While fighting both Nazism and Communism in Vienna in the years 1933 to 1934, Dietrich von Hildebrand wrote an article, the truth of which is more needed today than eighty years ago. He refers to a progressive erosion of our moral sense. What horrified people at one time, no longer has the same effect after a few years. People get used to brutality, to racism, to injustice, to the public display of pornography. Their strong response when these evils start raising their heads is replaced by...
Love
There are three components to the love of God: He wants to be close to us; he puts himself aside to bless us, and he wants to enjoy us without possessing us. Jesus educates and enables us to love like him. Love is another form of power.
God wants to be close to us. When God looks at us he delights in what he sees. His heart beats for us. His fascination with us is the reason he wants to draw close. He makes himself small and vulnerable so that we do not get scared. Taking on human...
For most of us Christmas is a cozy time. We get together with family and friends to sip on hot drinks, eat sweet foods, exchange gifts we mostly don’t need, sing happy songs, and share fond memories. There’s nothing wrong with this, of course; Jesus did come as the Prince of Peace, and He does indeed bring joy to the world. But this sanitized, sugary-sweet version of Christmas has contributed, at least in part, to the Christ-less Christmas we often see in shop windows. We human beings...
Show Me the Money! … Cha ching!
Effective evangelization includes both the authority and the power of God.
However, while most Christians will accept this, they are not convinced that they can do it. Most people will respond, “Authority seems so clear to us but power seems unattainable.We are not God. We cannot walk on water. So how do we evangelize with power?” This is a great question. The answer is that we can bring the power of God to others by showing them what God has done in...
Los Angeles today might not be the first place that comes to mind when seeking out hymns to the Blessed Virgin Mary. However, a recent concert on Sunday, November 18, at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, featuring Monteverdi’s “Vespers” (“Vespro della Beata Vergine”) of 1610, was not the first time that this city has lived up to its literal name: El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles.
I recall my discovery several years ago of one of the most beautiful versions of the...
When I was in college I experienced a significant conversion to Christ. From that point on a fire burned in my heart to help others experience what I received. However, I did not know how to do it and I could not find any resources to learn, even in seminary. So for the last decade I have picked up insights from others that have given me the language to talk about evangelization. My hope is that this article will give concrete, practical tools to help us begin the New Evangelization...
In this column, it has been my special brief to pursue and attempt to resuscitate the reputation of great 20th century and contemporary classical music that I think has been neglected. There is a lot of it, which is why I published a book 10 years ago, titled Surprised by Beauty: A Listener's Guide to the Recovery of Modern Music. Over the past 10 years, I have, of course, made many new discoveries, which is why I am hard at work on a new edition of this book for Ignatius Press, which will...
Do the tragic deaths in Ireland of Savita Halappanavar and her pre-born daughter Prasa really make a case for legal abortion? Many across the world are coming to that conclusion but overlooking an important piece of information recently reported in The Irish Times and The Guardian: an autopsy revealed that Halappanavar died of septicemia “documented ante-mortem” and E. coli ESBL.
Countless news reports are only talking about the septicemia (i.e., blood poisoning), but few are...
Whenever Benedict XVI speaks on the subject of dialogue with Islam or directly addresses Muslims, he invariably emphasizes the acknowledgment of freedom of conscience and religion as the prerequisite for dialogue, not as an outcome from it. The new book, “Silenced: How Apostasy and Blasphemy Codes Are Choking Freedom Worldwide,” by Paul Marshall and Nina Shea, shows in dramatic detail how very far many Muslim-majority countries are from meeting this prerequisite.
“Silenced” is an...
Many years ago, one of my professors at Fordham told me, “I mostly judge students' philosophical talents not by the answers they give but by the questions they raise.”
Recently this remark sprung up from the “caverns” of my memory, and I appreciate its wisdom a lot more now than when I first heard it.
We all have landed in a complex and mysterious world, and inevitably, having a rational mind, we are bound to raise questions about the why and wherefore of our existence.
Who am I?...
