In Matthew's gospel, Jesus makes the statement "my yoke is easy, my burden light." For many of us who follow him, this does not seem to square with our experience. This post discusses the reasons for this....
Jesus says to deny self, pick up the cross and follow him. But he also says to love your neighbor as yourself. Is self-love always wrong?...
The term "the New Evangelization" is repeated often in Catholic circles. But what precisely does this phrase refer to and what's "new" about this particular form of the preaching of the gospel?...
7 minute podcast by Dr. Italy focusing on the true meaning of the Sacred Heart of Jesus based on the chief scriptural text connected with this feast and devotion. Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus can be found throughout the ages but became particularly widespread...
All the baptized share in a very real way in the priesthood of Jesus Christ. Yet the baptismal priesthood of the laity in no way means that ordained priests don't also have an essential and irreplaceable role....
Holy Thursday, the Lord's Supper, the institution of the Holy Eucharist, Corpus Christi -- What did Jesus mean when he said "This is my body and this is my blood" and "Do this in Memory of Me"? And what does the Catholic mean by...
Trinity Sunday celebrates the Church's faith in the triune God, one God in three persons. This doctrine has baffled people for 2,000 years. Given that it is so hard to accept, why bother with it? What difference does the trinitarian dogma really make to how...
We so often condemn the Pharisees that we totally miss a sneaky way that we are often like them. The hard saying of Jesus "if you hand causes you to sin, cut it off" is a kind of shock therapy to wake us up...
You are the salt of the earth and the light of the world, proclaims Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. This seems to indicate that there is an essential role for passion, excitement and fire in the Christian life....
The Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes challenge us all. When Jesus praises the poor in spirit and those hungry for righteousness, he is also condemning the self-satisfaction that leads to sloth, a deadly disease that's risen to epic proportions in the Western...