Why did Isaac enjoy the favor of God? Was it because of his faith? He was a man of faith, to be sure (see Hebrews 11:20), but why did he enjoy God’s blessings? The book of Genesis offers two reasons…
A long time ago in a blog far, far away I wrote about today’s subject as part of a larger article. It seems like an appropriate moment, given the topic of yesterday’s post, to return to the passage I discussed…
In Matthew 4:17 the Lord’s preaching is summarized by St. Matthew in this way: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. I say that Matthew summarized the Lord’s preaching thusly because we do not find many occasions in…
The parable of the ten virgins is difficult for me to understand–or, maybe, it is a hard passage of the Gospel. Contrary to what one might expect the five virgins who prepared by bringing extra oil are commended not because…
This morning I wrote about Mt. 24:42-51. It occurred to me almost as soon as I hit “Publish” that more could be said about the passage than I did in my brief remarks, and I’d like to do that now…
Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed…
If I am waiting, hoping, looking, or longing for some subjective feeling or other to certify my belief in God, I am barking up the wrong tree. Completely. Not to pick on them especially (because they are by no means…
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…
[T]here is indeed no radical deliverance for humanity which is not the fruit of an interior struggle, in which suffering, distress accepted in faith, is the condition of a truly new life. (Louis Bouyer, Introduction to the Spiritual Life) Suffering,…
There is a short and sweet treatment of faith in the first Baltimore Catechism that throws into clear relief the difference between the Protestant and Catholic views of this virtue. It is found in question 321. First, remember that the…
Aquinas, Etc. 