Monitoring the home computer may not be enough.
Tom and Barbara came to my office seeking help for their teenage son, who was caught viewing online pornography. Though they continuously monitored the home computer, they were shocked to discover that he had been viewing pornography downloaded onto his Kindle. He and his friends had also been viewing porn on their Playstation system. Tom and Barbara were unaware of all the places people can view online pornography today.
In order to protect...
October brings days ripe with modern history for the Church. In this month we will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council and the 20th anniversary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Its days also mark the start of the Year of Faith. It seems appropriate, therefore, that a column for Catholic men should present thoughts, past and present, for all men to consider for the year ahead.
In his 2011 apostolic letter, Porta Fidei, Pope Benedict XVI spoke...
When you have kids in school, sometimes you are faced with the basic questions of existence. Reviewing my seventh-grader for a Science test, we came across the question: Can living matter come from non-living matter?
Uh-oh.
I vaguely remembered this from my own Science class decades ago. Once upon a time, spontaneous generation was thought to be true because maggots appeared to come from rotting meat, but carefully protecting the meat from flies showed that the appearance was false, and...
Sin is the true root of our sorrows. It hurts because it weakens or possibly destroys the new life in Christ we received at Baptism. To restore this most important relationship, Christ has “willed that his Church continue, in the power of the Holy Spirit, his work of healing and salvation” through a sacrament called by five names in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC, 1421).
Conversion
The Catechism teaches that the sacrament of Penance begins our “returning to the Father”...
“Thou movest us to delight in praising Thee; for Thou hast formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee.” (St. Augustine, Confessions)
While in Eucharistic adoration the other morning I prayed for many things, including strength and courage to stay on the path of Christ. As I sometimes remember to do, I let my mind grow quiet and tried to listen to God’s words and not my own. The above quote from St. Augustine crossed my mind and the word which...
Labor Day gives many Americans a chance to extend their weekend away from work.
It can also provide people of faith in the United States an opportunity to reflect on the nature of economic activity and the proper roles of their government in it. For Catholics, the words of Blessed John Paul II can provide a common place to start.
To Stabilize, Sustain…
In 1991 John Paul II spent an entire section in an encyclical letter, Centesimus Annus, discussing general functions of the government...
On a recent Saturday morning my 11-year-old son said, “Dad, I’m bored. What are we going to do for fun today?” Like many kids in our age of digital innovation, my youngest son was looking for something new and exciting. Not a bad thing in itself, but his question got me thinking: Do we adults also crave excessive change and entertainment in our lives, and does this desire spill over into how we view our Catholic faith?
I often hear complaints that the “Mass is boring,” “the...
Jubilees mark special moments.
Recently a “diamond” jubilee celebrated Elizabeth II reaching her sixth decade as Queen of Great Britain. Around the same year that she first ascended to her earthly throne, the Church began to observe a royal jubilee – the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary on August 22 – for the only woman ever crowned to a heavenly throne.
Pope Pius XII first proclaimed the universal feast day in his 1954 encyclical Ad Caeli Reginam. In it the Holy Father...
To transfigure means to change the form or outward appearance in order to exalt or glorify. Where can a person fully discover such an extraordinary activity? Beauty found in nature, such as caterpillars escaping their cocoons as butterflies, falls short because it isn’t worthy of worship. Ultimately Christians can only find transfiguration in its deepest, most illuminating sense in prayer informed by the mysteries of their faith.
A Mystery of Light
The Transfiguration, which we celebrate...
With the Olympic Games opening this week in London, and the world’s attention turned toward the performances of a few hundred elite athletes gathered for this quadrennial competition, it is a good time to consider the role of sports in our culture. It is safe to say that competitive sports – especially football, baseball and basketball – exert an outsized influence on our society, raking in millions in revenue and riveting the attention of young people in particular, who grow up...
