Catholic Thought discussion

I created this folder if people wanted to recommend various Catholic websites across the internet.

One Catholic website I enjoy is Aleteia. It defines its mission as a "Catholic news and information" website. I find the news is on the light side but it provides a lot of good Catholic information and prayer. I think of it as more of a Catholic magazine rather than a newspaper. Perhaps it's me but I do think it's more oriented toward women, but I find there is plenty there for men as well. I learn something all the time. Here's the link.

https://aleteia.org/

One thing I can add to the Aleteia website recommendation, Anna O'Neil has a twice a month feature where she takes "a short, memorable poem and breaks it down." Given my interest in poetry, I've been giving some extensive comments on the poem she selects. The poems are not necessarily religious in nature, but sometimes they are. It's a nice feature for those that like poetry but don't get too many opportunities to read them. Plus you can see me show off my poetry analysis skills. ;)

To find it, just type "Poetry Talks" in their search function or this link should take you there:
https://aleteia.org/tag/poetry-talk/

I thought this was such a nice article on a Dominican monestery and I wanted to share. It's an article on advice (titled, "Young nuns have some advice for their millennial peers") from Dominican Nuns at a monestery. Great pictures too.

https://aleteia.org/2017/10/03/young-...

Very nice.
Millennials were never given the space to grow into adulthood at their own pace. Given our hedonistic culture, what adults want reigns supreme. They make it easy on themselves: kids will adjust. Many children are from broken homes and/or blended families, so the very foundation, shelter, and love of family they need to flourish is rare.
It is no surprise to me that the religious life is so attractive to many of them. And they are choosing the traditional orders, fully cloistered and habit. Here is peace and contentment, and life goes by predictable rhythms - all of which they didn't get as children.

My parish uses the formed website which has many books, movies, audio downloads, etc for all ages

Lisa wrote: "My parish uses the formed website which has many books, movies, audio downloads, etc for all ages"

Mine does too but I have never used it. I need to try it. I'll have to get the parish password.

Formed is great! I've watched some documentaries so far, and incidentally, I downloaded their copy of "Joan of Arc" for our last read. I look in at least every other week on what's new.

They will have a 11 part series on the Bible and the Sacraments starting Oct. 9th. It looks like the episodes will be available only for a limited time for streaming, so one definitely has to make time for it.

To Kerstin's October 3 point, Mother Dolores Hart has said that what appealed to her about the life of a cloistered Benedictine was the sense of stability, because her own childhood had been so chaotic.

I came across this wonderful explanation of the Immaculate Conception that I wanted to share. I’ve personally never had trouble venerating our Blessed Mother, but I have to admit I have had trouble with the doctrine of The Immaculate Conception. Biblically it seemed to come out of nowhere, but that Annunciation passage at the beginning of Luke (1:26-35) helps. Let me paste it over so it’s in front of you:

26In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth,27to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary.l28And coming to her, he said, “Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you.”m29But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.30Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.31n Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus.32o He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High,* and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,33and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”p34But Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?”*35And the angel said to her in reply, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.

When the meaning of “full of grace” was explained to me it began to make more sense, but still I had not fully climbed over the hill. Today I came upon this wonderful explanation by Mother Miriam of the Daughters of Mary, Mother of Israel’s Hope. This comes from the website, The Coming Home Network, which is an offshoot of the EWTN TV show, The Journey Home.

https://chnetwork.org/2017/10/06/insi...

Mother Miriam is a convert first from Judaism to Protestantism and then to Catholicism. No wonder she has special insight to the Old Testament connection. That link to God as cloud coming down to overshadow the Tabernacle/Mary was essential for me. It is definitive. I will never have another doubt about that teaching again.

I love Mother Miriam! I was introduced to her by the Lighthouse talk "The Making of a Jewish Nun." Her conversion story is very powerful.

She is so good connecting the Old Testament with the New, and this video is just great. I could listen to her for hours.

Manny wrote: "I came across this wonderful explanation of the Immaculate Conception that I wanted to share. I’ve personally never had trouble venerating our Blessed Mother, but I have to admit I have had trouble..."

I loved that too Manny, thank you. I have heard her speak also with Michael Voris and with Marcus Grodi.
I feel blessed and grateful to be Catholic.

Not sure if this is the right topic to place this, but here is a video of a speech given by Kimberly Hahn (Scott's wife) titled, "The Reformation’s Effect on the Family." Fascinating how she walks us through the history. It's about an hour long but I was glued to the entire thing. Kept me up way past my bedtime the other night.

Here:
https://chnetwork.org/deep-in-history...

I haven't listened to this particular one yet. Today while I was puttering around in the kitchen I listened to Scott Hahn's in the series, "The Forerunners of the Reformation". It was such a tour de force that I'll have to listen to it again. He has a tendency to pack so much detail into his talks you can't possibly take it all in.

I came across two essays today on the concept of giving God glory which I thought I'd share.

First Fr. James Schall over at The Catholic Thing explains what it means to give glory to God over at Aleteia:
https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2017...

Second, Suzanne Elizabeth Anderson (I don't think I've ever read anything from her before) provides how to give glory to God:
https://aleteia.org/2017/11/07/give-g...

Fr. Schall's essay is a bit "brainy" but Ms. Anderson's reaches the heart.

I like brainy articles :)

"The Greek word, doxa, means roughly, opinion. It came to mean in the New Testament good opinion. It then became glory, the highest opinion that we can have of something."

Sometimes we just say words without really thinking "what" we are saying. And wouldn't this imply that we are not truly in the moment, present to God?

I didn't know that Kerstin. I would never have guessed actually. A doxology is a prayer of praise. I would have thought along the lines of praise being the root of the word. Thanks for the lesson!

Manny, that was a quote directly out of the article :)

Kerstin wrote: "Manny, that was a quote directly out of the article :)"

Oh, I didn't see that. I'm reading real fast. ;)

This is a wonderful talk by Scott Hahn titled, "The Forerunners of the Reformation" but it's so much more than that. It traces the scope of history from the intellectual/philosophic origins of what came to be modernity to the modern world and its relationship to the Protestant Reformation. It's just over an hour long and totally captivating as Scott Hahn typically is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTMX4...

Manny wrote: "This is a wonderful talk by Scott Hahn titled, "The Forerunners of the Reformation" but it's so much more than that. It traces the scope of history from the intellectual/philosophic origins of what..."

Love Scott Hahn... just listening now... :
"Via Antiqua, Via Moderna".... like that....

Manny wrote: "This is a wonderful talk by Scott Hahn titled, "The Forerunners of the Reformation" but it's so much more than that. It traces the scope of history from the intellectual/philosophic origins of what..."

That was awesome Manny. Thank you so much for posting....Man, does that explain a lot.....

Oh, I listened to this talk by Scott Hahn a couple of weeks ago. It has so much stuff packed into it, I'll have to listen to it again.

It really was enlightening for me too. I had independently learned of William of Occam and Machiavelli (I did not recognize the third of the via moderna, who I can't recall the name now) but it was never all put together for me as the via antiqua versus the via moderna.

This post at Aleteia promises "3 New Christmas ads guaranteed to have you in tears." Well it didn't get me to tear up, but they were heart warming. One is in German for you Kerstin, though they don't actually speak.

https://aleteia.org/2017/11/21/3-new-...

Manny wrote: "This post at Aleteia promises "3 New Christmas ads guaranteed to have you in tears." Well it didn't get me to tear up, but they were heart warming. One is in German for you Kerstin, though they don..."

That German one was intense! :)

The other week over at the Book Sale topic here at Catholic Thought, Alice McDermott's name came up; one of her books was on sale.

As it turned out over the weekend I caught part of an interview on a Catholic Radio station with Alice McDermott discussing her new novel The Ninth Hour. I enjoyed what I heard so I searched out the whole interview.

It was part of a local Catholic radio/TV show in the NYC area called In The Arena, and the host is normally Msgr. Kieran Harrington. But for this episode, apparently Msgr. Kieran was away and the substitute was Fr. Michael Duffy. It's a nice interview and it really piqued my interest in her new novel. Here's the link and the McDermott part of the show is the first twelve minutes.
https://netny.tv/episodes/in-the-aren...

Great interview with Joseph Pearce on his new book Heroes of the Catholic Reformation: Saints Who Renewed the Church on Discerning Hearts, here:

http://www.discerninghearts.com/catho...

I think this is worth sharing. One of the blogs I subscribe to is written by Sr. Mary Kathleen Glavich, SND, and she had an interesting post this morning.
http://www.kathleenglavich.org/2018/0...
Here’s part of what she wrote:
“Did you ever notice that in old photos, people rarely smiled? Also, we seldom think of Jesus laughing. The Gospels don’t state that he laughed, but do record that he cried twice. For sure, Jesus laughed. After all, he was human! Imagine his face when he sends Peter the fisherman to catch a fish to pay the tax. Or when the children are climbing up onto his lap and tugging at his arm. Some of his stories are downright funny, although not being products of his culture, we sometimes miss the humor. We can, however, imagine the ridiculous sight of a camel (especially a two-humped one) squeezing through a needle, or of the Pharisees swallowing a camel but spitting out gnats, or of someone setting a lighted candle under a bed. Only someone with a sense of humor would make up nicknames for people. Jesus called James and John “Sons of Thunder” and Simon “Peter” (rock).

When do you think Jesus laughed? Do you think he laughs with you? Or at you sometimes?”

And I replied in the comment box with this:

“Maybe He laughed at St. Peter when Peter slurped his soup at the last supper? LOL. Now you've got me thinking. Jesus isn't described as laughing and I can't think of an artist's representation where He shown laughing. I bet He laughed at the Apostles a lot. They were kind of silly at times. I can almost picture Jesus laughing in last Friday's Gospel reading, John 1:43-51. Nathanael says "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" I bet word got back to Jesus or He just knew and had a hearty laugh over that. When Nathanael is surprised and says to Jesus, "How do you know me?" I can just see Jesus laughing when He says "Before Phillip called you, I saw you under the fig tree." That response is a non sequitur, and just full of humor.

I also bet Jesus laughed at the Transfiguration when Peter says let's build three booths, as if he wants to build an amusement park. Peter was kind of a bumbling, lovable type. Jesus must have laughed at him a lot.

I hope Jesus laughs at me. I certainly prefer Him laughing at me than being angry with me. I probably give Him lots of reasons to be angry at me.”

If you think of any places in the Gospel where Jesus might have laughed, go over and comment. Sister would love to read it.

My favorite statue of a smiling Virgin Mary with Jesus at the Cathedral of Toledo
https://catholicapps.files.wordpress....

Kerstin wrote: "My favorite statue of a smiling Virgin Mary with Jesus at the Cathedral of Toledo
https://catholicapps.files.wordpress...."
That is really cute. I assume that's Toledo, Spain, not Toledo Ohio...LOL.

Bishop Baron has a recent Word on Fire video clip that mentions Dante's Purgatory and the resolution of sins. Given we're reading The Divine Comedy I thought this particularly pertinent. First here's the link:
https://special.wordonfire.org/seven-...

I know we haven't gotten up to the Purgatorio yet, but though the same sins that exist in Inferno are brought up in Purgatorio, the intent in Purgatory is not punishment but a re-training. For those participating in the read, keep that in mind. I was going to make this point anyway, but Bishop Baron makes it nicely.

There is also a Lighthouse talk of his on this theme - though it must be much abbreviated given his CD is much longer.

Kerstin wrote: "There is also a Lighthouse talk of his on this theme - though it must be much abbreviated given his CD is much longer."

Bishop Barron has talks on Lighthouse CDs? I didn't know that.

Manny wrote: "Kerstin wrote: "There is also a Lighthouse talk of his on this theme - though it must be much abbreviated given his CD is much longer."

Bishop Barron has talks on Lighthouse CDs? I didn't know that."

Yes, several.

I was undecided if I should post this here or in the Divine Comedy folder. I had mentioned Rod Dreher's book How Dante Can Save Your Life:The Life-Changing Wisdom of History's Greatest Poem at some point somewhere.

I was thrilled to find that at Discerning Hearts website, Kris McGregor in a podcast interviewed Rod Dreher on his book, which is a personal memoir on how Rod found himself in a similar dark place that Dante finds himself, and how reading Dante’s great work pulled him out of his dark place to find God’s grace. It’s a wonderful interview.

I have not read Rod’s book, but I’m getting it. Right now it's only 99 cents on Kindle, so it's a great bargain. You can find it on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/Dante-Save-You...

Here is the inteview.
http://www.discerninghearts.com/catho...

Rod leaves the interview with a really great quote, “If you surrender yourself to Dante, he will show you to the Lord.”

Discerning Hearts is such a great web site. If you’re Catholic it should be a go to place for great podcasts, prayers, and meditations.

Manny wrote: "I was undecided if I should post this here or in the Divine Comedy folder. I had mentioned Rod Dreher's book How Dante Can Save Your Life:The Life-Changing Wisdom of History's Greatest Poem at some..."

Enjoying "discerning hearts" website - thanks for that tip. I'd also tried to get Rod's book on kindle - but it doesn't seem to be available yet in the UK.

I'm a great devotee of EWTN's show The Journey Home. It's a show about how converts find their way into the Catholic Church, or lapsed or fallen away Catholics reverting. I try to see every show, but like everything else I'm usually behind. I just saw an episode from about a month back which totally moved me. It's this episode of a revert Laura Richards who found her way back when she encountered her child she had given up for adoption twenty-three years before. The first twenty minutes had me in tears. I think you would all like watching it. Here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8X1r...

And those of you who are Carmelites, Laura has gone on to become a Secular Carmalite, and she talks about that too.

This isn't really a website but a page on Facebook dedicated to St. Jude. I really love it and the everyone is so supportive of each other. I started a prayer chain on there for my cousin's grandson and within 24 hours prayers were answered.

Doreen wrote: "This isn't really a website but a page on Facebook dedicated to St. Jude. I really love it and the everyone is so supportive of each other. I started a prayer chain on there for my cousin's grandso..."

You forgot the link Doreen.

I saw this episode! We watch Journey Home faithfully. It is amazing how in a myriad of ways folks are drawn to the Catholic faith because it is true, myself included :)

Doreen wrote: "This isn't really a website but a page on Facebook dedicated to St. Jude. I really love it and the everyone is so supportive of each other. I started a prayer chain on there for my cousin's grandso..."
can you please send the link.

Not sure how to do that.

Doreen wrote: "Not sure how to do that."

Where it says "https:// etc." on the Facebook page up on top. Right click and copy. Then come over here and right click in a comment box and paste.

Manny wrote: "I'm a great devotee of EWTN's show The Journey Home. It's a show about how converts find their way into the Catholic Church, or lapsed or fallen away Catholics reverting. I try to see every show, b..."

Manny wrote: "I'm a great devotee of EWTN's show The Journey Home. It's a show about how converts find their way into the Catholic Church, or lapsed or fallen away Catholics reverting. I try to see every show, b..."
Manny thank you so much to recommend this video to us. Very much inspirational.

I saw a youtube video about an ex-protestant, I think it will be helpful for you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pscwv...

Stabin wrote: "I saw a youtube video about an ex-protestant, I think it will be helpful for you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pscwv..."

I've seen that Stabin. That video has gone viral.

Alright, Manny.

Just read this fine article by Fr. James Schall, SJ, titled "Humanity as it Actually Is" that is worth sharing. Fr. Schall meditates on Cardinal Ratzinger's quote from 1977, “The unrealistic demand that everything the Church teaches be lived completely and in all its fullness fails to take into account humanity as it actually is...There exists in every man a certain tension between that which the Church recognizes as what the Christian ought to be and do and that which the average Christian normally achieves.” That's a great quote and the article expands on it. Worth reading, here:
https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2018...

That's a great article!