Find what you’re looking for
The Dominican Thomas Aquinas was one of the Catholic Church’s greatest theologians and philosophers. But the road to all that wisdom began when he was a youngster and asked the same question so many children do: “What is God?”
Saint Robert Bellarmine was ordained in 1570 during a period when the study of theology was in a weakened state. He dedicated his time and energy to the study of Church history, the Fathers of the Church, and to Scripture, in order to organize Church teaching to face the attacks of the Protestant Reformers.
The lesson offered in today’s parable is that if the kingdom doesn’t seem to be growing as one would like, the fault lies not with the seed of the word, but with the quality of the soil.
The uncertainty and conflicting research about the pandemic has led many to scrutinize their every move each passing day. Whenever you find yourself blindsided by pandemic-related anxiety today, stop, breathe, and pray.
Saint Cornelius was elected pope “by the judgment of God and of Christ, by the testimony of most of the clergy, by the vote of the people, with the consent of aged priests and of good men” after a 14 month vacancy in the papacy.
Jesus didn’t seem to pay much attention to social convention when it came to laying the foundations of the kingdom. What counted was how much you loved him.
Family life can play out in so many different ways. At the heart of each family, however, is love—even if at times it gets buried underneath the messiness of life.
The principal biblical references to Our Lady of Sorrows are Simeon’s prediction about a sword piercing Mary’s soul, and Jesus’ words from the cross to Mary and to the beloved disciple. The two passages are brought together as prediction and fulfillment.
The sorrows of Mary do not find their significance in the pain that they caused Mary, but rather in the faithfulness that they expressed. Jesus also calls us to faithfulness. We shouldn’t be surprised if that involves suffering.
