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“. . . in your moral excellence, knowledge” (2 Peter 1:5). Moral excellence cannot develop in an intellectual vacuum. It’s a frightening thing to realize the extent to which our culture downplays knowledge in favor of emotions. These days people are more likely to ask, “How will it make me feel?” instead of, “Is it true?” Sadly, the church has bought into the spirit of the age. Many people go to church, not to learn the truths of God’s Word, but to get an emotional high. The focus of theological discussion also reflects the contemporary hostility to knowledge. To a...

"According to His great mercy" (1 Pet. 1:3). Every dimension of life, whether physical or spiritual, is a testimony to God’s mercy. When God saved you and granted you an eternal inheritance, it wasn't because you were special or more deserving of His love and grace than others. It was because He sovereignly chose to love you and extend His great mercy to you. That's why Paul said, "God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you...

The Fire Next Time: A Meditation on the Glance of God from the Fiery Cloud Msgr. Charles Pope • July 22, 2015 • As we read through the Book of Exodus in daily Mass at this time of year (16th Week of the year) there comes the passage about the crossing of the Red Sea. As God parted the waters, He went on ahead of the people in the fiery column of His presence. And describing the Egyptians pursuit of the Israelites is this passage:In the night watch just before dawn the LORD, through the column of the fiery cloud,...

Oddly enough, it’s sometimes progressives who are most eager to move the culture backward. As we reflect in horror at the utter callousness with which some persons and organizations speak of (not to mention crush) the tiniest humans, it’s worth remembering that the ancient world was unabashedly open to the killing of children. For starters, they had almost none of the sentimentality we have towards kids. There was no Disney, no summer camps, no play dates. Family life–even if there was such a thing–certainly did not revolve around children. In general, children, were useful at best, burdens at worst, and...

“Better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. Be not quick in your spirit to become angry, for anger lodges in the heart of fools.” - Ecclesiastes 7:8–9 Bob was required to go online regularly to do research for the reports and other tasks his employer assigned him. One day, he knocked on the door of his company’s information technology department and explained that he was having a problem with his computer. His browser was taking too long to load the web pages he had to...

“Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence” (2 Peter 1:5). God’s provision does not preclude our responsibility. There are some who believe that since God has provided everything needed for the Christian life, believers should expect Him to do everything for them. Their motto is, “Let go and let God!” If Peter had a motto for the Christian life, it would have been more along the lines of the popular World War II song, “Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition!” Peter knew the Christian life is a struggle in which believers...

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 1:3 Bible Reading 1 Corinthians 1:1–3 Devotional At the beginning of every worship service we rise and stand, as it were, at attention. We are in the presence of the King of kings; we are assembled together as God’s army. The first thing that we do is make a statement every other army would consider outlandish: we acknowledge that we are weak and need help. In this spiritual warfare we confess, “Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and...

If the role of religion in America today is to teach the faithful to bend over and kiss the ring of postmodernity and beg for forgiveness for actually believing something, the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod just failed spectacularly, flubbed its lines, and fell off the stage. I, for one, am elated. Tuesday’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch revealed the grand faux pas with this somewhat ironic lede: “The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod recently carried out what various members consider the equivalent of a modern-day heresy trial.” My enthusiasm is, of course, mixed with sadness. The Rev. Dr. Matthew Becker (the hero/victim of the breathlessly...

God Still Has His Seven Thousand – A Meditation for Those Who Feel Alone and Discouraged Msgr. Charles Pope • July 21, 2015 • Last week in the Office of Readings we read of the struggles of Elijah the Prophet, who spent his life fighting the influence of the Canaanite god Baal in Israel.Every now and again in times like these, times of cultural confusion, times when so many Catholics have fallen away from the practice of the faith or are so breezily dissenting, I think of the prophet Elijah at his lowest moment. He was in a cave, anxious...

Archbishop Georg Gänswein has questioned why some bishops-- particularly in his native Germany-- are proposing the admission of divorced and remarried Catholics to Communion, when that step is "not possible." The prefect of the pontifical household, who has worked closely with both Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis, also spoke about the similarities between the two in an interview with +1, a publication of the International University of Catalonia. Archbishop Gänswein said that speculative theories about the resignation of Pope Benedict, which point to some pressure or motivation beyond the outgoing Pope's brief resignation statement, are "altogether devoid of foundation."...

The most common Bible verse used against the very Catholic and very biblical doctrines concerning mortal and venial sin is James 2:10-11: For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” said also, “Do not kill.” The argument is made from this text that all sins are the same before God. Is this true? Two Points in Response: First, the context of James 2 reveals St. James to have been talking about showing partiality for the first nine verses leading up to verses...

How to Go to Heaven Jimmy Akin May 12, 2015 | Sometimes people make it sound like the Catholic understanding of how to get to heaven is really complex.It’s not.While you can go into any of Christ’s teachings in a lot of very rich detail, he made sure that this one can be understood even by a child.I can summarize it in two sentences. The two sentences are these: To come to God and be saved, you need to repent, have faith, and be baptized. If you commit mortal sin, you need to repent, have faith, and go to...

As Catholics we believe in the sanctity of life - from conception to natural death, right? For the most part it is, but not always. I cannot count the times I’ve spoken to parishioners that say, “I might not agree with abortion, but I support a woman’s right to choose,” or “I think abortion is wrong, except in certain cases, such as rape.” This kind of thinking not only impedes progress in the fight for life, but is also in direct conflict with the Church’s teaching. The Catechism is very clear, “Since the first century the Church has affirmed the...

Fortitude, Patience, and Meekness: Three Virtues We Often Separate, but That Belong Together Msgr. Charles Pope • July 20, 2015 • There is an important interplay and balance between the virtues that many modern minds set in opposition to one another. False dichotomies often prevail when the subtlety of virtues are lost or their meanings are grasped in simplistic or inaccurate ways.Consider three virtues that are related and which enable and moderate one other: fortitude, patience, and meekness. To most people, these virtues seem more opposed than related. Today, fortitude conjures up an image of a fearless warrior in battle,...

Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising and art acquainted with all my ways. I can inform Thee of nothing and it is vain to try to hide anything from Thee. In the light of Thy perfect knowledge I would be as artless as a little child. Help me to put away all care, for Thou knowest the way that I take and when Thou hast tried me I shall come forth as gold. Amen. To say that God is omniscient is to say that He possesses perfect knowledge and therefore has no need to...

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH IN A FINE PASSAGE states his belief that there are many more poets in the world than we suppose, ". . .men endowed with highest gifts, The vision and the faculty divine," but who are unknown because they lacked or failed to cultivate the gift of versification. Then he sums up his belief in a sentence that suggests truth far beyond any that he had in mind at the time: "Strongest minds Are often those of whom the noisy world Hears least." Most of us in our soberer moments would admit the soundness of this observation, but the...

How hath the LORD covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger!The LORD hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied: he hath thrown down in his wrath the strong holds of the daughter of Judah; he hath brought them down to the ground: he hath polluted the kingdom and the princes thereof.He hath cut off in his fierce anger all the horn of Israel: he hath drawn back his...

595—Mahomet was without authority. His reasons, then, should have been very strong, having only their own force. What does he say, then, that we must believe him? 596—The Psalms are chanted throughout the whole world. Who renders testimony to Mahomet? Himself. Jesus Christ desires His own testimony to be as nothing. The quality of witnesses necessitates their existence always and everywhere; and he, miserable creature, is alone. 597—Against Mahomet.--The Koran is not more of Mahomet than the Gospel is of Saint Matthew, for it is cited by many authors from age to age. Even its very enemies, Celsus and Porphyry,...

One of the most unpopular and difficult virtues of Christianity is forgiveness. As C.S. Lewis put it, “Every one says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive.” Sadly, our personal lives recently have been an exercise in forgiving the unforgivable.

Love bade me welcome: yet my soul drew back, Guilty of dust and sin. But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack From my first entrance in, Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning If I lacked anything. “A guest," I answered, “worthy to be here”: Love said, “You shall be he.” “I, the unkind, ungrateful? Ah, my dear, I cannot look on thee.” Love took my hand, and smiling did reply, “Who made the eyes but I?” “Truth, Lord; but I have marred them; let my shame Go where it doth deserve.” “And know you not," says Love, “who bore the...