I don’t know if anyone else has noticed a seemingly profound, but ultimately silly discussion which is prevalent within popular culture. It’s called the Fermi Paradox and it goes like this: “There are billions of stars out there like the sun. Therefore, statistically there must be billions of planets like earth where intelligent life has developed. Given the [...]
The other day I saw a snarky comment about the legend of St Patrick casting all the snakes out of Ireland: "Thing is" said snarker "Ireland never had any snakes anyway. The climate is too damp and cold. Duh." Duh indeed. The legend was never about snakes anyway. It was about serpents--meaning Satan and the demons. [...]
As a convert you come across some unusual practices within the Catholic faith (said he, making the understatement of the year) One of them for me was to find that there was a feast day for a chair. What was I–poor Bob Jones graduate that I was–to make of such an odd celebration? There it was [...]
T.S.Eliot was baptized in 1927 and turned away from a life in the wasteland of modern atheism, decadence and despair His new found Christian faith inspired his great poem of repentance--Ash Wednesday. Go here to read the poem, and even better, click here to listen to Eliot himself reading the poem. The poem, like most of [...]
I had a Southern Baptist friend who thought it was amusing, when visiting Catholic churches, to wave to the image of Mary and say, "Hi Mary!" When I challenged him on what seemed a mark of disrespect he said cheerily, "Y'all say, 'Hail Mary' and 'Hail' just means 'Hi', so it's my way of saying 'Hail [...]
When I was researching my book Mystery of the Magi - The Quest to Identify the Three Wise Men I discovered the extraordinary amount of legendary and mythical material surrounding the magi story. More than any other gospel story, the tale of the wise men who came to pay homage to the Christ child attracted elaboration [...]
One of the riveting themes within the Star Wars saga is the existence of monasticism. The Jedi Knights are also monks. Connecting with the warrior monks of Eastern religions, they also connect with the religious orders of knights in medieval Christendom. The Jedi clearly remind of the spiritual truths of the New Testament where St Paul [...]
Have you ever noticed that modernist Biblical scholars don't believe in the infallibility of the Bible, but they do believe in the infallibility of their own theories? The Biblical critics love to get down and pick over the New Testament. They've made an industry of it. There's form criticism and source criticism and literary criticism and [...]
What is it, from a priest's point of view that I love about celebrating the Mass ad orientem? A number of things: 1. I no longer have to worry about being in 'performance mode'. When I am facing the people, no matter how much I try, I am looking more at them and focussing more on [...]
from Guest blogger Paul Thigpen. Paul Thigpen PhD. is an editor at TAN books and the author of hundreds of article and dozens of books on the Catholic faith. His book of prophetic prophecy--The Burden-- is a powerful pointer to the perilous times we live in with a passionate call to repentance. Learn more about The Burden here. GHOSTS [...]