creation

Reason and Science Lead to One Fundamental Choice

Human beings have a tendency to personify, even deify animals, objects, and natural forces. We see this in ancient polytheism, modern cartoons, and the contemporary naming of hurricanes. Ancient religions based in panthesism and polythesism embraced this tendency. Polytheism, which directs humanity’s strong penchant for personifying the forces of the universe into many ‘gods’, is […]... Read More
Prayer

Why Not Just Pray Directly to God?

One of the most common errors about Catholicism that invariably pops up among non-Catholic Christians is often found in question form: . Why don’t Catholics just pray directly to God? . In short, Catholic DO pray directly to God. We just recognize the Church is a family. In the order of grace God is Father, […]... Read More
Assigned at birth

Those Who ‘Assign’ Rather than Recognize Reality

The notion of someone’s sex being “assigned at birth” has been made popular by people who believe we create reality rather than discover it. This aberration has become popular today throughout society. By refusing to recognize objective truth, people of this mentality reject that anything can be objectively disordered – unless we declare it to […]... Read More
male & female

The Two Halves of Humanity

Woman is home, the womb from which all humanity springs. Man is destination, humanity seeking its end. Together they represent being and becoming, the earth and the sky, roots and dreams, the familiar and the mysterious, the present and future, love and truth. Every member of the body needs the influence of the heart and […]... Read More
Angry emoji

Since it’s born of a sense of justice, what’s wrong with vengeance?

I was thinking of the concept of forgiveness at Mass today, considering why the desire to ‘get even’ with one who has done grave injury is a bad thing. After all, such evenness indicates a desire for justice, which is good. In fact, justice – which is to give what is due to another – […]... Read More
Plato and Aristotle

3 Simple Signs of the Human Soul

Archeologists agree that 3 basic signs of being human are abstract thought (including creative imagination), symbolic language, and religion – each distinguishing us from the other animals. What do these have in common? The ability to rise above the spatial-temporal realm of the physical senses to tap into a transcendent reality. Pre-Christian pagan philosophers could […]... Read More
Open-closed mind 2

Analogies and the Narrowing of the Mind

Studies show students can’t grasp analogies anymore. Analogies enable us to see the interrelations of things and expand our minds to more than just discerning what the senses detect. The narrowing of the mind to just univocal thinking is the result of decades of philosophical materialism and scientific positivism preached through the messages of the […]... Read More

Tragic Rejection of the Intuitive Intellect

The intuitive intellect, common to all people from the age of reason, is the true canvas on which the details of reality can be analyzed. Aquinas called the blueprint of reality that the intuitive intellect grasps the natural law, C.S. Lewis called it the Tao. All people have access to it from the age of […]... Read More
Cell phone

‘Phone-Choice’ Mentality

This may sound like a lame comparison, but I sense we can see a glimpse of the ‘pro-choice’ mentality in the way people respond to dialing a wrong number. I’ve never understood why a person immediately disconnects after being informed he’s dialed a wrong number. There is no “Oh, I’m sorry, it looks like I […]... Read More
Blood and water 2

Salvation for the 3 Levels of Life

Water, blood, and spirit are the 3 sustaining elements for earth’s 3 levels of life – vegetative, animal, and rational – all of which are constituent of the human person. It is no mistake that the God-man gave His water, blood (Jn 19:34) and Spirit (Mt 27:50; Acts 2:3) on the cross in order to heal, […]... Read More
Outside looking in

The Grave Danger of Being a Cultural Catholic

No matter how many good deeds I do as a next-door neighbor to my friend’s billionaire father, I will not receive a penny of his inheritance. Even if my friend is lazier than me, has vices I don’t have, and doesn’t give alms like I do, he will get the inheritance and I won’t. So […]... Read More
Eucharist, rays

The Eucharist is at the Heart of Divine Revelation

A proper interpretation of the word of God sees the Eucharist at the very center of man’s creation and redemption: ⦁ It is the new fruit of the tree of life (Gn 2:9) that was rejected by Adam and reoffered by the new Adam (Christ) on the cross. ⦁ It is the new Passover meal […]... Read More
Ape and human

Thinking Like Animals

Philosophers agree that a basic difference between humans and other animals is that we experience time and space much differently. Animals live in the here and now, with no conceptual understanding that there is a future and past; nor any concept that places exist other than their present environment. Being human, on the other hand, […]... Read More
Contraception to abortion 2

Pro-life Necessarily Means Anti-Contraception

Being pro-life necessarily means being anti-contraception. History and psychology demonstrate moral acceptance of killing the baby-making act precedes moral acceptance of killing babies. It’s often the case with individuals and invariably with nations. It’s no coincidence Griswold v. Connecticut was decided just 7 ½ years before Roe v. Wade. In many nations the birth control […]... Read More
Jesus knocking Jesus knocking

The Bottom Line Commandment

In today’s gospel, Jesus separates the sheep from the goats – in principle – with one simple line: “If you love me you will keep my commandments” (Jn 14:15). We can infer that those who don’t, won’t. Since this fundamental precept is the difference in one’s eternal destiny between Heaven from Hell, it’s imperative that […]... Read More
Marriage ring

The Sacrilege of Consummation without Covenant

With regard to covenants, it’s an essential and moral imperative that full and irrevocable consent precedes real union of the parties involved. For example: Jesus consented to the Father in the garden of Gethsemane (Lk 22:42) before He gave Himself completely on the cross; Christians give their total consent (sometimes through parents & godparents) to […]... Read More
Crowd

The Sad 5-Step Process of Our Day

Too many people today are fed with physical food but not spiritual food; formed in the mundane sciences but not the sacred sciences. The result is a post-Christian era in which, sadly, most people are forced to endure a trying five-step process: 1) Being raised by agnostic parents and/or receiving abysmal catechesis from the church […]... Read More
3 popes 6

Pope Francis?

John Paul II and Benedict XVI represented Catholicism unusually well. Nevertheless, bad popes are still popes, just like a bad father remains your father, regardless. Jesus as Head of His body the Church is ultimately in control, not the one to whom He gives the keys as successor of St. Peter. The prime minister can […]... Read More