The Church teaches that interpretation of the Bible must be done within “the living Tradition of the whole Church”. According to a saying of the Fathers, Sacred Scripture is written principally in the Church’s heart rather than in documents and…
Blog Archives
The Guidelines are Void
This rubbish has no legal or judicial or administrative force in the real world where we all live. Like last summer’s vacuous, vapid, and vacant SCOTUS decision, these so-called guidelines were a dead letter upon issuance. Like I said about…
Tagged with: human nature, line in the sand, natural law, orwellian, Prayer, reason, tyranny, western civilization
Posted in Apologetics, Aquinas - Philosophy, Aquinas - Theology, Western Civilization
Posted in Apologetics, Aquinas - Philosophy, Aquinas - Theology, Western Civilization
On Grace and Merit
It is not news to say that many Protestants claim that the Catholic Church teaches a form of salvation by merit in contrast to their own belief in salvation by grace. This claim about the Church’s teaching is of course…
Tagged with: legalism, mistakes, sola gratia
Posted in Apologetics, Aquinas - Theology, Catechism, Sola Gratia, Summa Theologiae
Posted in Apologetics, Aquinas - Theology, Catechism, Sola Gratia, Summa Theologiae
Reply to a Reader
Recently a gentleman left a couple comments in response to a post here, and I don’t think I did justice to his remarks. In this post I would like to rectify that situation. He begins with this: Unfortunately, it seems…
Tagged with: Aquinas, natural law, summa contra gentiles, summa theologiae
Posted in Apologetics, Aquinas - Philosophy, Aquinas - Theology, Natural Law, Summa Contra Gentiles, Summa Theologiae
Posted in Apologetics, Aquinas - Philosophy, Aquinas - Theology, Natural Law, Summa Contra Gentiles, Summa Theologiae
Musings on Nature
There are two ways in which living creatures have powers for preservation: preservation of self, and preservation of their kind or species. Just as suicide is a moral evil (destruction of self is contrary to nature), in the same way…
Tagged with: common good, individualism, natural law, nature, socialism, solidarity, subsidiarity
Posted in Aquinas - Theology, Aristotle, Natural Law
Posted in Aquinas - Theology, Aristotle, Natural Law
The Way of the Cross
The way of the Cross is the way of suffering. It makes me happy to be suffering for you now, and in my own body to make up all the hardships that still have to be undergone by Christ for…
Tagged with: suffering, way of the cross
Posted in Aquinas - Theology, Ascent of Mt Carmel, Suffering
Posted in Aquinas - Theology, Ascent of Mt Carmel, Suffering
Faith is a gift
Faith is a gift of God, a supernatural virtue infused by Him. (CCC 153) Heaven is beyond our reach. It is not a place on this earth so that we can walk, swim, drive, climb, or fly to it. It…
Tagged with: Faith, God, grace, man's chief end, supernatural
Posted in Aquinas - Theology, Faith, Sola Gratia
Posted in Aquinas - Theology, Faith, Sola Gratia
Puppetry?
The Catechism has this to say about Providence and the natural powers of the creatures that God has made: God has not willed to reserve to himself all exercise of power. He entrusts to every creature the functions it is…
Tagged with: free will, natural law, predestination, sin
Posted in Apologetics, Aquinas - Theology, Augustine, Calvinism, Free Will, Natural Law, Sin
Posted in Apologetics, Aquinas - Theology, Augustine, Calvinism, Free Will, Natural Law, Sin
Aquinas the Catholic
Sometimes, and for reasons that honestly escape me, certain Protestants will attempt to say that St. Thomas was “one of them:” Not that he was literally Protestant of course, for that would be anachronistic, but rather some folks claim that…
Tagged with: Aquinas, Catholic Church, hermeneutics, original sin, Protestantism
Posted in Apologetics, Aquinas - Theology, Blessed Virgin, Protestantism, Scripture, Sin
Posted in Apologetics, Aquinas - Theology, Blessed Virgin, Protestantism, Scripture, Sin
Perfect Mistake
Perfectionism is a blunder. It assumes that perfection is attainable by us imperfect creatures. Even the perfectionist knows he isn’t perfect. That is part of the pathology. It is what leads the average perfectionist to have a poor opinion of…
Aquinas, Etc. 