This is it....right here: If we devalue the heart, we also devalue what it means to speak from the heart, to act with the heart, to cultivate and heal the heart. If we fail to appreciate the specificity of the heart, we miss the messages that the mind alone cannot communicate; we miss out on…
Not What I Was Hoping
https://saintmartinsacademy.org Commentary I thought this was a primer in monastic formation somewhat like the Cistercian charism....but I took a look at the website and was shocked to see the word "softness" being equated with "sloth"! For goodness' sake, what are you trying to do?? Re-create a cultish boys club based on principles that have more…
Dilexit Nos – An Indictment Against Worldliness
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/24/world/europe/pope-francis-encyclical.html I would first like to introduce the topic according to the thematics raised in another reflection I wrote a little while back which ponders the significance of the literal meaning of Pope Francis' new encyclical's title Dilexit Nos - He First Loved Us . For Jesus was generous with His love and readiness to…
On Authentic Pastoral Care & Responsibility
*https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/pope-belgium-promises-abuse-victims-after-hearing-trauma-114313630 Care needs to be the bedrock of responsibility thereby giving responsibility its proper place as love-bound duty with its substance being the integral care of the whole person. Therefore, the most authentic type of pastoral care & responsibility is supposed to be of the "fertile nurturing" kind rather than coldly officious and administrative. This…
Bread Given for the Life of the World
Even as we reach the end of another week, it is good to be reminded of the reverberating significance of the Gospel message from last Sunday. I had been subliminally ruminating on the meat in this beautiful sandwich all week only to be consciously met with the timeliness of it's underlying message at quite a…
Pope Leo XIII, St Don Bosco and the End of the Age
No doubt we are living in these times - and at such a time as this, never before have we perhaps seen so much intra-Church conflict since maybe the Great Schism of 1054! If that sounds to you like it is an over-statement, one that's more than just a wee bit far fetched then think…
The Universality of Beauty. What Is It?
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2024/07/03/only-one-name/ Commentary For those of us who have genuine good-will intact within our consciousness, we can all readily agree that, for instance, looking at a brood of newborn kittens being snuggled close by momma cat is going to be an equally awwww-some experience for all of us, albeit in slightly different ways as garnered by…
The Church: A Hospital for Sinners, the Down-Trodden, and the Spiritually Wounded or Just Another Experiment in the Celebrity Hall of Fame?
Let me ask you this question. Did Jesus come into our midst to start a Church for it to "naval gaze", hold celebrity contests, and become more pre-occupied with the 'news-worthy' gossip of its own status-quo? I don't think so but the reality of the matter is, the state of the Church in our time…
A Polemic on Palestine
This article has been in the fallows of gestation. It has taken a while for me to finally become ready and able to piece this together since the subject-matter has weighed very heavily upon my heart since the war began. As such it was not written all in one hit. It was "pieced together" from…
The Interconnectedness of All Things
Jesus often talks about how it is important to understand Him as the Bread of Life. What does this really mean? Having just celebrated this past week gone, the Feast of Corpus Christi (the Most Holy Body & Blood of Our Lord), I have spent some time in reflection on what in actuality this feast…
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