There are six things which the L ORD hates, seven which are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and a man who sows discord among brothers . - Proverbs 6:16-19 John said to him, "Teacher, we saw a man casting out demons in your name, and we forbade him, because he was not following us." But Jesus said, "Do not forbid him; for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon after to speak evil of me. For he that is not against us is for us." - St. Mark 9:38-40 It is already so easy for the average Catholic in the pew to feel isolated. Most parishioners relate through the parish school and the extra-curricular activities surrounding the school. Catholics without children in the parish school are out of luck. Most Catholics are so harried and exhausted that they pass...
Matthew 26:11: “For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me.” Mark 14:7: “For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you will, you can do good to them; but you will not always have me.” John 12:8: “The poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.” At different times, Jesus’s statement concerning the poor’s ubiquity has been amplified by the assertion that the poor in the United States today live better than the royalty of antiquity. These statements seem to be justifying a certain lethargy concerning addressing the needs of the poor. A closer look at the context of Our Lord’s statement may help contextualize our perceptions of poverty and our responsibilities thereto. What is the context within which Jesus Christ asserted this? It was six days before the Passover and Christ’s Passion and Death. Christ was in Bethany and attended a dinner in his honor at the home of S...
Photo by Alex Blăjan on Unsplash I greatly appreciate Fr. Matthew Schneider's (@FrMatthewLC) brief reply to my post, There Is No Secret To Reverse Parish Closings , via his Twitter account on May 11. As before, I wish to address the four points he raises in his reply, then move to a discussion of a larger topic. I greatly respect Fr. Schneider and am eternally grateful for his priesthood and the beautiful witness it is to the world. I will now address his Twitter comments very briefly. 1. Fr. Schneider first addresses his writing style, describing it as "brief & with catchy headlines to hopefully increase readership." Alright. Increasing readership is an admirable goal for one devoted to evangelizing the masses via Twitter, but shouldn't a little more thought be given to what is being offered to them? While it may be important to form Catholics to evangelize the world, the issues raised in my earlier article requires evangelization and catechesis of t...
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