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What is Sloth? It is More Subtle and Devilish Than Mere Laziness By: Msgr. Charles PopeOne of the more misunderstood of the cardinal sins is sloth. This is because most see it merely as laziness. But there is more to sloth than that. Let’s take a moment and consider some aspects of the cardinal sin we call sloth.The Greek word we translate as sloth is ἀκηδία akedia (a = absence + kedos = care), meaning indifference or negligence. St. Thomas speaks of sloth as sorrow for spiritual good. By it, we shun spiritual good as too toilsome (cf ST...

March 17, 2015Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent   Reading 1 Ez 47:1-9, 12 The angel brought me, Ezekiel,back to the entrance of the temple of the LORD,and I saw water flowing outfrom beneath the threshold of the temple toward the east,for the façade of the temple was toward the east;the water flowed down from the right side of the temple,south of the altar.He led me outside by the north gate,and around to the outer gate facing the east,where I saw water trickling from the right side.Then when he had walked off to the eastwith a measuring cord...

Justin Fivecoat, a parishioner at St. John The Apostle Catholic Church in Terrell, is one of the honorees who will be recognized Feb. 7 during a Mass for the annual Bishop’s Awards for Service to the Church. (DON JOHNSON/Special Contributor) TERRELL — A local diner, some thoughtful questions and a priest willing to listen led Justin Fivecoat to take a leap of faith three years ago that set him on a path to become an impactful parishioner at St. John the Apostle Catholic Church.“One thing I’ve always sensed about Justin is that I see him as a man after God’s...

Featured Term selected at random:ZION One of the hills on which Jerusalem stood. Used as a fortress, it was captured by David and renamed the Citadel of David (II Samuel 5:7). It assumed a sacred character when he brought the Ark to Zion. Gradually the name spread until it was applied to all of Jerusalem (II Kings 19:21; Psalms 125, 126). Indeed, increasingly it was used to mean the Jewish faith (Isaiah 33:20); hence, the term Zionism for the modern movement to make Palestine the Jewish homeland. Also spelled Sion. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's...

Do You Fear the Right Thing? Let’s See … A Meditation on the Story of Chicken Little By: Msgr. Charles PopeFear is a very complex passion. On the one hand, there are things that we ought rightly to fear such as grave physical and spiritual dangers. The fear of being near the edge of a cliff might well save our life. The fear of serious sin and the punishment we might experience or the offense to God (who loves us) is appropriate and holy. Sadly, more people lack this holy fear rooted in the possible loss of what is most precious to us:...

It’s one of the central contradictions of American politics: that there’s no such thing as the “Catholic vote,” yet the Catholics vote still matters. There’s no “Catholic vote” in terms of Catholics representing an electoral bloc that votes according to what their bishops tell them, or in lockstep with the tenets of their religion. Yet winning Catholic voters has been essential to almost every presidential victory in modern times. And the defection of Catholics voters has played a role in some of the most consequential congressional turnovers in recent history — from 1994 to 2014 — making Catholics the ultimate...

March 16, 2015Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent    Reading 1 Is 65:17-21 Thus says the LORD:Lo, I am about to create new heavensand a new earth;The things of the past shall not be rememberedor come to mind.Instead, there shall always be rejoicing and happinessin what I create;For I create Jerusalem to be a joyand its people to be a delight;I will rejoice in Jerusalemand exult in my people.No longer shall the sound of weeping be heard there,or the sound of crying;No longer shall there be in itan infant who lives but a few days,or an old man...

Your Love is Lifting Me Higher – A Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Lent By: Msgr. Charles PopeThe readings in today’s Mass speak to us of our desperate condition, and how God’s abiding love has not only set us free, but also lifted us higher. God was not content to restore us to some earthy garden, paradise though it was. No, he has so loved the world that he sent his Son who has opened heaven itself for us and given us a new, transformed and eternal life.Let's look at some of the themes and ponder that God works...

March 15, 2015 - Fourth Sunday of LentFourth Sunday of Lent    Reading 1 2 Chr 36:14-16, 19-23 In those days, all the princes of Judah, the priests, and the people added infidelity to infidelity, practicing all the abominations of the nations and polluting the LORD’s temple which he had consecrated in Jerusalem. Early and often did the LORD, the God of their fathers, send his messengers to them, for he had compassion on his people and his dwelling place.But they mocked the messengers of God, despised his warnings, and scoffed at his prophets, until the anger of the...

Featured Term selected at random:DE EPISCOPORUM MUNERIBUS An apostolic letter of Pope Paul VI setting down a series of norms to be followed by bishops in their exercise of the faculties of dispensation. Two important provisions are a reminder that the Code of Canon Law remains binding except where the Holy See has expressly abrogated some canonical directives, and that the faculty of dispensation applies only to perceptive and prohibitive laws, not to norms that establish the Church's laws. The basic thrust of the document is to spell out the dispensations reserved to the Pope (June 15, 1966). All items...

Temperance Or: Avoiding Ruin  Throughout our lives, we will all have struggles against temptations for what we know to be detrimental to ourselves and others. Temperance is the virtue which counteracts these temptations. Temperance enables us to keep from doing what is wrong, even when we have strong feelings for it. In other words, temperance is what keeps us from sinning, even when we want to.  Notice that temperance is the last of the cardinal virtues. That's because temperance is about maintaining the good, but you can only maintain the good if you already have some idea of what...

March 14, 2015Saturday of the Third Week of Lent    Reading 1 Hos 6:1-6 “Come, let us return to the LORD,it is he who has rent, but he will heal us;he has struck us, but he will bind our wounds.He will revive us after two days;on the third day he will raise us up,to live in his presence.Let us know, let us strive to know the LORD;as certain as the dawn is his coming,and his judgment shines forth like the light of day!He will come to us like the rain,like spring rain that waters the earth.” What can I...

Featured Term selected at random:QUADRIVIUM The more advancaed program in medieval liberal arts education (beyond the trivium), namely arithmetic, geometry, astonomy, and music. (Etym. Latin quatuor, four + viae, ways: quadrivium.) All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Lost Liturgies File and an Invitation: Solemn Sunday Vespers By: Msgr. Charles Pope One of the fixtures of larger parish churches prior to the last century was the singing of Vespers (evening prayer) on Sunday afternoons. Prior to the 1950s, Masses were not permitted to be celebrated after 12:00 noon and thus the concept of a Sunday (or Saturday) evening Mass was unknown. Some very beautiful music, indeed some of the greatest music of the Church, was composed for Sunday Vespers. Best known is the 1610 Vespers of Claudio Monteverdi (Vespro della Beata Vergine). Monteverdi (a Catholic priest and composer) also composed the...

Bologna, Italy, Mar 13, 2015 / 04:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The confessional is one of the most private and privileged places in the world. So when an Italian journalist violated the bond of trust between penitent and priest, the Archbishop of Bologna decried her “grave lack of respect” for all Catholics. Laura Alari writes for Quotidiano Nazionale, which is headquartered in Bologna. She authored a series of four articles in the newspaper which disclosed the responses of priests in the area when she approached them under the pretext of seeking Confession. Alari went to Confession several times, inventing delicate issues...

March 13, 2015Friday of the Third Week of Lent    Reading 1 Hos 14:2-10 Thus says the LORD:Return, O Israel, to the LORD, your God;you have collapsed through your guilt.Take with you words,and return to the LORD;Say to him, “Forgive all iniquity,and receive what is good, that we may renderas offerings the bullocks from our stalls.Assyria will not save us,nor shall we have horses to mount;We shall say no more, ‘Our god,’to the work of our hands;for in you the orphan finds compassion.” I will heal their defection, says the LORD,I will love them freely;for my wrath is turned...

Armando Valladares, Castro’s political prisoner for 22 years, said his Catholic faith was strengthened behind bars by hearing young Catholics shouting “Viva Cristo Rey,” for “Long Live Christ the King,” and “down with communism!” as they faced the firing squad. It has been his hope that Cuba would one day be free of communism. But he is far less hopeful now that Pope Francis has taken measures that he says “objectively favor the political and ecclesiastical left in Latin America” and could undermine the “Christian future of the Americas.” Meanwhile, Marxist writer Richard Greeman has written an extraordinary article, “Catholicism:...

Tolerance Has Its Place, But Also Its Limits – A Brief Consideration of a Widely Misunderstood Virtue By: Msgr. Charles PopeYesterday we discussed the intolerance of the very radicals who are forever calling for tolerance. A couple of people wrote in to indicate that they consider my stance duplicitous, since I likely support Archbishop Cordeleone’s stance requiring Catholic School teachers to demonstrate loyalty to Catholic teachings and promise not to teach to the contrary in Catholic schools. I do in fact support the good Archbishop. But I do not accept the charge of duplicity.Why? Because, as I hope to teach, tolerance is...

March 12, 2015Thursday of the Third Week of Lent Reading 1 Jer 7:23-28 Thus says the LORD: This is what I commanded my people:Listen to my voice;then I will be your God and you shall be my people.Walk in all the ways that I command you,so that you may prosper. But they obeyed not, nor did they pay heed.They walked in the hardness of their evil heartsand turned their backs, not their faces, to me.From the day that your fathers left the land of Egypt even to this day,I have sent you untiringly all my servants the prophets.Yet they...

This weekend the Vatican formally hosted one of Britain’s most virulently pro-abortion and pro-homosexual writers, as well as the head of an American organization promoting female ordination, at an officially sanctioned event inside Vatican City walls. Organizers spoke to Vatican Radio as well as the secular press, praising the new atmosphere within the Church’s leadership that made the conference possible.