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...
Amazon’s Censorship and Southwell’s Truth
Censorship on a scale even Orwell couldn't imagine in 1984 is ramping up, only four decades or so off his predicted date, but here...
When I Die, Do I Want to Be a…Tree?
This phrase recently appeared in the Ottawa Citizen in an article on the greening of death, a quote from Susan Koswan, a Waterloo writer...
A Brief History of Eminent Atheists
Here is a sober thought. Let us suppose we might be looking for the first atheists in the history of the world. My candidates...
The Feast of the Chair of Peter
On Monday February 22 we celebrate the Feast of the Chair of St Peter. What do we mean by the Chair of Peter and...
John Paul II and Cathedra Petri
EUCHARISTIC CELEBRATION WITH THE NEW CARDINALS
HOMILY OF JOHN PAUL II
Thursday, 22 February 2001
Feast of Saint Peter's Chair
1. "'Who do you say that I am?'. Simon...
How Busy People Pray
“Pray always.” (1 Thessalonians 5.17)
If we are to take Saint Paul’s words seriously, we see that there must be different forms of prayer; we...
Chastity: Appreciating An Underappreciated Virtue
”Then Pilate took Jesus and had him scourged” (John 19: 1)
The visions of the 19th century German mystic, Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich, vividly depict...
Pope Francis, and Beginning Lent Back in 2020
HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
Basilica of Santa Sabina
Ash Wednesday, 26 February 2020
(This homily is from last year, 2020, at the beginning of a...
The Psychology of Fasting
Fasting was an essential aspect of primitive Christianity, as it had been in Old Testament times. That the followers of Jesus would fast is...