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 [...]
There's a joke going around that Justice Amy Coney Barrett should be called "Amy Grin and Bear It" for the ordeal she has had to put up with these past two days. I was only able to catch about a half hour of the hearings yesterday and today, but Wow! What an amazing woman! She was [...]
Pope St Gregory the Great - Apostle for England I was watching the service of Evensong from Westminster Abbey the other night that took place during Benedict XVI's visit to England. It was all very splendid and you could tell Benedict was impressed with the Anglican music and ceremonial. His speech emphasized, however, the [...]
Have you noticed that nobody loves modern churches? Nobody. I mean NOBODY. Seriously. Have you ever met anyone who sees a church like this and and heard them whisper, "I just love that church! It is so inspiring!". No. Never. Have you ever gone into a "worship space" like this and heard someone say how awed [...]
The Longenecker Family at Fr Dwight's Ordination What are the pros and cons of being a married priest? I'll be writing on various aspects of this question over the next few days. Firstly, we need to get some huge red herrings out of the way. People say, "A married man will understand married people's [...]
In re-reading C.S.Lewis' wonderful sermon The Weight of Glory he begins with comments on the nature of desire. Christianity is known by those outside for it prohibitions. It seems to be a religion of "Thou shalt not." Lewis reminds us that desire is good because it is a desire for the good. Even when the desire is distorted [...]
The Synod fathers this month were trying to address a real crisis in the human race: the disintegration of the family. The problems are very complex and are not simply a matter of people disobeying God's law and running around with whoever they please. Is promiscuity a problem? Of course. Is divorce a disaster? Without a [...]
I read a smart comment yesterday: "Conservatives want to convert people by arguing with them. Liberals want to convert people by agreeing with them." It's pithy I can see the distinction, but I'm not sure it is merely a "conservative-Liberal" clash. Underlying the tensions within the Catholic Church --which blew up at the recent synod was [...]
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sKqRwe5JXM[/youtube] I'm not too concerned about getting the Catholic religion up to date for people. That's because the Catholic religion transcends time. Oh yes, we can tinker with this and that, use modern methods of communication and so forth, but no sense tinkering with the religion itself. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Sure we can [...]
The buzz word in the synod this month, and in the general discussion about homosexuals is the word "welcome" We are to "welcome homosexuals". The problem is, no one is really explaining what this means. I hope those who feel strongly about this matter--who have responded with visceral compassion on the poor homosexual persons who have [...]