It’s Time to Re-Re-Evangelize the World

In much of the West, the lights of the Christian faith seem to be dimming, and the world seems to be growing ever colder towards the Gospel. We should take heart in the fact that this isn’t the first time we’ve seen things go south, and we should take counsel in seeing how the Saints succeeded in the re-evangelization of fallen away places like England.

Father Matthew Fish of the Archdiocese of Washington explores this in light of yesterday’s Feast of St. Augustine of Canterbury.

3 Reasons to Love St. Joseph

Albrecht Dürer, Flight into Egypt (1494)

Today, as you might imagine, is a special day for me. It’s my “name day,” the feast day of St. Joseph. One aspect of celebrating your name day is to know and love your namesake Saint. So let me share with you three things that I love about St. Joseph:

How George Carlin Misunderstood Prayer

William Blake, Ancient of Days (1794)

The famous comedian George Carlin was a fervent atheist, and had a particular disdain for Christian prayer. He argued that it was arrogant of us to ask the God of the Universe for anything. He’s got a Divine plan, and then we come along to ask Him for special favors.

But Carlin also viewed prayer as either destructive or worthless. After all, God is the all-powerful, all-knowing, all-good God of the Universe, and He has a Divine Plan. If our prayers cause Him to change that plan, Carlin reasoned, we’re making things worse. If our prayers don’t cause Him to change His plans, what’s the point?

The Untamed Virgin Queen

Caravaggio, Madonna and Child with St. Anne (1606)

The world has just learned that three more Assyrian Christians have been executed in a particularly barbaric way by ISIS… who’ve promised to continue this murderous campaign if the Christians of the Middle East don’t submit. Pope Francis has repeatedly tried to call our attention to the ongoing genocide of these Christians, and that’s exactly what it is: a systematic attempt to wipe Christians off of the map, permanently.

All of this bloodshed is being perpetrated in the name of a radical and expansionist form of Islam. To be sure, this isn’t the only form of Islam practiced, but it is nothing new, either. From the very beginning, there have been groups, beginning with Muhammad himself, who sought to spread Islam by the sword.