Can anyone adequately define what it means to be an alcoholic? Someone who regularly abuses alcohol is physically ill because of biological, even genetic, factors. And, like anyone suffering from a psychological pathology, an alcoholic’s free will is typically curtailed. Finally, as with any sinner, there’s probably no alcoholic who doesn’t bear some moral responsibility […]
The Good Word
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What makes a family holy?
We may not yet be saints, but this does not make our families any less sacred.
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When Christmas is neither merry nor white
We make Christmas into something it is not and wonder why it disappoints.
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Mary, motherhood and the meaning of vulnerability
The vulnerability of the Virgin still dispels distortions that we would create about her Son. He is not a figure of myth nor the creation of dogma. He is a man born to a woman, living in poverty.
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As adults, brooding is our Advent fate
Our hearts cannot stay home. While they yet beat, they will wander and pine. They will brood. We cannot rip them from our breasts.
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Regret can lead to growth—and to our redeemer
If regret harries you, Christ is seeking you. Lay down the remorse. Embrace the redeemer. Let all losses be restored, all sorrows end.
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Advent tells us it’s okay to hope
Yes, your hopes might be frustrated, but that is better than trying to extinguish hope in God.
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Death is a different kind of deadline for Christians
In death, what we thought was lost is, wondrously, restored to us. What we feared could never be accomplished is achieved.
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Why are Christians so angry these days?
We have every reason to be worried and fearful of the modern world, but it is not the spirit of Christ that inflames us with odium.
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What we know (and don’t know) about life after death
Jesus did not simply speak of a life to come. He revealed such a life and gave us a glimpse of it when he rose from the dead.