“The sin which causes most souls to go to Hell are sins of the flesh.” That awful sentence was by Our Lady of Fatima. In a world where sensuality and the appeal to sex are omnipresent, that sentence chills us to the bone.
When we think of gluttony, we probably picture somebody stuffing themselves to excess or guzzling down a huge bottle of liquor. But the sin of gluttony encompasses more than overeating or overdrinking. Pope St. Gregory the Great and St. Thomas Aquinas describe four other ways in which we can commit this sin.
Sloth can be a difficult sin to identify. The other capital sins are “active” sins: we consciously choose to do something evil. Sloth is a sin of omission: we fail to do something good. It is easy to dismiss because we’re not actively doing any harm—or so we think.
We humans are heavily influenced by our surroundings. That’s why we’re always encouraged to keep good company and put ourselves in places where we can build good habits. In the winter, a sense of dreariness can overcome us. People are tired of the cold and the snow. They’re ready for….
Recently, I’ve been focusing on the theme of the Presence of God while praying the Joyful Mysteries. Maintaining a sense of God’s Presence is, I think, the key to attaining holiness in ordinary life. What is holiness but allowing God to form Himself in our lives so that all we do is truly His?
Even if I have what I deem a “successful” Advent or Lent, I don’t want to stop there. I want to keep growing in my spiritual life throughout the rest of the year. But how?
I’ve been musing on Joseph and how significant his presence is. It seems as if the whole point of Joseph’s life is just to be present to Jesus and Mary. Miracles, words of wisdom, grand gestures? Nope. Just be present wholeheartedly to God and those around you. That’s enough.
A friend was thanking me for praying for him when he said something most striking. He remarked on how we ask people to pray for us, but forget to thank them later on.
What a profound thought. We say thank you to someone who’s done us some favor, and…
When the Catholic Church uses a word like “celibacy,” the world’s reaction is immediately hostile. A lot of the time, the first word people think of is “restrictive.” The world sees celibacy as a ridiculous imposition that the Church puts upon some of her members to exercise excessive control over their lives.
Have you ever thought about why Catholics make the Sign of the Cross so often? Too many times, we do it sloppily. We rush through the movement, perhaps not touching the correct points (forehead, chest, left and right shoulders), as we mumble the Trinitarian formula.
Catholics are a blessed lot. United in our faith, we can go to Confession with any priest. Nevertheless, it’s helpful to have a regular confessor. But we shouldn’t pick just anyone. After all, we’re fighting a spiritual battle. A discerning confessor will…
If you’re like a lot of Catholics, you know that the Bible is important for our faith. But where do you start? What passages should you be looking at? How should you read through certain books as opposed to others?
Too often, we put up a half-hearted struggle. Oh, we might look quite good on the outside, but are we really making progress? Or are we just going through it all out of a sense of routine?
Anyone who makes a serious effort to engage in prayer will almost certainly find themselves struggling with distractions. Sometimes distractions come from outside ourselves (e.g., a ringing cell phone or some chatty fellow parishioners). Other times, our minds are restless, or we’re assaulted by interior temptations.
Do you struggle with sharing the Faith with others? I do. Thankfully, a priest I know addressed this issue in a homily. He outlined a simple process for dialoguing with people about the Faith. Here it is.