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"Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise" (Ephesians 5:15). Walking wisely is a step in the right direction. Sometimes a soldier has the thankless task of clearing mine fields from enemy territory. If you're aware of the procedure, you know the work is both dangerous and tedious. To proceed in an orderly fashion, a soldier marks areas that are considered dangerous and areas that have been cleared. Above all, he makes sure he is careful where he's walking! In the spiritual realm, Paul is telling believers in Ephesians 5:15 to walk carefully. The Greek...

"By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, even regarding things to come" (Heb. 11:20). When you disobey God, you forfeit joy and blessing. Isaac is a fascinating Old Testament character. He was Abraham's long-awaited son, the covenant child, the child of promise. Yet aside from that, he was rather ordinary, passive, and quiet. Just over two chapters of Genesis center on him, whereas the other patriarchs (Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph) command about twelve chapters each. In the final analysis, Isaac believed God and submitted to His will. But overall, his spiritual character seems more reluctant than resolute. After a famine...

A homily delivered at the celebration of the feast of the Sacred Church of the Entrance of the Theotokos in Levadia during a Hierarchical Divine Liturgy, presided over by His Beatitude Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and All Greece, on November 21, 2010. By His Eminence Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou Every feast of the Mother of God is a cause of joy for the entire Church, and we celebrate it brilliantly, with hymns and doxologies, with a Divine Liturgy and litany, with words and silence, with pure thoughts and prayer of the heart. And this is because...

PHILADELPHIA, November 20, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) - Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput has definitively called out his brother bishops in Europe who have allowed Communion for remarried divorcees, saying they have "departed from authentic Catholic teaching." His remarks come in a lengthy essay on mercy published in the December issue of First Things. The Church, he says, "cannot be merciful without being truthful," and a pastoral approach which ignores that we are called to conversion, "out of a thinly veiled pastoral despair and accommodationism will result in less faith, not more." Indeed, continues Chaput, "this is what we see happening in Europe,...

Role of the angels While guardian angels can help guide our decisions, God gives us free will to choose sin or goodness Msgr. Charles Pope November 29, 2015 11/18/2015 Question: How does the Church reconcile the role of our guardian angels with the fact that so many children are vulnerable today to things like pornography and other things contrary to the Faith? There are so many attacks, and children seem so vulnerable. Where are the angels in all this?— Name withheld, Boston Answer: Your question is a profound one, touching on the deep mystery of evil, in this case...

by Fr Aidan Kimel “We need an incarnate God, a God put to death, so that we might live, and we were put to death with him.” (Or. 45.28)Before there was Jurgen Moltmann, there was St Gregory the Theologian. Of the early Church Fathers none spoke more directly of the death of the eternal Son. The gospel is nothing less than the proclamation of “God crucified” (Or. 45:29).Unlike some of the other early Church Fathers, such as even the great Athanasius, Gregory does not shrink from asserting the suffering and death of the Creator: God passible for our sake over...

“There is no one like God”—in this is expressed all of the great Archangel’s knowledge of his God. He doesn’t describe Him, nor does he explain—he stands and witnesses. In this is his inclusion in the radiance of the Divinity, and in this is the measure by which he manifests this radiance and opens for us the way to the Lord’s mystery by his word, and by those names that express all his unfathomable experience of the unfathomable God. Archangel MichaelThere is a place in the book of Revelations where the seer of mysteries, St. John, tells us that when...

"Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:18). Growing in wisdom means growing in Christlikeness. Perhaps you're asking, "Shouldn't believers acquire more wisdom?" Yes, we should. No matter how much of God's wisdom we have, we should always hunger for more. The Bible tells us that we have all the principles we need to walk in wisdom, and yet there's much more available to us. We should "grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:18), and we should be more and more conformed to...

"By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, even regarding things to come. By faith Jacob, as he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff. By faith Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the exodus of the sons of Israel, and gave orders concerning his bones" (Heb. 11:20-22). Faith triumphs over death. Commentator Matthew Henry said, "Though the grace of faith is of universal use throughout the Christian's life, yet it is especially so when we come to die. Faith has its great work to do at the...

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is a "satanic terrorist group." Those were the words of Cdl. Kurt Koch of Germany on Tuesday at the International Ecumenical Congress held in his country near Stuttgart. The German cardinal, one of the few remaining orthodox prelates in Germany, told his audience it's wrong to believe violent persecutions of Christians are a thing of the past. Instead, he pointed out how there are plenty of martyrs for the Faith today, specifically because of ISIS. "In about 25 countries Christians are under threat of life and limb," observed Cdl. Koch. Hence, it is...

Have you ever been in a discussion with a skeptic about God and morality? Perhaps you've admirably made the case that God's good character is the basis for human dignity and worth. Maybe you've shown how objective moral values and duties can't be explained naturalistically. Then someone takes the wind out of your sails by asking, "Well, if God is so good, why would He command Israel to engage in ethnic cleansing and genocidal warfare against the Canaanites? After all, doesn't Deuteronomy 20:16-17 plainly state this? 'Only in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving...

Dëvar Torah – Parashath Va-Yétzé' (Genesis XXVII, 10 -- XXXII, 3)Our parasha tells the story of Ya'aqov's ("Jacob's") sojourn with his uncle and father-in-law, Lavan. As we read at the end of last week's parasha (XXVII, 42 -- XXVIII, 9), Rivqa ("Rebecca") persuaded Ya'aqov to flee to her brother in Charan both to escape from the wrath of his brother 'Esav and to find himself a proper wife. Just as Avraham had opposed the marriage of Yitzchaq to any daughter of the depraved Canaanites (XXIV, 3), so too did Rivqa consider any such prospect repugnant.When Ya'aqov arrived in Charan,...

How to Draw Your Children Back to the Church – A Reflection on a Wonderful New Resource Msgr. Charles Pope • November 19, 2015 • One of the more common heartaches people express to me is that their adult children no longer attend Mass or have any relationship with the Church. Many of these parents sent their children to Catholic School and brought them to Mass every week. Yet despite these efforts, many of these young adults were drawn away from the Church by the lure of the secular world, often during their college years or shortly thereafter.It was typically...

(I was unable to post yesterday, here is both yesterdays and today's offering) Recognizing Satan's Reality (18 November 2015) I once asked a college philosophy class, "How many of you believe in God?" Out of thirty students, twenty-seven raised their hands in the affirmative; three abstained. Then I asked, "How many of you believe in Satan as a personal reality?" This time the vote was reversed. I pursued my inquiry. I asked, "Why do you believe in a supernatural being who has the capacity to influence us for good (God) and not in a supernatural personal being who has the...

Pondering Pride, the Most Perilous of All Sins Msgr. Charles Pope • November 18, 2015 • Pride is a sin that is so pervasive, and that runs so deep within us, we often don't even sense it is there. Not only is it is a sinful drive in itself, it also plays a role in every other sin we commit. It is the sin we most share with Satan and all the fallen angels. Satan refused to serve God or to submit to His plan, and these are strong tendencies in every human person as well. Satan planned his strategy...

If you continue in my Word, then you will be a disciple of mine, and you will know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free”.John 8:32One of the side effects of the turbulent events of the last twenty years, is that we in the West have been acquiring quite an expanded vocabulary, particularly of Arabic words. For example we all now know what Jihad is, also Al Taqqiya, Jizya, Ayatollah, Imam, Mosque, the Shihad. We wouldn’t want to sign a Hudna, but we are proud to be called a Kifir.If you aren’t careful some crazy Imam will put...

This is what African cardinal Robert Sarah maintains in his book "God or Nothing" and in the discussion that has followed. An exclusive preview of his remarks in the next issue of "L'Homme Nouveau" ROME, November 19, 2015 - In the four jam-packed pages of the dossier that the French Catholic magazine "L'Homme Nouveau" is about to publish in its next issue, the word "synod" does not occur even once. Much less does one find cited there the "Relatio finalis" that the synod fathers have delivered to the pope. And yet the topics addressed in the dossier include the most...

In a comment elsewhere, someone wondered about differences between Catholics and Lutherans.  HEREI cannot go into deep detail about these differences.  Books can be written about each point, and have been.Here are my lunch break reflections while the US Bishops are having lunch during their annual meeting.Keep in mind that I am a former Lutheran convert to the Catholic Church.  I was validly baptized as a Lutheran.  I rejected the Lutheran catechism and instruction when I was 7 years old because I couldn’t square their message about corruption with the beauty of the music of Mozart.  After a vaguely Christian time and a...

A Word of Encouragement in One of Jesus’ Stranger Sayings Msgr. Charles Pope • November 17, 2015 • It is one of the stranger dialogs that occurs in the Gospel, and it is hard not to rejoice in Jesus’ aplomb. We read it last week in daily Mass.In it, some Pharisees, likely disingenuous, approach Jesus, warning Him to leave immediately: Go away, leave this area because Herod wants to kill you. Probably more for their ears than Herod's, Jesus responds,"Go and tell that fox, 'Behold, I cast out demons and I perform healings today and tomorrow, and on the third...

Jeremiah 8 English Standard Version (ESV) 4 "You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord: When men fall, do they not rise again? If one turns away, does he not return? 5 Why then has this people turned away in perpetual backsliding? They hold fast to deceit; they refuse to return. 6 I have paid attention and listened, but they have not spoken rightly; no man relents of his evil, saying, "What have I done?" Everyone turns to his own course, like a horse plunging headlong into battle. 7 Even the stork in the heavens knows her times, and...