Alaska U.S. Senator Mark Begich, a professed Catholic and parishioner of Holy Family Cathedral, has shown, by his actions, that he has little problem subordinating several major, non-negotiable matters of Catholic faith to politics.
At this time last year, I had tucked away in my dresser an 88-page divorce decree that narrated my descent into alcoholism, loss of myself, fear of my husband and the absolute death blow to marriage: infidelity. With the divorce, I was ready to write the last chapter of the story of our family. Though I created the story, I mourned and resented every word written down; for I am Catholic, and Catholics do not believe in divorce.
When you meet someone, be your most authentic self. As a friendship develops do these very simple things. Let people know you are a Catholic Christian (in a natural, unforced way). Ask friends about their faith — and just listen. Listen to your friend’s problems — maybe offer to pray for them. Share your problems with them — testify to how your faith helps you. Give them a book to read on the spiritual life. Share your story of faith in an authentic way. Answer objections to Christianity and questions that might come up.
I like my job. But truth be known, I have just spent the last hour and some odd minutes in the presence of Christ. Not figuratively. For real. Right there, not 30 feet away. I have just come from adoration, where I have knelt and prayed and felt the welling of emotions: glad for the gift of Eucharist, tearful and intimidated by Christ’s Passion, yet elated by what that means. Giddy that my faith grows with each visit, but mostly I feel an overwhelming internal warmth in the privilege of spending time in silence with him.
At Brother Francis Shelter (BFS), CSS serves over 3,500 homeless men and women each year, many who have been on the streets for decades and suffer from complex medical issues. The only medical care they receive is through the Providence ER or at the BFS Caring Clinic. This is a clinic run solely by volunteers. Several of the clinic days each month are staffed by the Providence Family Medicine Residency program. Providence also generously provides the medicines and supplies that keep this clinic going.
Fall brings with it the sense that disorder is giving way to challenges and possibilities. I think autumn is a wonderful time to recommit to a prayer routine. If yours lapsed during the summer, or if you found yourself praying in the beauty of mountains and lakes, you are probably turning back to a more organized form of prayer now.
On this Sunday that we celebrate the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ we are suddenly brought face to face with the casualness that has enveloped the meaning and use of this central symbol of our Christian faith. Crucifixes hang on the walls of most Catholic institutions, Catholics, including those stepping up to bat or preparing to make a free throw make the sign of the cross imagining that this will bring success.
Part of the unethical character of drug abuse flows from the fact that we are treating something good, namely our personal, conscious experience as if it were an evil to be avoided. Recreational drug users seek to escape or otherwise suppress their lived conscious experience, and instead pursue chemically-altered states of mind, or drug-induced pseudo-experiences. Any time we act in such a way that we treat something objectively good as if it were an evil by acting directly against it, we act in a disordered and immoral manner.
CatholicAnchor.org One of the shocks of the spiritual life is how fast we can lose our freedom. I have people in my parish who suffer from alcoholism, drug addiction, addiction to computers, pornography, self-abuse, abuse of others, over working, preoccupation with beauty, and the list goes on. My advice to anyone who senses another god…
CatholicAnchor.org (The Catholic Difference) Every once in a while, a truly special book comes down the theological pike: a book both scholarly and well-written, a book that stretches the imagination, a book that changes the state of a discussion, if it’s taken with the seriousness it deserves. The late Servais Pinckaers’ “Sources of Christian Ethics”…