Note from the Assistant Managing Editor:
We begin this week with Fr. Jacques Philippe on "The Call of Jesus." "I believe we can be fulfilled as human beings only to the extent that we perceive and respond to the calls life addresses to us day in and day out." All of these calls lead us to the best version of ourselves.
"How Can I Possibly Believe That Faith Is Better Than Proof?" But so Christ says when he tells Thomas, "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." Peter Wehner suggests it is because God desires a relationship with us and "it is better to be the object of someone's trust rather than the last person standing after a series of logical deductions."
I have always thought being "nice" a rather shallow goal compared to being "good." It is this problem Scott Hahn discusses in his Foreword to Ulrich Lehner's "God Is Not Nice." "We may instinctively like a nice God. But will we make sacrifices for him and to him? Will we make the effort to get out of bed early to praise his name? Will we be willing to die for him?"
I love "The Politics of Hope" from Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks. Instead of the divisive divisions of left and right, liberals and conservatives, democrats and republicans, he presents: society. "Society is about all the things that bind us together as a collective group bound to the common good, without transactions of wealth or power. In a society we help our neighbours not because they pay us to, or because the state forces us to, but simply because they're part of the collective 'us.'"
A very Christian view, or so the ancient pagans would say: their charity was motivated by returns, and "since the poor could not return the favor, they received little charity." But the followers of Christ saw the whole world, including non Christians, "as brethren demanding our concern."
Finally, a great piece from Fr. James Schall "On the Strange Function of Absolutes." We can't escape them. (See?)
God bless you all this week! - Meaghen Hale |
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"Beauty is vanishing from our world because we live as though it did not matter." - Roger Scruton
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New Resources
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The Call of Jesus - Father Jacques Philippe - from Called to Life
"Call" is the keyword....
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Foreword: "God Is Not Nice" - Scott Hahn - from God Is Not Nice: Rejecting Pop Culture Theology and Discovering the God Worth Living For
Stripping away the niceties with a sling blade, Ulrich Lehner shows that God is more strange and beautiful than we imagine, and wants to know and transform us in the most intimate way.
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'The Politics of Hope' - Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks - Jonathan Sacks
Based on his book The Politics of Hope, Rabbi Sacks analyses the rise in the 'politics of anger' in the West today and explores whether it might be possible to create a different kind of politics: the 'politics of hope'.
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How pagans viewed Christian charity - Rev. Ben Johnson - Acton Institute
Every year's end means that people of faith will be deluged with two things: wishes for a Happy New Year and appeals for charities of every conceivable variety.
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An evening with William Lane Craig - Bishop Robert Barron - Word on Fire
Ten years ago, when I was a visiting scholar at the North American College in Rome, I fell into a spirited conversation with one of the seminarians about the state of evangelization in America.
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Not peace but a sword - Father George W. Rutler - From the Pastor
The German word "kitsch" is hard to define, other than "tacky" or "tasteless."
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Editorials of Interest:
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Editorials of Interest
Full text of Pope Francis' in-flight press conference from Peru - Catholic World Report
In a conversation with journalists on his return flight from Peru to Rome on Sunday, Pope Francis discussed the people of Peru and Chile, clerical sexual abuse, his recent in-flight marriage celebration, and the Amazon region, among other topics.
Pope Francis Regrets - First Things
Bishop Barros has posed, from the beginning, the most serious challenge to Francis's image as a pope with zero tolerance for abusers and their accomplices in the hierarchy.
Dear Friends in the Media - Cardinal Zen
The retired cardinal of Hong Kong and outspoken religious liberty activist recounts his recent meeting with Pope Francis and his worries that the Vatican is selling out true Catholics in China, even as the Communist regime is stepping up repression.
The Link Between Contraception and Abortion - First Things
Every expert invited to the Pontifical Academy of the Sciences to discuss population and contraception advanced the opinion that abortion, though regrettable, is indispensable.
Kindness Is Not the Same as Love - Community in Mission
Kindness too often looks merely to relieve whereas true love looks to heal, something that often involves painful choices.
Is Latin America still Catholic? - Catholic Herald
After a half-century of precipitous decline, Latin America, home to 39 per cent of the world's 1.3 billion faithful, will no longer be majority Catholic by 2030.
Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman and St. Justin Martyr, pray for us |
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