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Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth... (snip) Jesus calls us to not only do what is required, but to go the extra mile. How can a Christian learn the joy of the selfless, Christ-filled life in such a selfish world? Christ calls us not to merely go one mile, but to go that extra mile ─ that miracle mile, the one that causes our lives to change. The Principle of the Miracle Mile When Christ said these words, Palestine had been occupied by Rome for about one...

And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun...

Archdiocese of Washington I Keep So Busy Workin’ for the Kingdom, I Ain’t Got Time to Die – A Homily for the 3rd Sunday of the Year By: Msgr. Charles PopeThe readings of “Ordinary Time” (Tempus per annum, in Latin) focus a lot on the call to discipleship and the living of the Christian Faith. The readings for today’s Mass are no exception, as they present us with a number of disciplines for disciples. These disciplines free us to serve Christ and His Kingdom joyfully, energetically, and wholeheartedly. We can group these disciplines into three broad areas, such that discipleship is...

Vatican City, Jan 23, 2015 / 10:28 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Servant of God Aloysius Schwartz is one of the 11 causes for canonization that Pope Francis advanced yesterday, and will be granted the title “Venerable” with the pontiff’s recognition of his heroic virtue. Pope Francis approved the advancement of the causes for canonization during a private Jan. 22 audience with Cardinal Angelo Amato S.D.B., prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. In addition to Fr. Schwartz, six other Servants of God were recognized for heroic virtue, while three have been acknowledged as martyrs. The Pope also recognized a...

Notre Dame's acceptance of the same-sex marriage movement's rhetorical paradigm has made our nation's flagship Catholic institution impotent. Yet there is an opportunity for the Notre Dame community to model ways to promote the good amid the crumbling ruins of institutional integrity.When I entered the University of Notre Dame in August of 2010, same-sex marriage was an invisible issue. Three weeks ago, the university announced that it had decided to extend employment benefits to legally married same-sex couples. The university did so willingly and without coercion of civil law. Notre Dame's president has even hailed the decision as one that...

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Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem Character Studies From The Bible Moses New International Version (NIV) 1 These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt with Jacob, each with his family: 2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah; 3 Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin; 4 Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher. 5 The descendants of Jacob numbered seventy[a] in all; Joseph was already in Egypt. 6 Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, 7 but the Israelites were exceedingly fruitful; they multiplied greatly, increased in numbers and became so numerous that the land was filled with them. 8 Then a...

January 25, 2015Third Sunday in Ordinary Time    Reading 1 Jon 3:1-5, 10 The word of the LORD came to Jonah, saying:“Set out for the great city of Nineveh,and announce to it the message that I will tell you.”So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh,according to the LORD’S bidding.Now Nineveh was an enormously large city;it took three days to go through it.Jonah began his journey through the city,and had gone but a single day’s walk announcing,“Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed, “when the people of Nineveh believed God;they proclaimed a fastand all of them, great and...

In investigating the validity of a marriage, ecclesial judges should consider whether the decision to marry was made in the context of values and faith ... Francis stressed “the crisis of values in society” is not a recent phenomenon, quoting Blessed Paul VI’s 1974 address opening the Rota’s judicial year, modern man “at times, wounded by a systematic relativism that bends to the easiest choices of circumstance, of demagogy, of fashion, of passion, of hedonism, of selfishness, so that externally he attempts to dispute the mastery of the law, and internally, almost without realizing, substitutes the empire of moral conscience...

WASHINGTON (BP) -- Southern Baptists' ethics entity and a leading pro-family organization took a public, first step Thursday (Jan. 22) in mobilizing extensive evangelical Christian involvement in the annual March for Life. The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) and Focus on the Family introduced Evangelicals for Life -- a major evangelical, pro-life conference in conjunction with the 2016 March for Life -- at an event by the same name that preceded this year's march. At the morning session, the ERLC and Focus on the Family announced they will sponsor with other organizations the first-of-its-kind event next Jan. 21-22 in...

THE CELEBRATED PRAYER of the great German astronomer, Kepler, has been a benediction to many: "O God, I thank Thee that Thou hast permitted me to think Thy thoughts after Thee." This prayer is theologically sound because it acknowledges the priority of God in the universe. "In the beginning God" is undoubtedly the most important sentence in the Bible. It is in God that all things begin, and all thoughts as well. In the words of Augustine, "But Thou, O Lord, who ever livest, and in whom nothing dies, since before the world was, and, indeed, before all that can...

Here are artistic representations of two goddesses who are considered the Queen of Heaven and Goddesses.  The Buddhist/Taoist Kuan Yin (or Guan Yin) (觀音) And The Catholic depiction of Mary Note the similarities in representation.  This relates to a thread last week on the leftover, or accretional pagan beliefs or rituals that are still present in the Catholic church.  The Goddess of Mercy is a universal idol/icon in pagan belief systems. 

As the forty-second anniversary of Roe v. Wade draws near, we are reminded of how large and formidable the abortion industry has become in the United States. Planned Parenthood survives with a heavy dose of government funding, even as overall abortion numbers are down and seem to indicate the entire industry is diminishing. The battle between life and choice is being fought one story at a time.On one side is 25-year-old Emily Letts, who uploaded to YouTube, as a “positive” story, what she claims is her abortion procedure (the actual procedure is shielded from view and the authenticity of Letts’s...

In my new book, Behold Your Mother: A Biblical and Historical Defense of the Marian Doctrines, , I spend most of its pages in classic apologetic defense of Mary as Mother of God, defending her immaculate conception, perpetual virginity, assumption into heaven, her Queenship, and her role in GodÂ’s plan of salvation as Co-redemptrix and Mediatrix. But perhaps my most important contributions in the book may well be how I demonstrate each of these doctrines to be crucial for our spiritual lives and even our salvation.And I should note that this applies to all of the Marian doctrines. Not...

I'm asking for prayers to ease the suffering of a hero Viet Nam vet named Glenn who is in serious pain. The problems he has are traceable back to his exposure to some toxic chemicals while fighting for us.

– Angela Marie via Flickr (CC BY 2.0) WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear a petition from a Louisiana Catholic diocese that fears a civil lawsuit could force a priest to violate the seal of confession or go to jail. The Diocese of Baton Rouge and diocesan priest Father Jeff Bayhi were disappointed by the decision, which the diocese said has “significant ramifications for religious freedom in Louisiana and beyond.” “The diocese and Father Bayhi will continue their efforts to protect the guarantees of religious freedom set forth in our state and federal constitutions and are...

BRUSSELS, Belgium — A Belgian bishop has distanced himself from an award given by a gay rights group after he called on the Catholic Church to “respect” divorced people and homosexuals. Bishop Johan Bonny of the city of Antwerp said he wished to “preserve his independence” and did not need to be honored for a stance he considered part of his “mission and responsibility,” Belgian news agency Belga reported Sunday. Flemish gay rights umbrella group Cavaria had bestowed an award on Bonny over an open letter he published ahead of a major synod on family issues hosted by Pope Francis...

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — A Bay Area church is now under fire over a controversial new policy saying only boys can be altar servers. The new practice is making waves at the century old church Star of the Sea. Since the ’70s, they’ve used altar girls during masses. The well-known Richmond District church also has a school serving about 230 kids. When the new priest banned girls from being altar servers, it generated outrage among parents and parishioners alike. The priest admits some parishioners even left the church. “It’s disturbing,” said churchgoer Connie Porciuncula. Star of the Sea School...

NASHVILLE (BP) -- LifeWay Christian Resources' decision to stop selling a discredited book about a 6-year-old's supposed vision of heaven is being cited as a reminder that followers of Jesus should rely on the Bible rather than subjective experience for their knowledge of the afterlife. "Anytime you step away from the clear, revelatory, propositional statements of Scripture into your own experience, then you open yourself to every kind of weird existential idea out there," Chris Osborne, a Texas pastor who believes books like Malarkey's are unbiblical, told Baptist Press. "We want people bound to truth, not to what they feel...

Some of humanity’s technological innovations are things we would have been better off without: the medieval rack, the atomic bomb and powdered lead potions come to mind. Religions tend to invent ideas or concepts rather than technologies, but like every other creative human enterprise, they produce some really bad ones along with the good. I’ve previously highlighted some of humanity’s best moral and spiritual concepts, our shared moral core. Here, by way of contrast, are some of the worst. These twelve dubious concepts promote conflict, cruelty, suffering and death rather than love and peace. To paraphrase Christopher Hitchens, they belong...