With Faustina Kowalska, the great message of Divine Mercy penetrates the sufferings of the 20th century to reach the Christians of the new millennium, John Paul II said this morning, when opening the solemn ceremony for the canonization of the Polish nun, in the presence of some 200,000 pilgrims.
A friend of mine who belongs to an evangelical Church was asking me about the Mass. She read a quote from Hebrews which seemed to say that the Mass could not be a sacrifice. Can you help me in this matter?
One of the most basic and vexing problems in moral education is how to make virtue more attractive than vice. In this regard, modesty plays a key role.
Sir Walter Scott has his bold hero, Arthur, speak like a saint or Father of the Church. Arthurs advice is timeless. We could use a novelist of the moral acumen of Sir Walter Scott in our own age.
From the dawn of Christian history, Baptism and Confirmation have been very closely associated.
Laborem Exercens is a sustained reflection on the meaning of human work, which John Paul considers to be a key, probably the essential key, to the whole social question... In this document he is more interested in looking at social teaching in the light of the concept of work, than in formulating new norms for a changed social situation. As we examine the main points of his reflections we will be able to see more clearly his insights into the meaning of the Churchs social doctrine.
Father Cameron has written an intelligible and timely introduction to fourteen Catholic classics on spirituality. In an age that is fast becoming de-Christianized, Camerons book reminds us that in the lives and writings of the saints, we have reliable guides to a complete and holy life even in the most secular of times.
Just what are the effects of Confirmation? It is difficult to imagine a better summary than that given in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Every virtue has its bogus pretenders. Foolhardiness passes for courage, timidity for prudence, apathy for patience, obsequiousness for courtesy, and credulity for faith. But there is no counterfeit that is more successful in obscuring the genuine article, especially in the present era, than false compassion.
Therese really is a doctor of the Church. She really does teach, and no writer of theology you have ever read will carry you so unerringly to the living heart of the gospels, so limpidly and beautifully put.
