Fruit and fullness. For many years now I have recited to myself every day the ninefold fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23, and have prayed for the fullness of the Spirit. For the chief mark of the fullness of the Spirit is the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, and self-control. As I meditate every day on these graces, on this fruit of the Spirit, I have noticed recently that the first is love and the last is temperance.
Read moreI live with my wife in a condominium complex on the Delaware River in Philadelphia and in the three years we have been here, we have gotten to know a few couples. One couple, Pat and Jack, are among our favorites. They are (very) old faithful Catholics who worship at the cathedral in Philadelphia. They are wonderfully Irish who love their wine and their language can be a bit salty at times. They are still a loveable couple.
Read moreA mere theory of the atonement will not save anyone. The atonement itself, and our personal connection with it, is what saves us. --- Bill Muehlenberg
Read more"Here is the reason why we have such a host of stillborn, sinewless, ricketty, powerless spiritual children. They are born of half-dead parents, a sort of sentimental religion which does not take hold of the soul, which has no depth of earth, no grasp, no power in it, and the result is a sickly crop of sentimental converts. Oh!
Read moreEvidence of new birth. If you know as a fact that God is righteous, John says, then you will perceive as a logical consequence "that everyone who does what is right has been born of him" (1 Jn. 2:29). The child exhibits the parent's character because he shares the parent's nature. A person's righteousness is thus the evidence of his new birth, not the cause or condition of it. --- John R.W. Stott
Read moreBirths outside of marriage are declining in the United States, driven by a decline in births outside marriage among immigrant women and a flattening out of births outside marriage among American-born women. The trend may represent the end of an era of increase in unmarried mothers. The abortion rate has also been decreasing. --- Shannon Roberts for Mercatornet.com
Elections are in fact a tug-of-war for the soul of America. --- Marie Whitaker
Read more"For it is time for judgement to begin with God's household; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?" -- 1 Peter 4:17.
Read moreThe lie that toppled him is that he had confessed to being sexually involved with a former parishioner, and then lied, in 2012, to the Diocese of Lexington Standing Committee in the vetting process for the election of the VII Bishop of Lexington.
Read moreAfter spending nearly two weeks in North Africa and Europe, writing stories and posting other stories that my trusty associate could find, I have come away with some observations that I would like to share with you.
The first is that North Africa is very religious, while Europe is very secular. That is hardly surprising given the state of things in, say, Egypt and France.
Read more"...It's a crisis of declining trust and stability, lost solidarity and permanence...A deep sadness comes when we realize, finally that we're on our own, which is where secular individualism brings us in the end. Many now live without a Father in heaven. Political correctness denies them the patrimony of a workable cultural inheritance. For an increasing number of young people, there's not even a father at home. A nation of orphans, literal or metaphorical, will not long endure.
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