The Good Word

In a recent post in First Things Elizabeth Scalia in trying to position the dissent of Cardinal John Henry Newman offers that there ought not to be a gulf in Catholic thinking between faith and reason or in her words ldquo intellectual rigor and loyalty are not mutually exclusive rdquo Ther

I woke up with this song and the first lyric running through my mind As I walked my dog this early morning which seems appropriate the rest of this nbsp ode to Saint Francis of Assisi came to me by way of the great Sam Cooke It seems that hardly anyone throughout Christian history has been so f

Sometimes the relationship amongst the lectionary readings are clear and seem obviously so sometimes the relationships are not so obvious The three readings for the Twenty Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time Habakkuk 1 2-3 2 2-4 2 Timothy 1 6-8 13-14 and Luke 17 5-10 do not seem obviously related

nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp This Sunday Gospel reading consists of two distinct parts first there is a request answered by criticism and second Jesus offers a parable about a servant nbsp Though our reading is verses 5-10 I think it useful if not nbsp necessary to intepret them as comments on th

Earlier I discussed What is the Good Word and What is the Good Word 2 The Old Testament today I want to discuss the New Testament The contents of the New Testament NT are the same whether one is Catholic Orthodox or any other variety of Christian – with one glaring nbsp exception There a

These are a few musings that were stoked by the comments on ldquo Send Lazarus rdquo or ldquo Now You Remember My Name rdquo and the ideas are just beginning to take shape so please feel free to comment on and correct what you read here I had focused on the concrete use of material wealth f

My post on The Dishonest Manager generated some discussion on the nature of wealth our relationship and use of it and Jesus rsquo condemnation of wealth at least in certain circumstances In one of my comments to Marie Rehbein I stated that ldquo Jesus does condemn the improper use of wealth in

nbsp The parable about the rich man and Lazarus forms part of the lengthy discourse of Jesus which began at 16 1 Jesus is talking about the dangers of wealth or better the danger wealth becomes when it is in the wrong hands First the very first lines cannot be allowed to pass by quickly ever

I followed a link from David Mills at First Things to a post by Sandro Magister on Giorgio Alessandrini s analysis of Caravaggio s The Calling of St Matthew If you ever have a chance to go to Rome make certain that amongst the many other artistic treasures and wonders you visit St Louis of th