Catholic Blogs

That injustice has tragic consequences in the lives of real families, who reflect the image of the Trinity.

  He was something absolutely modern. And his insincerity was stunning. Oh, true, he wanted to marry Julia Flyte. She was beautiful, sophisticated and a scion of a wealthy aristocratic English family. And she had a dowry – a huge dowry. It seemed only natural that they should be together, he assured himself. And so Rex [Read More...]

The Irish word for contemplation — or contemplative prayer — is rinnfheitheamh. Yes, that’s a mouthful! I only have enough Irish to be dangerous, and the pronunciation of Irish depends on which of several dialects you’re speaking, but to the best of my knowledge the pronunciation is something like RINN-eh-hev. So why such a big [Read More...]

One of the central concerns of Christian theology is that of soteriology, questions concerning salvation. Who will be saved? How will they have saved? How many people will be saved? Why will someone not be saved? In my recently published book, The Eschatological Judgement of Christ,  I examined the Hans Urs von Balthasar’s take on [Read More...]

Are you ready for a change? People say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting things to change. Does that describe some aspect of your life at the moment? If you’ve been through a divorce, it’s easy to feel stuck, especially at this time of the year. All [Read More...]

Disgusting, that’s what it was. This morning, after watching the sink slowly fill up and realizing that the half-bottle of drain cleaner I put in over the weekend hadn’t been very effective, I decided to put on my plumber’s hat and tackle the problem at the source. I removed all the bottles of hair spray [Read More...]The post Jesus Is My Plumber appeared first on After the Ecstasy, the Laundry….

Call me morally optimistic, but I think that most people have a basic intuition that pornography is bad. Sure, there are ideologues here and there who really believe that it’s healthy, doesn’t hurt anyone, improves your sex life, empowers women, and all the rest — but these voices have a faint, overly-defensive whine in the [Read More...]

Image by “mary1826” (January 2017) [Pixabay / CC0 public domain] *** Jonathan MS Pearce runs the blog called A Tippling Philosopher. He  is co-editor of a book that collects deconversion stories, entitled, Beyond an Absence of Faith. He also hosts deconversion stories on his own site. Thus far, I have critiqued two of them, and plan [Read More...]

…that when your grasp of Christianity is now reduced to “Give us power or the least of these get it!” you are doing it wrong. God so loved the world, that he issued an extortion note. – Rand 3:16

As a Catholic, I'm constantly reminded that I can't just go around excommunicating people that irritate me from equal standing with me in the communion of humankind.

Chauncey was most watchful of all. And once he did approach, he hunched over as if he expected to be punished, not petted.

The continued ban of gluten-free hosts in the Catholic Church shows that the specificity of matter matters to the Catholic Church. It's capitalism that's spiritualistic.

Prayers for him and his loved ones during such a difficult time.  I’ve scarcely known a time when McCain wasn’t a presence in Washington politics.  He has endured much, served much, and agree or disagree with his positions, dedicated his life to public service. God bless him during this time, give his caretakers the wisdom and [Read More...]

A Protestant friend of mine told me recently that I have ‘an oedipal thing with Protestantism’ and cannot seem to stay in my own ecclesial lane, as much as I try. After writing yesterday’s post on Eugene Peterson, I can confirm that his psychoanalysis is right on the money. Today, I am going to give into [Read More...]

  On the Feast of St. Anthony of Padua, I can’t help reflect on the saint who has proven so important to me. See, I am always losing things. Call it inattentive ADHD, call it the age of distraction, call it my academic inclinations, but I lose something on a daily basis. I cannot tell [Read More...]

    Good Letters: Learning Detachment in the Attic Good Letters: A Post About God and sex Good Letters: On leaving one’s thirst unquenched Aleteia: The Mercy of letting one’s yes mean yes, and no mean no Good Letters: What happened to Fun? Image: Jack Baumgartner and the School of the Transfer of Energy

El primero de enero celebramos la solemnidad de María, Madre de Dios.  El Concilio de Éfeso le atribuyó ese título a María (Theotokos en griego) en el año 431. De esa manera, el concilio subrayó una verdad sencilla y profunda: Jesús es verdadero Dios y verdadero hombre. Jesús es Dios encarnado, pues como todo ser humano [Read More...]

So for reasons best known to my confessor, I decided to watch the premiere of Snowfall (a new drama on FX, set in 1983 LA, about “how crack began”) right after watching the premiere of Miami Vice (an NBC procedural, do I need to tell you guys this?, made and set in 1984 Miami). This [Read More...]

When you’re disagreeing with someone, don’t forget to pray for them.

I’m doing this really interesting thing with a Catholic lady writer friend, where we are consecrating our creativity to Mary over a period of 30 days. We offer our “fiat” to God, to use us and our writing to speak His word into the world. So naturally today is day 1 and I wake up [Read More...]

One year ago, I abandoned the nonprofit and academic world to become a freelance copywriter, a man whose goal was to help businesses share their stories with the world. I fancied myself something of an author-consultant, a skilled writer who could chart out the best alignment of speaker, message, and audience. I told people I [Read More...]

A short Organ improvisation by Aurelio Porfiri, recorded in Rome on May 2016.

From Slate:  “A New Theory on Why We Haven’t Found Aliens Yet.” Now, before I share this theory with you, I should tell you that it doesn’t trouble me in the least that “we haven’t found aliens yet,” despite the so-called Fermi’s Paradox that posits that we ought to have, in terms of probabilities, so [Read More...]

It would be wrong of me to identify as “depressed.” For one, I’ve never been diagnosed. Frankly, unless things were to get impossibly bad, I’m resistant to the idea of what I see as medicalizing a variable and temporary condition (I wouldn’t describe my “depressiveness” as clinical). In my eyes, and in the eyes of [Read More...]

Catholic Leah Remini returns with a new A&E season chronicling hers and other's experiences in Scientology, and rejoins CBS' "Kevin Can Wait."

Instead of teaching me to trust and believe in the commitment of others, my dad taught me to fear that the people I love don’t really love me in return. Ever since, I’ve found it very difficult to get close to people, even though I desire close friends more than almost anything. I’m torn between the impulse to make lifelong friends and the impulse to push everyone away.

Not long after assuming the Papacy, Pope Francis published Evangelii Gaudium, an apostolic exhortation where he set forth a blueprint for the evangelization of the modern world.  Unique due to its personal and colloquial tone, The Joy of the Gospel reads as a reflection of the years of Cardinal Bergoglio’s pastoral experience which he now [Read More...]

David Russell Mosley Ordinary Time 11 July 2017 The Edge of Elfland Hudson, New Hampshire Dearest Readers, I have wonderful news. Today my son went in for what was meant to be his final MRI. For those of you who don’t know his story, at 8 weeks old one my twin sons was diagnosed with [Read More...]

Do you go through a new baby tub after each baby because a) Either it got moldy so you threw it out, or b) You hated it so much you were going to try a different one for the next baby? Maybe you gave up on baby bathtubs all together and just bathe Bebe a [Read More...]

In a recent article from The Atlantic, Italian journalist Anna Momigliano writes about an interesting alliance between two unlikely allies in Europe: Conservative, Pro-Life Catholics and Left-Wing, Pro-Choice Feminists. The cause that has united the two? Surrogacy. Unlike in America, where the practice is legal and not nearly scrutinized to the same degree as other [Read More...]

Ragan Sutterfield new book titled Wendell Berry and the Given Life receives a glowing review from Margaret Rose Realy, Obl OSB, the Catholic Gardener.

It’s not real diversity to let Hollywood prejudices against old or plain women drive character casting.

Love Does Not Need to Be Blind In part 1, I discussed the case of the Osage Indian murders thoughtfully retold in the book Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, as well as the difficulty of reconciling the love of country with the injustices committed by and against [Read More...]

Time has an article about Muslims and Jews in France and Italy who attended Mass this past weekend to show interfaith solidarity with Catholics/Christians. I find this to be a beautiful gesture of solidarity. Unfortunately, I heard that some (one?) churches are allowing parts of the Koran to be read from the pulpit. That only [Read More...]

Graphic video shows San Diego Police K9 holding on to prone man’s arm for over thirty seconds while in handcuffs.. A video posted on Facebook by Angel Nuñez shows a San Diego Police K9 maintaining its bite of an individual accused of behaving erratically, punching a cab driver, and attempting to steal a motorcycle on Sunday, [Read More...]

I am having surgery Monday. I wrote about it for the National Catholic Register. I am having surgery next Monday to learn whether or not my cancer has spread. Docs in movies know what is wrong and what to do about it at jump street. Or, if they don’t get it at first glance, they [Read More...]

Some of the most interesting writing happening today exists in the liminal space between genres—micro-memoir, prose poem, lyrical essay. Poet and essayist Joanna Penn Cooper recently taught an online course based on the potential these “in-between” genres have to explore mystery–one of our favorite topics at Sick Pilgrim. The course was called “Approaching Mystery: Writing Vignettes [Read More...]

It’s been more than a month since I have posted a review here on Patheos! I’ve been on retreat, attended community meetings in Boston and then participated in the SIGNIS World Congress and the Catholic Media Conference in Quebec with Sr. Nancy Usselmann and Sr Marie Paul Curley. But I’m back and will try to [Read More...]

When will these people learn that not all conservatives are Wal-Mart shoppers with a gun rack in their pick up?

I need everyone to stop what they’re doing and pay attention to something. Watch the first video in this news article, and do it with the sound on. Listen to all the men screaming for help. Read the article. It was 100 degrees outdoors in Saint Louis yesterday, and in the Medium Security Institution it was about [Read More...]

Pediatrics has just released a study on childhood firearms injuries and deaths, and this CNN article is typical of the news coverage.  Unless you read very carefully, deep into the article, you would get the idea that we are having an epidemic of young children shooting one another. (How do I feel about the stories [Read More...]

Admitting that I am a fan of the hugest TV hit series of the moment can get me some side-eye in Catholic circles, but it is true: I love Game of Thrones. I love the book series on which it is based, A Song of Ice and Fire, even more: a slightly more morally acceptable [Read More...]

Interpreting Psalm 8, St. Augustine suggests that the “sheep  and oxen” put under Christ are human beings and angels—angels  being called oxen because of their incessant work in spreading the word of God. “You have put all things under his feet,” he says (Ps. 8:6). And when he writes to the Hebrews he uses this very [Read More...]

If you’ve ever been to Costco with a toddler you probably know the routine. When the clerk checks your receipt against the items your cart at the exit doors they’ll often warmly greet your little munchkin, flip over your receipt, and draw a smiley face with their marker on the back. It’s a small reward [Read More...]

  In 1975, long before the age of social media, an experiment was conducted at Stanford University. The experiment first provided a false impression regarding a person’s ability to distinguish real suicide notes from fake ones, and the candidates were subsequently presented in the face of the facts. The experiment found that, even when presented [Read More...]

On the surface, it would seem so; in Scripture, there are nearly 3,000 verses concerned with justice for the lowly, the oppressed, and the stranger.

It is frequently observed that citizens use cognitive heuristics, or short-cuts, to make sense of the world. One unfortunate manifestation of this is our tendency to credit or blame the President for almost everything. The same can be true of our attitudes toward the Pope. A recent example is Matthew Schmitz’s suggestion in a New [Read More...]

I’ve never been good at beauty. Yes, of course I can in some sense understand beauty – for instance could tell you the parts of a piece of literature that make it beautiful. But I usually don’t permit beauty to draw me out of myself – maybe because I’ve been pushed and pulled and pinned and [Read More...]

Family is the most basic expression of God's kingdom in this world.

And so you leave our hallways, students. I can you see you up ahead of us wearing your mortar boards and robes, and this is how I will always at last see you: turned away to what is ahead, clothed in the thin silk we gave you. How easy it is to tear, to scuff [Read More...]

   “Paradox” by Brett Jordan is licensed under CC by 2.0   Whenever a new and controversial papal or conciliar document appears on the scene (Ahem…Amoris Laetitia) there will always be, as smoke follows fire, people claiming that what the document teaches is in contradiction to previous teaching.  The story of nearly every schism follows this [Read More...]

My best friend Candie Flores and my husband do not read books. They just don’t. So when one of them says “hey, I’m reading this book and it’s really good”, I listen. Last week Candie texted me about this book called “The Year of Magical Thinking” by Joan Didion and told me that it was [Read More...]

When I began playing shows at Marquette University, few Milwaukee artists were making things happen on a national level. Peter Mulvey, who is ten years older, had the label, the records, the tour dates and artist collaborations to inspire any budding musician. Over the last ten years, Peter and my paths have crossed multiple times, [Read More...]

Fr. Martin states that he is trying to build a bridge between these two different camps.The post Building a Bridge: The Church and the LGBT Community Deserve Better appeared first on Time Off Purgatory with Steve the Missionary.

It was I, dear reader, who said, on this very blog—here—that if Mr. Trump wanted to, he could save the Little Sisters of the Poor from the Obamacare mandate by signing an executive order. Even LSD News, of all places, noted that the president was keeping the Obamacare requirement. Oh, I was contradicted for that [Read More...]

I’m excited to announce that I’ll be giving the keynote speech at this year’s Doxacon (a Christian convention on fantasy and science fiction)! Tickets are on sale now (and there’s an early bird rate, so if you think you’ll come, or you have a friend who would be interested, go ahead and book). My husband [Read More...]

Over at Aleteia, they’re remembering the birthday of a friend of mine. He’s one of the fellows who helped bring me into the Church. My buddy Blaise Pascal is a lot like me. That is, excepting the obvious fact that he was a mathematical genius, inventor of a calculator, etc., and though I enjoy mathematics, [Read More...]

This week on ‘Thinking Faith!’, Eric and Brett continue their discussion of Natural Family Planning looking more closely at what NFP actually involves, the kinds of healthy conversations that it encourages couples to have in their relationship and we’ll look at the potential NFP has for providing a surprising avenue of spiritual growth for couples [Read More...]