“…he is a good man, filled with the Holy Spirit and faith.” That’s how the author of Acts describes the apostle Barnabas. That simple description—a good man, filled with the Holy Spirit and faith—stuck in my mind as I read the words. Stop for a moment. Think of your day today. This week. Your work,…
Celebration of the Most Holy Trinity follows Pentecost, because it is through the Holy Spirit that the sublime truth of God as Three in One expands the limits of human intelligence. The perfect harmony of the Triune God is like music whose sound frequency cannot be registered by unaided hearing, but it reverberates in the…
This is the fourth month of our lives being impacted by the Coronavirus pandemic. We have gone from total uncertainty of the length and strength of the virus, to having some knowledge without definite assurance of the accuracy of the information. We hunkered down and did our best to find ways to usefully apply ourselves,…
In a letter Sigmund Freud wrote to his friend Edoardo Weiss on April 12, 1933, he reminisced about a visit to the Roman church of San Pietro in Vincoli: “Every day for three lonely weeks of September 1913, I stood in church in front of the statue, studying it, measuring it and drawing it until there…
In these days of closures, which must soon end, I am able to offer Mass quietly for the intentions of parishioners and others, and I often take the opportunity to use the Extraordinary Form, whose beautiful cadences end with the “Last Gospel.” This Johannine Prologue in hymnodic verse concluded the Liturgy from the earliest days…
May 21, 2020 Best-selling author and global consultant to CEOs, Ram Charan has been a privileged insider and an acute observer of business for more than 40 years. He has written and lectured extensively on strategy, execution, innovation, executive leadership, the board’s role, alignment, and global competition.
We have been “socially distanced” now for more than two months with widespread mandatory business closures. The purpose of this was to slow the spread of the Coronavirus, “flatten the curve” so that our hospitals will not be overwhelmed and possibly buy time for a vaccine to be developed. The experts told us this…
The French theoretical physicist Pierre Duhem (1861-1916) was amazingly prolific and contributed much to hydrodynamics and thermodynamics, but his most important influence may be his philosophy and history of science. He refuted the superficial analysis of the relationship between physical science and religion as distorted by rationalists since the eighteenth century. Drawing on the qualifications…
Anger is a funny emotion. No, check that. It’s not funny. It’s angry. But it is often strange and hard to understand. That’s especially true when otherwise affable or thoughtful people become leaders and start to exhibit anger more and more frequently. Anger provokes the people being led to question what they thought they knew…
In response to a request from some of the faithful of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, I consecrated the Archdiocese to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on October 7, 2017. The day was the Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary; and the year was the centennial of the apparitions of Our Lady at Fatima, Portugal, where, among…
Vatican City—March 23, 2020—CNA—Cardinal Raymond Burke issued a letter encouraging priests and bishops to work constructively with civil authorities to meet the spiritual needs of Catholics during the coronavirus pandemic. Acknowledging the “sadness” and “fear” which the pandemic has brought with it, the cardinal reflected Saturday that “Oftentimes, when we find ourselves in great suffering…
“As I was saying…” That, more or less, is how Saint Athanasius began his homily each time he returned from exile. Over seventeen years, he was banished five times by four Roman emperors for reasons political and theological, but he persisted in defying the heresy of the powerful Arians who had a flawed idea of…
So it’s been almost two months without the Sacraments. In my parish, as ordered by our Bishop, there has been no Holy Mass, no anointing of the sick, no confession , no Eucharistic Adoration and little or no communication from the parish or the diocese except an email link to our parish bulletin and an…
We all agree on the need to start reopening the economy, and our lives in general, as soon as possible to avoid a cascading array of catastrophes—major economic problems, business failures, unemployment, depression, domestic problems, suicides, possible food shortages, increased poverty and the like. We also need to remember that the U.S. Constitution remains…
Amid the current global pandemic, Bishop Barron says: “Turn this time of waiting into an evangelical opportunity…” In an exclusive, wide-ranging interview with Zenit, the Auxiliary Bishop of Los Angeles and founder of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries reflects on how the faithful can reconnect spiritually during this dramatic time. ZENIT (Q): What is the…
Eyebrows were raised when Queen Victoria commented that of all her predecessors, she would most enjoy a conversation with King Charles II. In the arrangements of their domestic lives they could hardly have been more unlike, but Charles was a man of attractive wit, and that was her point. In most ways, Voltaire was the…
Even though I am following those tips I had for you last month about vision and wisely using our time during our shelter in place situation, I still sought inspiration to get me started for this month’s article. I never have been in a situation before where I had to ask my wife, Pat, to…
Among logical fallacies, the argument from authority, “argumentum ad verecundiam,” means accepting a proposition because its source is authoritative, even though the matter is outside that source’s competence. Such a fallacy, for instance, might approve Einstein’s view on politics or religion because he was such an important physicist. However, precisely because of his inventiveness, it…
Normally each Easter, the Resurrection Sermon of Saint John Chrysostom replaces my regular column, with his paraphrase of Saint Paul’s “Death, where is thy sting? Grave where is thy victory?” (Corinthians 15:55). But these are not normal times. Their abnormality includes my own difficulty in not preaching the Three Hours on Good Friday for the…
While attending the Napa Institute, I asked Ignatius Press’ Tony Ryan for his recommendation on a good book to read. Tony immediately told me, “From Fire by Water: My Journey to the Catholic Faith,” which was one of Ignatius’ bestsellers. I got a copy and found that Tony was right on the money. This is…
