birzer’s take on Batman, Bruce Wayne, and the Wayne family as embodiments of Christian virtue, natural aristocracy, and Western role models might explain why a guy like me, who didn’t grow up on comics, loves the Dark Knight films. And I hadn’t realized the Wayne family (like the Bond family) was Catholic. Worth a read!

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A Contentious Canonization?

May 13, 2013 Moral Action 2 comments

To judge from the title of this article (Pope Francis completes contentious canonisation of Otranto martyrs) you would be forgiven for assuming that riots had broken out at the Vatican.  You know, water cannons knocking over soccer hooligans defiantly blowing on their vuvuzelas while the Holy Father was speaking.  However, having read articles from a few secular sources now, it seems that the contention boils down to this – the press doesn’t like it.  There are a few commonalities running through this reporting. This was all the nasty Pope Benedict’s idea, a wicked parting gift to his successor, the nice

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