Recently the sun shone gently on the slopes of the river bank as my four children ran alongside it, shouting and laughing at their stick boats they’d sent downriver.
“Here comes mine!” they shouted excitedly as their sticks bobbed over the ripples in the water.
 |
|
This article is the second in a two-part series.
In Grammar of Assent, John Henry Newman reminded us that truth is brought home to the mind, becoming convincing and persuasive, when it is represented, not through abstractions, but through something particular, colorful, and imaginable.
 |
|
A boy returned from Catechism class where he learned about Jesus’ resurrection.
During his walk home, he stopped by a religious goods store to study a window display of a huge cross with an image of the crucified Jesus nailed to it. An elderly man who walked with crutches joined him. The man seemed confused as he stared at the crucifix.
On Thursday evening, Jesus retreated from the upper room and went to a nearby garden to pray.
An agonizing emotion came over him as he awaited his fate. After an hour or so, he heard men talking in the distance. He looked up, and there was Judas leading a group of soldiers. They came toward him and Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss. The soldiers arrested him immediately and brought him before Pilate. He was falsely accused and condemned to be tortured.
|
|
This article is the first of a two-part series.
There is a very bad argument for celibacy which has reared its head throughout the tradition and which is, even today, defended by some. It runs something like this: married life is morally and spiritually suspect; priests, as religious leaders, should be spiritual athletes above reproach; therefore, priests shouldn’t be married.
|
|
This article is the second in a two-part series on Jordan Peterson’s new book, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos.
This archetype of the hero also allows us to read the story of Adam and Eve with fresh eyes. In paradise (the word itself denotes “ walled garden” ), our first parents were secure and innocent, but in the manner of inexperienced children.
Leaving paradise was, in one sense, a positive move, for it permitted them to grow up, to engage the chaos of the unknown creatively and intelligently.
 |
|
|
John Joy |
We’ve been reflecting in this column on the Creed of the People of God, 50 years after its first being proclaimed by Pope Paul VI in 1968.
This modern Creed is based on the Nicene Creed we say at Mass, but it goes into greater detail about what Catholics are required to believe in order to be “practicing Catholics” and (more importantly) in order to have that faith without which we cannot be saved.
|
|
|
John Joy |
We’ve been reflecting in this column on the Creed of the People of God, 50 years after its first being proclaimed by Pope Paul VI in 1968.
This modern Creed is based on the Nicene Creed we say at Mass, but it goes into greater detail about what Catholics are required to believe in order to be “practicing Catholics” and (more importantly) in order to have that faith without which we cannot be saved.
|
|
|
Spirituality for Today
|
My love goes out to all of you this holy season of Lent. Now that I am an old man, I see more clearly that love is the only thing that really matters in life.
 |
|
As countless fellow human beings suffer terribly in a myriad of ways, and much of our planet groans from gaping human induced wounds, our government, other governments, and many well-off people, seem to hardly care. It is what Pope Francis calls a “globalization of indifference.”
