Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
They talk a good game, but as a recent Pew report notes, those purveyors of same-sex marriage bomb in the racial diversity department. Even with the choice of Presiding Bishop Curry, the Episcopal Church is whiter than--horrors--the Southern Baptist Convention! It's hard to blame non-white people from avoiding the Episcopal Church; in fact, it's …
Continue reading "Those Undiverse Episcopalians, and Others"
The Holy Father has once again ambushed American Catholics with Laudato Si, his encyclical on the environment and global warming. As was the case with his earlier document on social teaching, we should not be too surprised; there is a great deal of precedent for this kind of thinking. As R.R. Reno points out: In …
From Bossuet's History of the Variations of the Protestant Churches, III, 12, this gem: For although the Eucharist, as well as the other mysteries of our salvation, had a spiritual effect for its end, it had, like the other mysteries, that which was accomplished in the body for its foundation. Jesus Christ was to be …
Anyone who works in a university environment these days--especially in a public university whose state support continually evaporates--has heard about the concept of "safe space". It's an idea promoted by LGBT advocates where parts of the campus are designated as safe for such people to be without fear of opposition. The problem with that is …
Continue reading "An Important Way Church Needs to Be a Safe Space"
Putting a wrap on Bossuet's Elevations on the Mysteries, III, 8: Now there is only this beautiful place in Proverbs, where the uncreated wisdom speaks thus: The Lord has possessed me, generated me, from the beginning of his ways. I am myself this beginning, being the worker idea of this great artisan and the original …
Lining up another one of the Elevations on the Mysteries by Bossuet, III, 7: God made the basis of his work. God decorated it, God put the finishing touch, God rested. When he made the basis of his work, that is to say in confusion the heavens and the earth, the air and the waters, …
Continue reading "On the Creation of the Universe: The Order of the Works of God"
Acting again to post Bossuet's Elevations on the Mysteries, III, 6: You are all powerful, of God of glory! I adore your immense and voluntary generosity. I pass all the centuries, and all the evolutions and revolutions of nature; I see you as you would be before all beginning and all eternity; that is to say …
Continue reading "On the Creation of the Universe: Acts of Faith and Love on All Things"
One of the things Americans politicians endlessly yammer about is the way they're "fighting" something or someone. It never ends--they fight special interests, they fight the President, and when they want to be more positive they're "fighting for you". The result of this mentality is obvious these days. But what if there's really something--or someone--worth …
Continue reading "Book Review: Daniel-Rops' A Fight for God"
Another day, another post from Bossuet's Elevations on the Mysteries, III, 5: The design of God in the creation and in the description which his Holy Spirit dictated to Moses, is first to make himself known as the all-powerful and very free creator of all things, who without being limited to another law except for …
Continue reading "On the Creation of the Universe: The Six Days"
Marching on in Bossuet's Elevations on the Mysteries, III, 4: God says: Let there be light, and there was light. The King says: March, and the army marches; that one makes such an evolution, and it is made; all the army moves at one command of a Prince, that is to say at a single …
Continue reading "On the Creation of the Universe: Efficacy and Liberty of the Divine Command"
Positive Infinity 