Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
Educating new Christians in the basics of the faith has always been an important task of the Church. A few years back I featured a series on Cyril of Jerusalem's Catechetical Lectures, which date from the fourth century. Evangelical churches can be very casual about the whole business, their reputation for dogmatism notwithstanding. With Roman …
Continue reading "Revisiting the Catholicism of "Christ Among Us""
If you listen to Catholic commentators--especially conservative ones--you'll hear about the obligation of the faithful not only to vote but to vote for the proper person, i.e., one that is pro-life, etc., and that it's a sin to fail to do so. But there was a time when the Church had a less roseate view …
Continue reading "When the Catholic Faithful Were Not Allowed to Vote"
His Holiness has done it again with Amoris Laetitia, his latest encyclical on the family. The traditionalists tell us he's betrayed basic Roman Catholic Doctrine. The loyalists (to the Church) say it really doesn't say anything new. And the revisionists fell a "thrill up their leg" while reading it. Given all of that, I'm reposting …
Of all of Jesus Christ's post-resurrection appearances, this one is, in many ways, the most intriguing: Meanwhile Mary was standing close outside the tomb, weeping. Still weeping, she leant forward into the tomb, And perceived two angels clothed in white sitting there, where the body of Jesus had been lying, one where the head and …
Continue reading "After the Resurrection, Did Our Lord Need Purification?"
If I had to pick a favourite Bible verse or passage, it would be this: The bodies of those animals whose blood is brought by the High Priest into the Sanctuary, as an offering for sin, are burnt outside the camp. And so Jesus, also, to purify the People by his own blood, suffered outside …
Continue reading "The Meaning of Outside the Camp: A Good Friday Reflection"
Long-time readers of this blog will recall my brief history of the French engineer Barré de Saint-Venant. I recently gave a more complete treatment of the topic at the Holy Spirit, Science, and Theological Education Conference at Regent University. You can download the paper here.
This election cycle has been a wild one, and we're not even halfway through the primary season. Both parties are seeing broad-based revolts in their bases. The Democrat establishment has done a better job of managing the upheaval, because they did what the Republicans did not: pick one candidate and get behind her. Bernie Sanders …
Continue reading "If the Country Doesn't Make It, Will You?"
Epoch VII EG100 (1974) "The old folk Mass" has become the phrase used by teary-eyed, nostalgic Catholics (and some who left the Church) for the liturgical events of the 1960's and 1970's, when the organ gathered dust and the guitars--six and twelve string--were unpacked for the celebration of the sacred mysteries. But was it really …
Liturgical Press 11468 (1968) This "pre-NOM" album (which means we've had one and a half liturgical upheavals since then) is, despite its pretentious title, a mixture of a children's' album and early Catholic folk. Or maybe the pretentious title is reasonable: children are the future, something that the dropping birth rate of the time tended …
Such was the case in the late Roman Empire, by no less of a personage than Pope Siricius. Writing to the bishops in North Africa, he gave eight reasons why a person should not be consecrated to the priesthood, saying that "if after the remission of sins (baptism) he (the candidate for the priesthood) takes …
Continue reading "When Public Servants Were Barred from Being Priests"
Positive Infinity 