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 [...]
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 [...]
One of the debates between atheists and fundamentalists is about the stories of Genesis. The problem with both sides is that both of them are literalists. They stand back to back like two madmen–looking in opposite directions, but from the same viewpoint. Neither side has a poetical bone in their body and both sides agree on [...]
I'm in Vero Beach, Florida leading a parish mission. I love getting out to other parishes like this because I get a chance to meet real Catholics other than my own parishioners and hear their stories and listen to their lives. After Mass this morning a woman cornered me and said, "Father! I was at Mass [...]
There is an interesting lesson to be gleaned from today's Old Testament reading from Mass. David and his warriors are on the run from jealous and paranoid King Saul. Saul has been trying to track David down and kill him when David and his men go deep into a cave to hide. Saul, not knowing David [...]
I highly recommend The Sacred Page. It is a terrific website maintained by Catholic Biblical scholars Brant Pitre, John Bergsma, Michael Barber and John Kincaid. Every week they post commentary on the Mass Readings. In addition to this Brant Pitre records videos explaining the Mass Readings. They last about 20-30 minutes and are crammed full of [...]
The Old Testament as Fantasy Literature As an English snob once said, “How odd of God to choose the Jews.” What is remarkable about the history of the Jewish people is that it is unremarkable. It is extraordinary because it is ordinary. In other words, the Hebrews did not build ziggurats and hanging gardens. They did [...]
If you didn't know it already, most New Testament scholars consider the story of the Three Wise Men to be a pious, late invented fiction. In fact it was pretty hard to even get any New Testament scholars to read the manuscript of my new book The Mystery of the Magi-the Quest to Identify the Three Wise [...]
Today is St Luke's feast day. It is Luke who recounts the infancy narratives, and the tradition is that he knew the Blessed Virgin and got the stories about the birth of the Lord straight from her. Icon of the Virgin in St Maria Maggiore The other beautiful tradition is that St Luke was [...]
St James Here is my latest article for Catholic Exchange. It's unlocks an interesting detail about St James and the dating of the New Testament. Bible scholars piece together details of evidence to build up a full picture of the New Testament authorship and dates. Their work is like that of a detective—picking up a [...]