Henry Adams, The Virgin, And The Gift Of Self
by Mr. Craig Taffaro The force of charity is often lost on the modern American man. In American culture, even amongst Catholics, charity gets reduced to the dollars one puts in the collection basket or gives to a favorite (or annoyingly persistent) charitable organization. Sometimes, charity breaks free of this common mold and becomes ...
You Can’t Love Your Enemies
The capacity of man to tame Jesus is staggering. I don’t mean to tame the reality of Our Lord, but to attempt to make what is hard into something that is easy. To “tame” something is to make it suitable for our environment – to put the tiger in the cage. This can happen on different ends of the spectrum, and whatever end you easily jud...
Kindness is Loving, But it’s Just Too
Charity – or love – is not something that is essentially different from justice, even if we think of them that way. Yes, there are times when it may seem we are being charitable instead of being just, but most often what is actually happening is that charity is going beyond what justice demands. When Jesus tells us to lend to those in need...
One Man’s Challenge A Divided Life
I grew up in the 1960s and 70s on the South Side of Chicago in a blue-collar neighborhood. One of the more dramatic moments of my teenage life occurred one Saturday night when four other teenagers from a local Catholic high school jumped me The next morning, when our family went to Mass at that same church, I saw one of my assailants. Filled with ...
Truth in Charity: The Lost Art of Dialogue
If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we guide their whole bodies. Or look at ships: though they are so large that it takes strong winds to drive them, yet they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits. How great a forest ...
As The Family So The Church
Mr. Brian Jones The political philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre once observed that the contemporary breakdown of communal and familial life in the West is frequently attributed to the wrong cause. Many commentators have argued that the disintegration of our culture, and its rapidly increased secularizing power, has been the result of the loss of re...
Offering A Sincere Apology
When your wife discovers that you have become addicted to pornography, it can be devastating for her. She may feel deeply hurt and betrayed. One of the first steps to healing your marriage is offering an apology. Your wife deserves an honest and sincere apology, and a simple “I’m sorry” won’t suffice. She needs to formally know you are sorr...
Wise Men, The Nothingness of Eastern Religions, and the Somethingness of Christianity
A brilliant and valiant teacher named John Senior is continuing to be discovered by those startled by today’s shadowy darkness, especially through a newly published biography. Interestingly, Senior could be described as an apostle of shadows, not because shadows are not real but because they point to the fact that things are real. How else could ...
Three Simple Ways To Evangelize (And Grow in Faith)
If you clicked on this article because you thought you had stumbled onto a list of “silver bullet” ideas for easily evangelizing your friends, co-workers, and family members, I am sorry to say you are going to be disappointed. When it comes to living and sharing our Catholic faith, there is no “easy” way to do it. The martyrs who died for t...
Purpose. Meaning. Destiny.
My conversion to the Catholic faith came about largely through the witness of one of my (public) high school teachers. He is a man of God who understands profoundly that the knowledge of Truth is the end goal of all education. There were many things my teacher said that stood out to me and remain in my memory to this day. Few of them stand out as m...