Purify Your Bride

My oldest is in grade 6 and we need to make some choices about where to send our kids for Junior and Senior high. Up until now there have been in a semi-public Catholic system that is essentially free here in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. They do an OK job with the lower grades. They acknowledge [...]

There is an interesting article on the process for appointing bishops in Canada.
Msgr. Crotty notes a more liberal paradigm has operated over the past 30-40 years that seemed to suggest the church’s teachings had to change to “go where the people are going.”
“That paradigm has actually failed,” he said. “You can’t change the teaching of the [...]

There is a lot of fuss about Intentional Disciples these days. They are trying to bring some things they miss from their protestant days into the catholic church and lots of Catholics seems to be uncomfortable with that. Then there is Cardinal George who talks about some negative aspects of protestantism and we get [...]

I was reading 7 story mountain and came across something which says well what I was trying to get express a few posts ago:
I think if there is one truth people need to learn, in the world, especially today, it is this: the intellect is only theoretically independent of desire and appetite. In ordinary, actual [...]

I don’t know if I have anything new to add to the abortion debate. I just don’t want to ignore the topic. Today seems as good a day as any to blog some thoughts. It is one of the issues I had to become more serious about when I became Catholic. As a protestant I [...]

I wonder how much an ability to think abstractly helps in seeing the truth of the Catholic faith. It certainly helped me. I know some people are just not able to step out of the fray and look at the church landscape and see issues. Doing that kind of analysis helped me a lot. To [...]

One of the things I did as a protestant was get excited about a lot of new movements. There was the Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship, there was some ecumenical movements, some charismatic groups, I took a trip to Israel with John MacArthur, etc. I was so on fire for the Lord I was up for [...]

I wonder sometimes about the way Catholics talk about Bishops. You see being Catholic is not, first of all, about subscribing to some set of doctrines. Certainly doctrines are a part of it but first and foremost it is about being part of a real world organization known as the Catholic church. So step one [...]

I seem to be running into a lot of talk about conscience, obedience, and freedom.  I wrote a post on it a few days ago but I might have been too short. The real beauty of what we are called to become as christians seems to be poorly understood (or at least understood differently than [...]

The tone of the Benedict papacy is really shaping up. He came in with a negative image as a conservative stick in the mud. John Paul was the good cop and he was the bad cop. I don’t think that was very true. I think they both agreed on all the orthodox positions the church [...]

One of the more confusing issues in the Catholic faith is the teaching on conscience. One of the main reasons people are confused is because many people use this idea that you must obey you conscience as a springboard to dissent. That is they either deliberately or subconsciously twist the doctrine to justify disobeying the [...]

I hear so many people praying for vocations. This is a good thing to do but it does not really address the issue involved. Vocations require young men and women who are willing to commit themselves to vows of poverty, celibacy, and obedience. The trouble is those gifts don’t come out of nowhere. Sometimes they [...]

In protestant circles people often have tough choices to make about which church to attend. The advice most often given is to go where you feel most comfortable and are feeling fed. There is almost always some statement made about how this kind of choice is not a matter of salvation. That whether you end [...]

When Sola Scriptora Christians disagree about important matters of faith and morals they go to scripture and use reason to try and determine who is right. A lot of times there are still disagreements. So what is next? One option is to convince yourself that God is really on your side in the argument. To [...]

Continuing my series of posts on my conversion. I will get a little less chronological now since I contemplated a bunch of different things at the same time. Here is one key one:
15“If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, [...]