Monday, December 1, 2025

Almsgiving in the Twenty-first Century

“Grace builds on nature.” (Saint Thomas Aquinas) This statement from Saint Thomas’s Summa expresses in succinct form the theological insight that creation and redemption are...

Falls From Grace

First there were the twisties – not a wardrobe malfunction, but a loss of muscle memory in gymnasts, who ‘forget’ their routines, and where...

Tattoos as a Spiritual, and Bodily, Harm

“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you...

Are Fairies Catholic?

Are fairies good Christians? Many say they are not; that they are actually shrunken idols, worshipped into later ages by the people of the fens,...

The Muddled Metaphysics of Darwin

(Today, August 20th, marks the anniversary of the publication Darwin's Origin of Species, in 1858, whose full title includes also "by Means of Natural...

Fifth Sunday: The Mystery of Mercy

But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying. ‘Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!’(Lk....

The Faith is All or None

(I may write more on the recent headline, which comes not as a surprise, that most 'Catholics' - and one must use that term...

Random Reflections on Jacques Maritain

Recently I was startled to realize, it being so uneasy a reminder of my own mortality, that the eminent French philosopher Jacques Maritain has...

Raw Lies and Half-Baked Truths

“What is truth?” said jesting Pilate, and would not wait for an answer. There are those who do not want to hear the truth. Such...

Fulton Sheen’s Thoughts for Daily Living

The Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen (1895-1979) needs little introduction. At the peak of his radio and television popularity from the 1940s to the...