Cyprian, a north African bishop of the third century, himself eventually died a martyr. Here he exhorts fellow Christians to courage as they face the contest of faith in a hostile pagan society. Following Ephesians 6, he urges Christians to put on the whole armor...
The image of Jesus as the Good shepherd is a comforting one in the minds of many. But many of those who first heard Jesus describe himself in this way were deeply disturbed. For it seems that Jesus is setting himself up as only true...
On the first Easter, the Risen Lord makes clear to his frightened disciples he not a ghost or specter and in so doing shows why the gnostic gospels are bogus and did not make it into the Bible....
St. Theodore the Studite here acclaims the cross as a life-giving tree that is the antidote to that tree in paradise that was Adam's undoing. Following the early Christian method of interpreting the Old Testament spiritually, he traces the many ways the wood of...
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's Declaration in Defense of the Catholic Doctrine of the Church Against Certain Errors of the Present Day is best known by the first two words of the Latin text, Mysterium Fidei. It was written in response to...
In John 14:6, Jesus says "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Is this not narrow and close-minded?...
Eight days after Easter, Thomas the Doubter has an encounter with the Risen Christ that makes him a believer and even more, an apostle or ambassador who will bring the gospel to an unbelieving world. That should give us hope that he will do...
Divine Mercy Sunday or the Octave of Easter presents us with one of the most famous of gospel stories -- the story of Doubting Thomas. But it shows us how and when the sacrament of penance and reconciliation (aka "Confession") was instituted by the Lord...
St. Gregory the Great's commentary on the Apostle Thomas and his struggle with doubt. It makes for especially good reading for the Octave of Easter or the Feast of St. Thomas, the Apostle, which since the fourth century has been commemorated on July 3,...
Catholic Faith is not ideology but relationship, says Vatican II. God's revelation & our response in faith is a dialogue of love according to Dei Verbum....