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…
St. Teresa says this in Interior Castle, about the soul in mortal sin: While in a state like this the soul will find profit in nothing, and hence, being as it is in mortal sin, none of the good works…
It has been a little while since I had anything to say about the fact that we are saved by grace alone. So I will just slip this little post in here to correct that. The Catechism teaches thus: It…
Our priest’s homily for this Sunday did not go according to the script that detractors may have expected. From one perspective this is completely unsurprising because Father extemporizes pretty regularly: he has notes but he rarely reads from them and…
I have spent quite some time reviewing passages of Scripture that present problems for the Protestant doctrine of sola fide. More recently we took a look at what the Council of Trent had to say about the Catholic formulation of…
Presbyterians and other Reformed folk like to use the acronym TULIP as a thumbnail for certain views they hold which are at least somewhat unique among Protestants (at least when held together). The I refers to their belief in Irresistible…
Having scandalized certain readers at Called to Communion by the fact that Catholic appeals to Mary in prayer go back as far as AD250 or so at least, I thought I would give them a break and spread the Marian…
we entreat you not to accept the grace of God in vain. (2Co 6:1) Two or three points come to mind: Grace must be accepted. This means that our free choice to accept it is necessary, contrary to what Calvinists…
We have a choice: we can focus on our weaknesses or we can focus on God’s strength. We can make excuses every day of our lives or we can say, “Yes, I am weak on my own, but I am…
Aquinas, Etc. 