The 90th Anniversary of The Barmen Declaration Pictured above is a memorial to the band of Christian Germans who opposed Hitler. In 1934, eminent Protestant theologian, Karl Bath and numerous German Lutherans wrote the Barmen Declaration. Adolf Hitler had successfully persuaded, intimidated and/or cowed the leaders of the church into supporting the Aryan Solution. The […]
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Communism, Confession and Our Souls Why am I thinking about Communism in this first Sunday in February, 2024? Because it’s all around us, headlines and exhortations shouted out by the American elite. And it’s been so for years. Progressive ideology is merely Marxist rhetoric. Sure it’s cool, 21st-century name, woke, provides a cloak, but it’s
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It’s advent: don’t waste these precious days! Quietly competing with the banal and boring commercialism of Black Fridays and Cyber Mondays extended sales is another invitation. But it cannot be heard outside in the streets or while listening to CNN. Instead we must silent all the shouts of the marketplace to listen to another voice…more
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We are an Easter people Easy to say when all is light, love and happiness. But how about when it feels like all is lost?. Or when everywhere we look, we see only darkness. Not just absence of light but a soul-crushing darkness that functions like a magnet for our kids, spouse, ourselves? Isn’t it
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The awful simplicity of sin Isn’t it strange when something we’ve repeatedly read and/or heard in the liturgy one day seems to shout out at us? As in STOP, PAY ATTENTION!! Monday’s reading was from the Book of Daniel and if we listen closely, brings sorrow, if not shame. Why? Because we see ourselves. The
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A journey of forgiveness “Our life on earth is a journey of forgiveness,” declared Fr. Paul at the St. Matthew’s Tuesday 6am daily Mass. Commenting on the Gospel for last Tuesday, the priest spoke of a recent experience with a parishioner following the sacrament of reconciliation. He told the contrite young man, “I see Jesus in you.
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Epiphany: What does it mean again? “You have had an epiphany,” remarked my friend when I told her about my decision to become a Catholic Christian. Although my friend Adele’s comment occured a couple of decades ago now, I think of it on this day we celebrate Epiphany. Perhaps I’d heard the word before but
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The battleground of conscience That phrase seems oxymoronic—contradictory—the battleground of conscience, I know. But once I began rereading Fr. Jacques Phillipe’s Searching for and Maintaining Peace, there’s no better metaphor. But first, some brief background. The first chapter of this Fr. Phillippe’s book says it all: “Without Me you can do nothing….(John 15:5) He didn’t say,
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Forgiveness, ignorance and redemption We pray it every day. “…Forgive us as we forgive those who…” But too often, the routinized words fall from my lips and disappear into the petty details of the day’s tasks. I know well the essential correlation between forgiveness and redemption in my own life and therefore I’ve written about
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Best way to disempower evil: Look at it Bishop Robert Barron’s sermon for the first Sunday of Lent- Three Levels of Temptation– is on St. Luke’s account of the temptations of Christ in the desert. Within the first few minutes of his homily, he says, “The best way to disempower evil: to look at it, to
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