The Christ Child comes at Christmas to replace our gloomy ego with his radiant joy.

The following ten universal principles form the foundation of civility, justice, and objectivity in cultures throughout the world. Their presence assures the possibility of humane civilization and their absence (even their partial absence) opens the path for corruption, deceit, injustice, and cultural decline. Following is the introduction and the first 19 pages from chapter two of Father Spitzer's new book, Ten Universal Principles: A Brief Philosophy of the Life Issues.

If you stand in need of mercy, it is found in full measure in the heart of the Virgin.

The Protestant theologian Paul Tillich once commented that "faith" is the most misunderstood word in the religious vocabulary. I'm increasingly convinced that he was right about this.

I dare say that most people in Europe or North America would hold some version of the following: as long as, deep down, you are a good person, it doesn't much matter what you believe.

What shall we say then of the divine tenderness towards us?

It's all well and good to talk about pursuing "what works" until we come up against inescapable moral limits.

To be in communion with someone also means to walk with them.

Europes effort to integrate itself around an economic instrument, a common currency, rather than around a belief or an idea, appears to be imploding.

There are three kinds of evil that I want to talk about: suffering, death and sin. What we fear most, most of the time, is suffering, then death, then sin exactly the opposite of what it should be.