Watch Out For the Weeds
There are tares among the wheat. You needn't try to weed them out. Just wait for the judgment day. Then all things will be harvested and everything that is hidden will be revealed.
Hell. Will Lots of People Go There?
Really? Earlier this week I posted on Twitter X about universalism and someone opined that the opposite of universalism must be "zealous infernalism" Which I take to mean "an active desire not only for the reality of eternal torment, but the perverse desire that many people will go there." I don't think the alternative [...]
Little Big Men
SS. Simon and Jude are the last two apostles on the list (before Judas Iscariot that is) and Peter comes first. I guess they put them in order of priority because poor old Simon and Jude don't get much more of a mention. The old stories say they ended up preaching the gospel in Persia, which [...]
O Lord, Make Me Happy, But Not Yet…
Sister Mary Lucy was a Poor Clare nun who suffered greatly. She lost her eyesight and had a degenerative bone disease which caused her spine to crumble. The doctors could do very little to help her. I used to visit her regularly, but never once heard her complain. Instead she had a huge radiant smile. I [...]
Aliens, Elephants and Angels
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 [...]
Exorcism and the Snakes of St Patrick
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. [...]
The Chair of Peter: Furniture Matters…
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 [...]
Eliot’s Ash Wednesday
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 [...]
The Day I Met Mother Teresa
I had met James during my seminary days in Oxford and he and I were ordained as Anglican priests at the same time and went to nearby parishes in Sussex. I have always had to have my arm twisted to take vacations, and this was no exception. James was planning a trip to India and wanted [...]
Explaining Transubstantiation
I'm often surprised at the number of good, faithful Catholics who are well informed about their faith, who do not understand the doctrine of transubstantiation. In my experience they fall into two categories. The first do not believe the Eucharist is anything more than a symbol. The second believe the bread and wine become the Body [...]