Jesus Christ

Laymen: “Resolve” to Discern God’s Will for You

In one of the scriptural passages most often quoted by Blessed Pope John Paul II during the course of his historic pontificate, a “rich young man” asks the Lord what I consider to be the only question really worth asking once one reaches the age of reason and understands the reality of death: “What must … Read more

Latino Bishops Apologize to Illegal Immigrants

  SAN ANTONIO, Texas, DEC. 12, 2011. A letter to migrants dated Dec. 12, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, was signed by 33 Hispanic Catholic bishops in the United States. In it they expressed their solidarity with the many illegal immigrants living in the country. “We recognize that every human being, authorized or … Read more

More of You

A mom recently emailed me a complaint. “You never share stories anymore! I always loved your stories.” It’s true that I regularly used to share stories from my real-life experience as a Catholic mom of many children. It turns out that misery really does love company, and the woes of nighttime teething and tantruming toddlers … Read more

Who Were the Wise Men?

Who were the Wise Men? Where did they come from? Where did they go? We do not know. To make sense of the story, we must pay attention to its symbolism. Read in that way, we find that the story has five stages. The magi, whom we also call the wise men, saw; they searched; … Read more

The Constant Threat of the Miraculous

For the modern informed Catholic, the miraculous and the holy do not necessarily go hand in hand. Among many of the devout, confusion often exists as to whether miracles are real, whether they are from God or from somewhere else, and whether questionable people are profiting from them. In our time, places like Medjugorje have … Read more

Our radical pope

Samuel Gregg of the Acton Institute says that Pope Benedict XVI’s new book-length interview, Light of the World, reveals him as a full blown Christian radical. The word “radical” comes from the Latin radix, meaning “root.” It’s in this sense Benedict is radical. His pontificate is about going back to Christianity’s roots to make, as … Read more

‘Stand Erect and Raise Your Heads’

“What are we coming to? Where will it all end?” Who among us has not heard anxious questions like those, or asked them ourselves? What is going to happen, we ask, in Afghanistan and Iraq? Will the sorely tried people of those tormented countries ever enjoy peace? When will our brave troops be able to … Read more

Natural Law Foundations of the American Republic

Bill Whittle, explaining the Natural Law underpinnings of good law, and observing what is the underlying (as opposed to the proximate) cause of the current economic malaise: What We Believe, Part 4: Natural Law It’s Part 4 of Bill’s series about what American conservatives (and especially Tea Party folks) believe. Here are Parts 1, 2, … Read more

A New Knighthood

The world is full of talented failures — people who either didn’t live up to their abilities, or who did, but in a way that diminished their humanity and their character. God made us to be better than that. And our nation and our Church need His people to be better than that. Scripture tells … Read more

Pope Benedict: ‘The world needs priests…until the end of time’

Pope Benedict released a letter to seminarians today, encouraging them in their vocation. It starts with an incredible story from his youth in Nazi Germany, explaining why priests are so desperately needed — “today, tomorrow, and always”: When in December 1944 I was drafted for military service, the company commander asked each of us what … Read more

The Spirituality of St. Thomas Aquinas

The Dominican theologian Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225-1274) holds a central place in the tradition of Roman Catholic intellectual and spiritual life. The matrix of Aquinas’s own mystical experiences was the thirty-some years of Dominican ministry and community life that this Neapolitan nobleman began in 1244. We see Aquinas’s spiritual self-understanding reveal his deep personal love … Read more

Persons Not Pets

When you see a homeless man with a sign saying, “Hungry, need a meal,” what is the biblical thing to do? Here are possible answers: Be generous: Give him a quarter, a dollar, or a five-dollar bill. Be tough: Go on by, being careful not to make eye contact. Select some other option. Lots of … Read more

The Presence(s) of Jesus

Recently, a reader wrote me with an interesting question: I have a theological problem with the statement of Blessed Mother Teresa: “Everyone is Jesus Christ in disguise,” which is one of the main mottos also of the Focolare Movement: “To see Jesus Christ in everyone.” I accept obviously and wholeheartedly Matthew 25:31-46 (especially 42-46): “For … Read more

Love and Dogma

A certain gentleman I know told me that his young son is attending a private Catholic school that is run independently of the diocesan or religious order systems. He and his wife were evidently happy with the school: “It is a much more loving place, no Baltimore Catechism sort of thing.” Aside from the fact that … Read more

Meeting the Sacred Heart

Yesterday was the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a traditional feast that goes back centuries. As a private devotion, it was commonplace by the sixteenth century and grew even more popular after a series of visions experienced by French visitation nun, Mary Margaret of Alacoque. Pope Pius IX made the devotion a feast … Read more

Pray for Us Sinners

  One of the most mysterious rifts to have developed in the Christian world is that between those who pray to the saints in glory, or for the dead in Christ, and those who regard all this as utterly sinister. The rift is, of course, of extremely recent vintage, historically speaking. But it is deep … Read more

What Would Jesus Shoot?

This story has been getting a lot of attention today:  Coded references to New Testament Bible passages about Jesus Christ are inscribed on high-powered rifle sights provided to the United States military by a Michigan company, an ABC News investigation has found. Oh boy. One sentence in, and already several questions are raised. Where to … Read more

Guardini on Christ in Our Century

In this Crisis Magazine classic, an up-and-coming writer named Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger meditates upon Romano Guardini’s masterwork, The Lord.   Romano Guardini’s book The Lord has helped more than one generation of Christians enter into a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ. When the book first appeared, it offered a new approach to the spiritual interpretation … Read more

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