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Friday of the Fifth Week of Easter John 15:12-17 Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus calls us his friends. Psychologists tell us that a true friend is someone who has seen us at our worst and still loves us. If you have encountered me only on my best days, I have no guarantee that you are my friend. But when you have dealt with me when I am most obnoxious and you still love me, then I am sure that you are my friend. The old Gospel song says, “What a friend we have in Jesus!” This is not pious sentimentalism;...

Feast of Saint Matthias John 15:9-17 Friends, two words surface frequently in today’s Gospel: joy and commandments. Now, I submit to you that these are not terms that we would readily juxtapose. We usually associate commandments with the carrying out of duty and responsibility, or laying down the law and establishing order and discipline. But all of this seems opposed to joy. We find joy in God alone, for our souls have been wired for God. We must acquire God if we are to be joyful. But here’s the trick—and the whole of the Christian life is on display here:...

My wife returns this evening from a week-long holiday in Italy. It was my Mother’s Day gift to the mother of our son and five grandchildren. In the meantime, I attended Mother’s Day church services yesterday. And in the message, the pastor recounted the soul-stirring story of a mother and son. The tale took the form of the son’s first-person testimony: “My mother only had one eye. All my life, I hated her because she was such an embarrassment to me. My mom ran a small shop at a flea market. She collected little weeds and such to sell. Anything...

Archdiocese of Washington A Picture of the Transformed Human Person – A Homily for the 3rd Sunday of Lent By: Msgr. Charles PopeThe first reading today contains the Ten Commandments and thereby communicates a brief but sweeping summary of the Christian and biblical moral vision. Too often, there is a tendency to reduce the Christian moral vision merely to a set of rules. And it is a sad fact that many resent the the Church for her “rules” because of this reductionist notion of our moral vision.To be fair, EVERY group and activity has rules. If you join a bowling league...

We don't have to love our parents. We have to honor them. Last week PragerUniversity.com released 11 five-minute video courses: each of the Ten Commandments and an introduction. We received over one million views this first week. The reason we made these videos is that we believe that everything needed to make a good world is contained in the Ten Commandments. This month, my columns consist of transcripts of some the courses, each of which I present. Whatever your faith, or if you have no faith, I invite you to watch the videos at www.prageru.com. They are cleverly animated with...

And the 11th Commandment is . . . thou shalt not resort to cheap gimmicks - By Elizabeth Day (Filed: 29/02/2004) The Methodist Church is launching a nationwide competition to find the 11th Commandment in an effort to attract more young people. The initiative, which is being publicised on 250,000 beer mats and postcards in bars and cinemas across Britain, has attracted criticism for its "ridiculous gimmickry" and its attempt "to rewrite the Bible". The competition is being jointly run by the Ship of Fools website, a satirical online magazine on Christian issues and one of the most popular religious...

COEUR d'ALENE-- They lurk on the lawns, usually near a tree or the corner of a building. But nobody seems to notice the Ten Commandments chiseled into granite monoliths at many county courthouses, city halls and public parks in Idaho. And residents aren't demanding that Kootenai County, Post Falls or Hayden remove Western civilization's oldest rules for life from public property. ‘‘There are so many other things to worry about in our nation other than 10 sentences that say be nice to each other and don't cheat on your wife,” Kootenai County Commissioner Gus Johnson said. ‘‘It's a historical document,...

Does the Bible teach that Christians are required to tithe to the Church?By Brian Knowles      The practice of tithing is common in Christian Churches. It has been since the Roman Catholic Church first declared it compulsory for Catholics and Jews many centuries ago (though most do not practice it today). The issue here is not whether Christians may of their own free will tithe – of course they may. A Christian is free to give any amount he or she wishes to the Church, to the poor, or to anyone else for that matter. But voluntary tithing is...

Background: This information is provided as a service toward understanding and information. Americans generally (those of derived Christian background) are used to the rules of action and behavoir set down in the Old Testiment. This group of rules is commonly referred to as the "Ten Commandments". Compared to the Religion of Islam, Christians "have it easy" with only ten clear and simple rules to follow. This is not so in Islam where their list of "Commandments" reads like it was written by an aggressive Divorce Attorney. It is, in my humble attempt at understanding, quite severe and hard on...