Advent – Time for “Holiday Parties” or Little Lent?
Origionally Published at TAN Direction
“But except you do penance, you shall all likewise perish.”
—Luke 13:5
My childhood hero was Bishop Ignatius Kung.
We were told of his heroic suffering as a prisoner. The Chinese Communists (the same ones who recently gifted us with a man-made virus), permitted him to leave his solitary confinement of thirty years if he would only renounce his allegiance to Rome.
As a little boy, and later as a college student, I felt […]
The Ritual of Baptism
Jesus Christ is Head of the Mystical Body and His Body is the Church. The rites and rituals of the Catholic Church are the rites and rituals of Jesus Christ himself. St. Thomas Aquinas tells us: “The whole rite of the Christian cult is derived from Christ’s priesthood” (S. Th.III, Q. 63, a. 3). The Church also […]
How to Advance in Holiness: Lectio Divina
Originally Published for TAN Direction
How do we advance in holiness? This not an impractical question. The Church teaches us that we have three necessary means of salvation and, those same, according to degree, attain holiness: sacramental grace, prayer, and virtue. All three pistons have to be running in unison for the motor of the spiritual organism to advance.
By grace we:
- are elevated by God to participate in His nature (cfr. II Pet 1:4);
- made pleasing to […]
Battle Ready: No Mental Prayer, No Holiness
Originally Published at TAN Direction
“Nonne militia est vita hominis super terram, et sicut dies mercennarii dies eius?”
—Job 7:1, Vulgate
The book of Job asks, “Is not the life of man on earth warfare, and are not his days like that of a hireling?” He seems to think that the answer is obvious, since the question is less a question than an affirmation of an undeniable fact; hence the enclitic particle -ne on the word non. Such a construction says, […]