Articles

I have said many times and will not tire from saying, pride is the worst of human failings, the most destructive, the deadliest thing. And when it is at its subtlest, it is at its

I had an interesting conversation the other day about the assertion “smoking is a mortal sin.” In sum, I told the person with whom I was speaking nothing is a mortal sin, but many things

It’s not that unusual to be asked to ‘support’ some cause via the various ubiquitous social networking sites out there. Some groups still go door-to-door in order to drum up support for their cause. When

Having an opinion is good. Nearly everyone does. Religion is a funny matter in that, yes, there is truth and error in it, but in some of its aspects, the truth of religion can only

Long before the media got a-hold of and twisted Pope Francis’ “Who am I to judge?” statement people have been criticizing Christians for failing to follow Jesus’ words, “Judge not.” They judge us to be

The great man of God, Pope Emeritus Benedict, has put himself in a sort of self-imposed isolation, for sake of prayer, to prepare himself for meeting God. This is what all Christians should be doing,

It’s a notion we take for granted. We all know what it means – but does our definition stand scrutiny; do we really know what we are talking about? When I think of conversion, two

Fashions change. When we were kids we used to laugh at the very idea of bell-bottoms and side-burns. What is old becomes new again, of course. I don’t imagine that any adult today would like

Lots of people worry about lots of things. Their worries aren’t necessarily mine, and vice versa. The thing I worry about most is probably not money, although that is a big one. It is my

Jesus preached a great deal about forgiveness. It must have been a central part of His message. Firstly, He taught about gaining God’s forgiveness, but He also spoke about our duty to forgive others. Both

“Feet!” someone said when I asked for a good blog topic. They meant it sarcastically. But I thought about their choice. It was a good one. Feet, suggests Paul, are not a very glamorous part

Chesterton’s famous phrase, ‘Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried,’ resonates with people inside the Church. A fair number of people outside of the Church would

There is more to life than happiness. Actually, that depends on how you define happiness. A hedonist is someone who identifies pleasure and purpose. There are a lot of versions of hedonism – as many

The great thing about the H. G. Wells book, The Time Machine, is how effectively it demonstrates the fact that life never stands still, that it cannot be controlled, that it is always changing. How is

Failure is a relative thing. The only definition of it that really matters is God’s. God loves good and hates evil. Thus, the only failure that matters lies in relation to them. Many people do

1. EUCHARISTI  |  After-Mass chatter, although it may revolve around holy and good things, can stand as a sound-wall between people (especially children) who are still in communion, or eucharisti, a sacred exchange with the

I was reading the great Christian writer, C. S. Lewis, whom I enjoy thoroughly, but was struck, paradoxically, by a thought: is it possible to pretend that God doesn’t exist? I mean this in the

Something so straight-forward has been massively controversial since the late 18th century. In 1789 poor people (riled up and eventually overtaken by intellectuals from a completely different economic class) rose up in France against the

I am too much of a scholar to believe that I know very much about who St. Joseph was. Too much of one to be satisfied with many artists’ depictions of him. The same goes

The idea that people have a vocation to a particular kind of life is a funny obsession of the modern Church. Though, this is not to say that it is a mistake. However, the Church

Aesthetics, the theory of beauty, is becoming a big topic for theologians. Of the so-called transcendentals – truth, goodness, and beauty – it has, of the three, been as neglected as the Holy Spirit is

A few times in these posts I’ve recommended that people read good books to strengthen their faith. Reading books has always constituted an important part of my spiritual practice. I would rather read than just

Temperance is essential to living a good life. And, regardless of what the world would pretend to be the case, it is also essential to any kind of happiness and community life. The excesses that

The Kerrs are Scotch-Irish, I am told by my genealogist-friend; that is to say, Scots who settled in Ireland in the 17th Century by the Crown to increase the Protestant population in predominantly Catholic Ireland.

One of the most moving things I have ever read came from an unexpected place: the forward to a biography of a saint. I hadn’t even made it into the book itself, properly speaking. It