Holy Days of Obligation and Liturgical Realism

O Lord grant me wisdom and Your holy guidance in the path I walk. Grant that I, Your unworthy servant, might speak well on Your behalf. In my speculation and contemplation grant that I might stand by Your side and not be confounded with error.

In this article I would like to speak on the topic of Holy Days of Obligation within the Catholic Church and in separate dioceses of the Catholic Church. What is the rationale behind Holy Days of Obligation besides those which reside on the Lord’s day? How do we move forward in our own lives as we strive to make our entire life a liturgy of praise and worship to God?

What ought we expect of men considering the priesthood?

La Santa Cena by Juan de Juanes

A friend recently asked me what sorts of qualities I would consider to be valuable in a priest, or what sort of things would lend a man towards becoming a priest, so I thought I might right a post on this topic. Lord, You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedech, grant us wisdom and an increase in vocations to the priesthood. At the outset I said to my friend he ought to be a man, a father, and a follower of Christ. I am inclined to add to my brief comments and of course state that he must be a pastor to the many sheep of the Church, acknowledging that he is also a sheep before God. There is much more to be said of the Catholic priesthood and I only have lightly tread into the deep theology of the Church’s wisdom on the Sacrament of Holy Orders.

It is a fearsome thing to become a priest or feel the desire to become a priest, but for all those who feel God’s call forward to serve them let them not say, “I do not know how to speak. I am too young!” (Jeremiah 1:6), but rather understand with the entire heart to Jesus’ words, “take heart! I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)

Thoughts on the maxim: Know Thyself

Christ the Light of the World
by William Holman Hunt

I've been on hiatus for quite some time and so I apologize for my long withdrawal from blogging. However, I've come up with a few categories that I’d like to talk about; namely, I have been struggling with a post that hopes to address something I call the poverty of love and more fully the Divine Poverty of Christ (or the Trinity, which is a far higher ideal). This sort of grandiose essay has escaped me for far too long and my love falls far too short to make any honest progress other than what amounts to straw and hot air. In this topic I’d like to just ease back into blogging with the question of whether a man (or woman) ought to strive to know himself very thoroughly or whether it is better to profess a certain form of ignorance surrounding one’s self. Or is there perhaps a dualism by which we ought to know ourselves well in one way but not in another.

"Catch hold of God’s Lowliness", excerpt of St. Augustine's Sermon 117

This excerpt comes from St. Augustine’s Sermon 117, which is an anti-Arian sermon thought to have been written somewhere between 418 and 420 AD. The sermon in its entirety is an attempt to give a sermon on the relation between the Father and the Son so as to show that the Son is both divine and human. St. Augustine strives in the sermon to explain and come to a deeper understanding of what it means for Christ to be human and divine, and what sort of distinctions will be helpful to make in order to further penetrate into this divine mystery. Near the end of the sermon, St. Augustine strives to make clear that humility is the key to entering into God’s mystery, and humility as an entrance into love, which as always is humility to enter into Love Himself.

Lord and Savior of all mankind, come grant us Your Holy Spirit to guide us in the perfection of holy charity.

Reflections on the Prodigal Son

The Return of the Prodigal Son
by Pompeo Batoni

Last Sunday’s Gospel reading in the latin Catholic Church regarded the parable of the prodigal son, a story at face value intended to show the folly of the way of the Pharisees in view of the righteousness of God whose mercy encompasses all of Creation. The reading which I will analyze will be that of Luke 15, verses 11 to 32. My hope is to express perhaps some of the mystery behind God’s righteousness, His mercy, and the divine image which He has placed in each one of us in the spark of human nature and human dignity. Please remember to read the Gospel before my own words!

Most Holy Redeemer guide us!

See here for much better analyses of this story:

A Philosophical Reading of the Prodigal Son (video) [Very thorough and intellectual]

 The Father’s Two Sons: What the Prodigal Son Tells us About Divine Sonship (article) [Brief, brilliant, insightful, and the inspiration behind this post]

The History of Philosophy on St. Augustine's Confessions

Below is an apt summary of St. Augustine's story in the Confessions provided by Peter Adamson in the website, The History of Philosophy without any Gaps.

http://www.historyofphilosophy.net/augustine-confessions