sexta-feira, 21 de fevereiro de 2014

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Our Lady of Guadalupe: The Woman Who Casts a Shadow

By Deal W. Hudson | February 21, 2014

Having never been to a major Marian shrine, I didn't quite know what to expect. Some years ago, in the summer of 2004, I made a pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. I went there, like other pilgrims, to ask for Her protection during a hard time in my life.There is no more important Catholic destination, or place, in the Americas. Only a few kilometers from the heart of the city, the shrine contains the image of Mary given to Juan Diego through an armful of flowers. Though Her importance to Latinos is well known, Our Lady of Guadalupe is the Lady for all the Americas. It was well past time for me to pay my respects, and I needed Her.

New York State Senator Tim Kennedy: A Morally Incoherent Catholic Denies the Right to Life

By Deacon Keith Fournier | February 21, 2014

For anyone to say that he or she is a faithful Catholic and to be pro-abortion/pro-choice rights is totally inconsistent with Catholic teaching, which is clearly articulated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church: Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable.Practicing Catholics who claim they are nurturing their children in the faith must teach their children that abortion is intrinsically evil, that human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his or her existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person, among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life.

Making a Good Lent: A Time to Choose

By Deacon Keith Fournier | February 20, 2014

I look forward to Lent. It is a time of spiritual housecleaning, taking inventory, emptying myself and, progressing in the life of faith by discovering who I can become in Jesus Christ, for the sake of others. It is an invitation to enter into the desert with the Lord and there, to do battle with the world, the flesh and the devil. It is a time to acknowledge my disordered appetites and obtain the grace, the divine life, mediated through the sacraments, to make progress in overcoming their negative effects.Too often we associate repentance with some kind of wrong- headed self hatred. To the contrary, for those who have been schooled in its lessons, the way of voluntary penitence and conversion becomes the path to freedom and happiness.

Angels Are Always Welcome: Toward an Ethic of Virtue

By Deal W. Hudson | February 20, 2014

Yet, there is a difference between those virtues acquired naturally and those given by the grace of God. There is also a difference between reading stories and becoming part of a story by participating each day in the life of the Church. Aesthetic delight in the representations of the Seraphim, like the intellectual appreciation of medieval angelology, risks being just another avenue of New Age avoidance without personal commitment to the maker of spiritual creatures. Otherwise, we repeat the mistake of the medieval Muslims who thought happiness came directly from angels, not God. Early in their spiritual journey, Jacques and Raissa Maritain were told by their spiritual director "to make your life your work." The Book of Virtues offers millions of Americans the same good advice - to resist the angelic temptation of believing ideas and dreams suffice, when it is the work of your entire life which matters.

On the Fast Track: Approaching Lent with Living Faith

By Fr Dwight Longenecker | February 20, 2014

Catechesis teaches us what to believe and how to behave, but Catholics also need down to earth advice for putting their faith into action. Lent is one of the times to make a new resolve, roll up our sleeves and make some spiritual progress.Fr. Longenecker writes here on the need for fasting. He also provides practical advice on prayer and the Catholic life in many other places.

The New Film on Noah, Silly Surveys and Christian Involvement in the Arts

By Deacon Keith Fournier | February 20, 2014

The February 17, 2014 edition of Variety had a short article, written by Alex Stedman, entitled Survey: Faith-Driven Consumers Dissatisfied with 'Noah,' Hollywood Religious Pics which shot like a bolt of lightning around media sources. Not only was the question, as asked, a loaded one - the results are skewed because of the way in which it was asked. The results have little or no bearing on what they were used to demonstrate in the news reports which picked up on it. Most reports indicated that the survey showed that the faith community would not go to see this movie. That is Nonsense.

Before We Leap: Ken Blackwell on the Danger of Abolishing Marriage

By Ken Blackwell | February 19, 2014

One of the most poignant and powerful stories from the Civil War era tells us that freedmen and women walked to Tennessee in 1866-66 to have their slave marriages recorded and recognized in law. Many of these ex-slaves were illiterate-kept so by unjust enactments. Many of them had to walk barefoot. But so great was their yearning for marriage that they made that great sacrifice.

Imagining a Culture of Forgiveness

By Deal W. Hudson | February 20, 2014

Forgiveness in the rough and tumble of life is a complicated matter, and though we may utter the correct platitudes about forgiving our neighbor, oftentimes, depending on the offense, we harbor a residue of anger toward, and distrust of, those we have supposedly forgiven. Of all that I read about forgiveness, it was a sermon by the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that made the most realistic case for the possibilities of forgiveness. What Nietzsche had idealized - forgetfulness - Dr. King looked directly in the face: "Certainly one can never forget, if that means erasing it totally from his mind. But when we forgive, we forget in the sense that the evil deed is no longer a mental block impeding a new relationship."

Deal Hudson: A Hill Worth Dying On

By Deal W. Hudson | February 18, 2014

Like that of Socrates, St. Thomas More's dilemma is easily translated to the challenges facing Catholics who enter politics in the 21st century. For 50 years, Catholic politicians have been required to make a choice between life and death; first the abortion issue, then the abortifacient contraception issue, and soon it will be euthanasia. Voting records tell the tale of who chose life and, in doing so, chose to risk losing elections rather than putting principle aside (usually to some deep, dark hole in their private conscience). Those Catholics in politics who ask whether "this is a hill worth dying on" are usually reluctant to die on any hill, much less recognize the moral high ground in the first place. When "electability" trumps all other considerations, defeat on election day doesn't leave the candidate lying on a hill representing the principles she fought for. No, she is simply forgotten, because there is nothing left to remember. Those who compromise and lose leave no legacy, no inspiration, their loss has no afterlife of gain.

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