22nd
Jun 2017
Give today!
If you are looking for some holiday reading, I have an article published this morning in Crisis magazine, on artificial intelligence. Peruse as you will, and comments are always, or almost always, welcome. Peace and joy to all. (Continue reading)
Alas, the capitulations continue. A few days ago, I listened on the CBC to an interview with the great Jean Vanier, the founder of L'Arche, which cares for severely handicapped and developmentally challenged people, heroic work that I could scarcely consider doing. I visited the L'Arche in Inverness, Scotland in 2003, when two of my students were working there in the summer, and was duly impressed. Yet, here was Dr. Vanier (he earned a Ph. D. on Aristotle's Ethics from the ... (Continue reading)
Human beings have always been story-tellers. Since the earliest days, we have striven to express our new-found ability to understand reality and interact more fully with the world around us. We alone among Creation were given that sublime combination of intelligence and emotions to enable us to seek out the truth and knowingly revel in it. We have been called a strange blend of animal and angel; we are primates still, and yet our destiny has been raised and image transformed by ... (Continue reading)
Robert Spencer, Not Peace but a Sword: The Great Chasm Between Christianity and Islam. San Diego: Catholic Answers, 2013, p.251. By Scott Ventureyra Robert Spencer is perhaps the most vocal Catholic critic of Islam and violent jihadism. He has authored various works critical of both Islam and the prophet Muhammad. He is also the founder and editor of JihadWatch.org. Despite the many efforts made to discredit him, he unflinchingly continues to expose the Islamic beliefs that threaten Western culture. In this book, Spencer ... (Continue reading)
Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. (Jn 6:51) In our meditations on the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass we have considered the unchangeable heart of the Mass, the Canon or Eucharistic Prayer. It is the very heart of the Mass because this priestly prayer brings about the consecration of the offerings into the Body and Blood of our Saviour, the Bread of Life. ... (Continue reading)
For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. (Jn 6:33) As we listen to our Lord’s Eucharistic discourse, our Lord Himself teaches us about the Eucharist, the Sacrament prefigured not only in the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fish but also in the life and worship of the Jewish people, specifically in the worship given to God in the Temple in Jerusalem. Last Sunday we considered the function of the ... (Continue reading)
Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. (Jn 6:8) Today we begin to read from the sixth chapter of St. John’s Gospel which includes Our Lord’s Eucharistic discourse and we continue our meditations on the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, our central act of worship, "the source and summit of Christian life" (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 10; Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Vatican Council ... (Continue reading)
The week of 19-25 July 2015 is designated by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops as National Natural Family Planning Awareness Week. In their statement, the Bishops encourage us to "celebrate and reverence God's vision of human sexuality." The week ends on the 47th anniversary of Pope Paul VI's prophetic encyclical Humane Vitae, which "articulates Catholic beliefs about human sexuality, conjugal love and responsible parenthood" (USCCB.org). Although the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops has not announced a similar recognition of ... (Continue reading)
And He had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things. (Mk 6:34) We begin today our reading of the sixth chapter of the Gospel of St. Mark and as we did last Sunday we will meditate on the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, our central act of worship, "the source and summit of Christian life" (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 10; Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Vatican Council II)—the very heart of all ... (Continue reading)
So the twelve went out and proclaimed that all should repent. (Mk 6:13) The call to repentance is fundamental to the preaching of our Lord Jesus Christ as it was also in the preaching of St. John the Baptist, the Lord’s precursor and all the prophets before him, including Amos, whose prophecy we heard in our first reading. Not surprisingly, Amos is told to go away because his prophecy condemns external religious ceremony that covers moral corruption and is not accompanied by ... (Continue reading)