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Artistic representations of the 10 Commandments often depict two stone tablets on which there are two tables of inscriptions. This portrayal follows from a classical division of the commandments in which there are two specific categories — those that order humanity’s relationship with God and those that order human relationships with one another.
My husband is truly the most remarkable person I know.
He is funny and kind, handsome and intelligent, wise and humble, patient and hardworking. Anyone who knows him would agree.
We were high school sweethearts, so we have known each other longer than we haven’t, and we have been blessed in so many different ways since we met 27 years ago.
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Ten years ago, when I was a visiting scholar at the North American College in Rome, I fell into a spirited conversation with one of the seminarians about the state of evangelization in America.
We both were bemoaning the fact that the “new” atheists — Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and others — were regularly attacking religion, and I commented that no Christian spokesman had managed to engage the enemies of the faith well on the public scene.
Last summer, I participated in the Convocation of Catholic Leaders in Orlando, Fla. The purpose of this large, unprecedented encounter between U.S. bishops and laity was to study what Pope Francis has termed the “new peripheries” and to form missionary disciples.
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Word on Fire
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In these days, therefore, let us add something beyond ordinary expectations of our service. Let each one, over and above the measure prescribed, offer God something of his own freewill in the joy of the Holy Spirit. ~ Rule of St. Benedict, Sixth century
In roughly three weeks, Ash Wednesday will arrive and with this commemoration, the Church begins the penitential practices of Lent.
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In his visit to the United States, Pope Francis especially praised two Catholics. They were Thomas Merton and Dorothy Day.
In 1925, Dorothy Day became pregnant. Because of a previous abortion, her pregnancy seemed a miracle. Now she had to make the toughest decision she ever made. If she gave birth, Forster Batterham, the child’s father, would leave her. He would stay with her if she aborted their baby.
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John Joy |
This new year 2018 marks the 50th anniversary of Pope Paul VI’s magnificent profession of faith, the Creed of the People of God.
The 1960s were a tumultuous time in society at large and a time of great confusion in the Church. After the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), many Catholics thought that it was no longer important to believe the teachings of the Church or that the teaching of the Church had changed.
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Last year was a rough one in many ways. President Donald Trump’s and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s exchange of insults and violent threatening language put the world on edge that nuclear war was, and still is, quite possible.
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In recent years, we have witnessed a growing tendency to promote suicide as a way of resolving end-stage suffering.
Physician-assisted suicide is now legal in a handful of states, and a number of other jurisdictions are considering laws to legalize the practice.
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Word on Fire
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On January 8, we celebrated the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, and it is with this awe-filled liturgy that the three great revelations or “theophanies” of the Christmas season were brought to stunning fulfillment.
The first of those revelations was the birth of the Christ child, which was celebrated on Christmas Day. This “theophany” presented to us the first occasion when it was made known to human sight that God had accepted for himself a human nature and allowed himself to be born in this world as a man.
