A Treasure To Be Shared

St Mary the Virgin Parish, Arlington, TX At the Mass we discover that friendship is not something we manufacture for ourselves. Rather, it is a gift received while seeking God together. In an age marked by loneliness and fleeting connections, many people long for genuine friendship. Social media promises constant contact, yet countless hearts remain isolated. True friendship requires more than shared interests or casual conversation. It is founded upon a common pursuit of what is good, true, and beautiful. For Christians, there is no greater place to discover such friendship than in the Holy Mass. We come not to socialize but to worship Almighty God. The focus is not on ourselves but upon the sacred mysteries unfolding at the altar. Yet it is precisely this common orientation toward God that creates the deepest form of human fellowship. The liturgy teaches us that we are not isolated individuals approaching God alone. We gather as members of Christ's Body. Together we confess our s...

The Catholic Church is called to welcome every person because every human being is created in the image and likeness of God. Christ Himself demonstrated this hospitality throughout His earthly ministry. He dined with tax collectors, spoke with sinners, touched lepers, and welcomed those whom society had rejected. The Church, as the Body of Christ, is therefore called to extend the same invitation to all people without exception. Authentic hospitality begins with recognizing the inherent dignity of every person. Regardless of background, past mistakes, social status, beliefs, or personal struggles, each individual is loved by God and is invited into a relationship with Him. A parish community should be a place where newcomers are greeted warmly, where questions may be asked without fear, and where people can encounter the mercy and truth of the Gospel. Jesus welcomed sinners, but He also called them to conversion. At the same time, genuine Christian hospitality is not mere acceptance o...

The voice of God in Holy Scripture is never a mere sound; it is the living self‑communication of the Lord who speaks to His people in order to create, judge, redeem, and sanctify. Across the canon, God’s voice is portrayed as both transcendent and intimate—majestic in power yet directed personally to the human heart. The Voice that Creates and Commands From the opening lines of Genesis, God’s voice is the medium of creation: “And God said…” (Gen 1). Divine speech is performative; it brings reality into being. Scripture thus presents the world not as a random emergence but as the ordered result of God’s articulate will. The same creative voice later gives the Law at Sinai (Exod 19–20), revealing that the One who speaks worlds into existence also speaks covenantal commands that shape human life. The Voice that Reveals and Interprets The prophets repeatedly describe their vocation as hearing and transmitting the word of the LORD (Jer 1:4–10; Isa 6). God’s voice is revelatory: it discloses...

In the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter, the September Ember Days are the traditional Autumn Ember Days, observed on the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday following the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (September 14). They remain part of the Ordinariate's liturgical patrimony and are specifically encouraged for prayer, fasting, repentance, thanksgiving for the harvest, and prayers for vocations. For 2026, those days (Embertide) fall on: Wednesday, September 16 Friday, September 18 Saturday, September 19 The Ordinariate explains that the September Ember Days are associated with the grape harvest, directing our gratitude toward the wine that becomes the Precious Blood in the Holy Eucharist. They are also traditional times to pray for priests, deacons, and future vocations. Discipline Regarding discipline, the Ordinariate notes that Ember Friday is a day of obligatory abstinence from meat. The faithful are also encouraged to undertake additional fasting, prayer...

From a Catholic perspective, authentic human flourishing depends upon two complementary truths: the inviolable dignity of every human person and the moral responsibility of each person before God. These truths must never be separated. If dignity is emphasized without responsibility, moral growth is undermined. If responsibility is emphasized without dignity, people may be reduced to their failures rather than recognized as beloved children of God. (56) Regrettably, in recent decades, attempts have been made to introduce new rights that are neither fully consistent with those originally defined nor always acceptable. They have led to instances of ideological colonization, in which gender theory plays a central role; the latter is extremely dangerous since it cancels differences in its claim to make everyone equal. Francis, Address to Members of the Diplomatic Corps Accredited to the Holy See for the Presentation of New Year’s Greetings (8 January 2024): L’Osservatore Romano (8 January ...

One of the more intriguing developments in recent philosophy of religion, and the topic of more than a few online commentators, is the “psychophysical harmony” argument advanced by Brian Cutter and Dustin Crummett of Notre Dame University, Indiana. It is a design‑style argument, but not of the familiar biological or cosmological sort. Instead, it turns our attention inward—toward the structure of conscious experience itself—and asks why our phenomenal lives fit so uncannily well with the physical and behavioral lives we lead. The phenomenal realm and the physical-behavioral realm. Human beings inhabit two domains at once. There is 1) the phenomenal realm: what pain feels like, what hunger feels like, what the color red looks like, what fear or joy or longing is “from the inside.” And there is 2) the physical-behavioral realm: the bodily motions, neural firings, and environmental interactions that make up our lives as organisms. In our world the two realms are exquisitely aligned. Pain ...

Although the words communist and communionist may sound alike, they belong to utterly different realms. A communist seeks a society without private property, ordered by material equality and sustained through collective ownership. A communionist—one who lives the Catholic vision of communio—seeks a society transfigured by grace, ordered by charity, and animated by the inherent dignity of every human person. The echo between the words only heightens the contrast between the worlds they describe. For the Catholic, the human person is not a rival but a brother; not a unit of labor but an icon of God. Communism begins with an anthropology of conflict: history is driven by class struggle, and justice emerges when economic hierarchies are abolished. As Marx famously wrote, “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” A communionist begins elsewhere. For the Catholic, the human person is not a rival but a brother; not a unit of labor but an icon of God. St...

Mass in a Connemara Cabin by Aloysius O'Kelly (1883) A young priest recently pointed out to this blogger an essay by Fr. Nick Schneider titled The Fathers We Are Losing: The Crisis at Noon . It highlights a growing trend of priests leaving active ministry between 15 and 25 years after ordination, with some stepping away even sooner. www.hprweb.com/2026/08/the-fathers-we-are-losing/ Summary Fr. Nick Schneider argues that this pattern is not simply burnout or failure, but a midlife developmental crisis that the Church has not yet learned to accompany. Drawing on Maria Montessori, psychology, and Scripture, he explains that human growth unfolds through crises — birth, adolescence, and again at midlife. Around ages 35–50, a person’s early strengths naturally wane while deeper, more mature strengths begin to emerge. For priests, this transition is especially difficult because their external life often remains unchanged: the same parish routines, the same responsibilities, the same expe...

Caravaggio The Raising of Lazarus Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) is a legal practice in Canada that allows physicians or nurse practitioners to end a patient’s life at that patient’s request. Supporters often describe it as a compassionate response to suffering. Yet within the Christian tradition, MAiD raises profound questions about the meaning of suffering, the dignity of the human person, and the nature of authentic compassion. This reflection considers those concerns in light of the Christian understanding of suffering, hope, and the presence of Christ. Suffering confronts every human life, and in moments of fear or loneliness, people can be tempted by voices that promise escape rather than accompaniment. The Christian tradition insists that real compassion never abandons the suffering person, never treats despair as mercy, and never replaces hope with resignation. Instead, it invites us to see suffering through the lens of Christ, who enters it with us and transforms it from...

St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, Bridgeport, PA In 2023, Monsignor Keith Newton, then head of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, coined the term “realized ecumenism” to describe how the Ordinariates created by the Apostolic constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus offer a welcoming path for those seeking the fullness of the Faith. https://ewtn.co.uk/article-the-head-of-the-ordinariate-for-former-anglicans-in-england-and-wales-assesses-its-past-present-and-future/ The Personal Ordinariates represent one of the most quietly remarkable ecumenical achievements of the last century: a form of unity that does not require amnesia. They embody a model of reconciliation in which distinct traditions are not dissolved but transfigured — brought into full communion without losing the theological, liturgical, and pastoral instincts that shaped them. The Personal Ordinariates are a quiet work of the Holy Spirit, gathering what was once separated and transforming it into communion. Th...