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March 28, 2018

Note from the Assistant Managing Editor:

"God sleeps while his affairs are about to sink — is that not the experience of our own lives?" writes Cardinal Ratzinger in this week's reflection.  "When the storm has passed, we will recognize how foolish our faint-hearted faith was."  Still we cannot help but pray.

There is a treasure box of practical spiritual wisdom in Father Hardon's "Examination of Conscience."

"The Religion of the Day," writes Cardinal Newman, is "pleasant and easy," based on a godless religion that does not move past the natural world to deeper meaning.  "But how are we concerned with the sun, moon, and stars? or with the laws of the universe? how will they teach us our duty? how will they speak to sinners? They do not speak to sinners at all.  They were created before Adam fell.  They 'declare the glory of God,' but not His will."

Good friends of mine star in Family Theater's Catholic Central, a webseries that presents "EnterForming* Insights on All Things Catholic" (watch the episode I wrote here).  You can read all about the company's founder, Fr. Peyton, one of those men who followed his call regardless of what the world said was possible.  See "The Rosary Priest."

Stephen Hawking passed away on March 14, 2018.  "Surely a large part of Hawking's appeal was that he demonstrated that man's greatness lies in his capacity — despite the frailty of the flesh he shares with the beasts — to touch the deepest mysteries of meaning."  See "World small for brilliant Hawking."

Finally, a review of the new movie "Paul, Apostle of Christ."  It's the first feature from ODB Films — and it's good.  Find showtimes here.

Have a blessed Holy Week. - Meaghen Hale



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"If you love, you will suffer. The only way to protect yourself against suffering is to protect yourself against love — and that is the greatest suffering of all, loneliness." - Peter Kreeft



New Resources


 
Holy Saturday - Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger and William Congdon - from The Sabbath of History: William Congdon

There is a scene in the Gospel that anticipates the silence of Holy Saturday in a stimulating way and thus also appears as a portrait of our historical hour.


 
Examination of Conscience - Father John A. Hardon, S.J. - from Father Hardon's Catholic Prayer Book with Meditations

It is valuable to reflect on this tactic of the evil spirit before we offer some practical norms for making our daily examination of conscience.


 
The Religion of the Day - Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman - Parochial and Plain Sermons

In every age of Christianity, since it was first preached, there has been what may be called a religion of the world, which so far imitates the one true religion, as to deceive the unstable and unwary.


 
The Rosary Priest - Father Richard Gribble, C.S.C. - Columbia

The green hills and rocky seacoast of County Mayo, in western Ireland, have been a seedbed of the Catholic faith for centuries.


 
Excommunication: What is it and does the Church still do it? - Fr. Aquinas Guilbeau, O.P. - Aleteia

Often it is the person who chooses to excommunicate himself.


 
World small for brilliant Hawking - Father Raymond J. de Souza - National Post

Stephen Hawking was a courageous man, writes Fr. Raymond de Souza, who had a memorable encounter with Hawking in 1995.


 
Burning Men: a Review of "Paul, Apostle of Christ" - Brad Miner - The Catholic Thing

It's very good to be able, finally, to have a film I can recommend wholeheartedly, although it's impossible for me not to be a little querulous.


 
Christ was perfectly consistent - Father George W. Rutler - From the Pastor

Ralph Waldo Emerson had moments more perceptive than his vague religiosity: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines."


 
Palm Sunday - Father John Horgan - CERC

The details of the passion narratives are part of the Holy Spirit's plan to give us as complete a portrait of Jesus as possible.

Editorials of Interest:

Always Fear, Always Love - First Things
Is There a Saving Truth? - First Things
Finding Worth In Your Weakness - The Culture Project
Summer's Last Sting - First Things

Editorials of Interest


50 Mums | 50 Kids | 1 Extra Chromosome - NC Register

A carpool karaoke lip sync video in support of World Down Syndrome Day features 50 mums and their children singing along to Christina Perri's multi-platinum selling track, "A Thousand Years".


What Mary Eberstadt told Notre Dame about Humanae Vitae - CNA

Eberstadt told students that a 50-year-old document on contraception is critical to understanding the state of contemporary culture.


Study: What Causes Young People to Convert? Beautiful Churches and Cathedrals - uCatholic

Encounters with beautiful architecture beat out the most common evangelization effort today — youth groups, along with attending weddings and speaking to other Christians about the Faith.


Getting ready for Synod-2018 - Catholic World Report

The upcoming Synod in October, which will discuss youth ministry and vocational discernment, could benefit from inviting some American leaders in youth ministry and vocational discernment.


Always Fear, Always Love - First Things

Amoris Laetitia suggests that an objective assessment of whether or not one is in a state of mortal sin can be replaced with a more subjective "discernment" of one's "interior disposition." While this may seem merciful, it leaves Catholics less sure of how they stand before God.


Is There a Saving Truth? - First Things

This is the fourth in a series of reflections by Cardinal Müller on questions of present importance in the life of the Church.


Cardinal Dolan says Democrats have abandoned Catholics - Catholic World Report

In an op-ed published Friday in the Wall Street Journal, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of the Archdiocese of New York lamented that the Democratic Party's shifting principles have effectively shut out and alienated orthodox Catholics.


Keeping the faith alive in the most remote parish on earth - Catholic Herald

Life on the island of Tristan da Cunha began with Napoleon. Today, it is sustained by faith.


An Open Appeal to the Catholic Bishops of the World - Catholic World Report

Only fraternal episcopal interventions can now hope to avert what is sure otherwise to be a spiritual catastrophe for the Catholic Church.


Does Faith Reduce Divorce Risk? - Public Discourse

Religious belief and activity, particularly prayer, matter in important ways. They make a deeply practical difference in how husband and wife interact with each other in daily life.


9 Little-Known Facts About The Crucifixion of Jesus - The Five Beasts

A valuable study appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1986 entitled "On the Physical Death of Jesus."


"All Is Grace": Lent, sacraments, and deification - Catholic World Report

Grace seems to have fallen on hard times in our own day and age. Two extremes in its regard are in competition — and both are wrong and damaging to the living of the Christian life.


Police officer who swapped places with hostage was a practising Catholics - Catholic Herald

Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame had 'experienced a genuine conversion' in 2008.


Everything You Need to Know about the Sacred Triduum - GeTfed

Holy Week is the most solemn and glorious week in Christianity, the pinnacle of the liturgical year.


Even after ISIS is defeated, Muslim extremists prevent Iraqi Christians from returning to their homes - Aleteia

Only 20 Christian families have returned to Mosul since its liberation. Syriac-Orthodox Archbishop Mar Nicodemus Daoud Sharaf heads the Archeparchy of Mosul, Kirkuk and Syriac Orthodox Church. In this interview, he addresses the plight of Christians in northern Iraq.


Chinese Communist Party increases control over religions - Catholic Herald

China has dissolved its long-standing State Administration for Religious Affairs bureau and handed its functions to the United Front Work Department.


American teenagers' quiet despair - The Week

One thing that is certain is that the private sorrows faced by children, in 2018 or any other year, are responses to a world created by adults. We can never afford to forget this.


Finding Worth In Your Weakness - The Culture Project

Our worth does not come from what we can do, how we look, or the relationships we have — it comes from who we are. We are sons and daughters of a king.


Modesty: How Women Can Regain Control in a Sex-Obsessed Culture - Courageous Priest

The last sexual frontier for a woman in the West to regain control over a sex-obsessed culture is her own modesty.


Summer's Last Sting - First Things

The #MeToo movement, although for the moment quite sincerely explaining itself in other terms, is the bust to end the 1960s boom in sexual permissiveness.


How St. Faustina Can Help Us Adore the Blessed Sacrament - Catholic Exchange

Susan Tassone's latest book, St. Faustina Prayer Book for Adoration, has arrived just in time for Holy Thursday and Divine Mercy Sunday.


Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman and
St. Justin Martyr, pray for us

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