A couple of hopefully-great series for you to listen to (or watch!) as you prepare for Christ’s coming this Advent.
Tag: Saints
A Word of Praise, and Sadness, for St. Junipero Serra
Today is the feast day of St. Junipero Serra, and so I wanted to share something that I wrote recently on Facebook: I’m saddened by the mob’s destruction of the St. Junipero Serra statue in San Francisco, and the City of Ventura’s decision to remove their Serra statue. [Since writing this, there’s been one clear… Continue reading A Word of Praise, and Sadness, for St. Junipero Serra
Preparing for Battle: 7 Tips From St. Paul on Evangelization
In the face of seemingly endless scandals in the Catholic Church, a lot of non-Catholics are asking some variation of “why are you still Catholic?” to their Catholic friends and loved ones. Behind this question is often pain, anger, or sheer incredulity, but the silver lining is that they are asking about why we’re still Catholic, which creates an opening for evangelization. But now what?
As Catholics, we know we’re called to evangelize the world, but anyone’s who ever attempted evangelization (or apologetics) knows that it’s hard to do it well. As with any craft, one of the best ways to learn is to pay attention to the people who do it well, so it makes sense that we should look to the life and example of St. Paul. He is arguably the greatest Christian evangelist who ever lived, apart from Christ Himself. So how do we ensure that we’re properly “armed” for any sort of question, discussion, or argument about the faith?
Living as a Child of God: The Power of Petitionary Prayer
“Spiritual childhood” can sound like saccharine baby talk, in a way that most of us (particularly men) find unrelatable and even uncomfortable. After all, doesn’t St. Paul say “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways” (1 Cor. 13:11)? But we cannot just leave spiritual childhood to those who like being treated like children: it’s the only way to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. So how do we grow in this spirituality?
Is it Blasphemy to Speak Against the Saints or the Church?
The Catholic Church claims that it is blasphemous to use the name of the Virgin Mary or the Saints in vain, and Protestants are understandably uneasy about this. So is the Catholic Church right? Or is this claim itself blasphemy?
The Lost Verses of “O Salutaris Hostia”
Many devout Catholics are familiar with the hymn O Salutaris Hostia, but did you know that it’s part of a larger hymn called Verbum Supernum Prodiens, written by St. Thomas Aquinas for the Feast of Corpus Christi? It’s theologically rich and well worth reading, praying, and listening to.
Is it Wrong to Pray to Angels?
A Baptist preacher on the radio this morning claimed that the only person in the Bible to encourage praying to angels was Satan, when he tempted our Lord in the wilderness. This claim is wrong, but in a revealing way.
The Spirituality of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, the Little Flower
St. Thérèse was only 24 years old when she died in 1897, but she quickly became one of the most famous Saints in the world. Pope St. John Paul II declared her a “Doctor of the Church” for her spiritual writings. So what can we learn from this St. Thérèse, the “Little Flower?” That’s the theme of this talk that I gave at Christ the King on July 26th. I look first at the way her holiness was tied to the holiness of her family (and the importance of living married life well) and then her distinctive teachings on prayer, especially her famous “Little Way,” that Pope Pius XI described as a sure path of salvation.
St. John Vianney on Prayer
St. Jean-Baptiste-Marie Vianney, a parish priest in a small town in France, became world famous and, after his death, was declared the patron saint of parish priests around the world. Pope John XXIII marked the 100th anniversary of his death with an encyclical on the priesthood, and Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed the Year for Priests in 2009 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Vianney’s death. So what did this extraordinary parish priest have to say to laypeople about how to pray? Listen to this talk to find out!
Holiness in Daily Life: St. Francis de Sales, Blessed John Henry Newman, and St. Josemaría Escrivá
Most of us aren’t called to be priests or monks or nuns, yet so many spiritual authors assume that their readers live in convents, monasteries, or rectories. So what about the spiritual life of everyone else? Here are three takes on holiness in daily life (from St. Francis de Sales, Blessed John Henry Newman, and… Continue reading Holiness in Daily Life: St. Francis de Sales, Blessed John Henry Newman, and St. Josemaría Escrivá