April 2023 During Holy Week this year my wife and I re-watched one of my favorite movies, the sublime film A Hidden Life, directed by Terrence Malick. The movie tells the true story of Austrian farmer, Blessed Franz Jägerstätter, who faced the threat of imprisonment and execution for refusing to fight for the Nazis during World War II. If you…
Category: Blog Posts
Reflections on the Assumption of Mary
The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a dogma of the Catholic Faith; a necessary belief for all those who call themselves Catholic. But in my experience I’ve found that it is often one of the most misunderstood dogmas of the faith, not only for non-Catholics, but also for Catholic Christians themselves. What is the Dogma of the Assumption?…
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Reading Within Tradition
Definitive Interpretations? Years ago, when studying various interpretations related to St. John’s Revelation, I came across the following quote on the website of the Orthodox Church in America: “The Orthodox Church does not accept the notion that everyone can properly interpret the Bible as he or she wants. Some Protestant bodies believe in this, but Orthodoxy does not. We say…
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When Religion IS a Relationship
What if religion is a relationship? To make the claim, that Christianity is a religion – and not just a relationship with Christ, is very countercultural in today’s world. Subversive even. Everywhere we look we are confronted with slogans which assert that, “Christianity isn’t a religion – it’s a relationship with God.” We are told that, “Religion kills, but Jesus saves.” And…
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Silence: A Movie Review
Silence is a faith-based film for those (like me) who can’t stand faith-based films. It is not, however, an easy movie to watch. It is a film which was made not to entertain an audience but rather, as all good art should, to provoke an emotional response. Perhaps even to, (and dare I say it of a faith-based film?) cause the audience to…
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Delving Deep In History Brought Me Home
The Coming Home Network International recently published an abbreviated version of my conversion story in their monthly newsletter and online at their website. I decided to reproduce the article in it’s entirety here along with a PDF of the full newsletter at the bottom of the article. Enjoy! Delving Deep In History Brought Me Home We’ve all heard the maxim, “Your starting point always…
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Can Miracles Be (Dis)Proven?
Catholic Canonizations With Mother Teresa’s recent canonization and elevation to Saint Teresa of Calcutta, I’ve had quite a few friends and family members asking me how exactly the Catholic Church goes about making someone a saint. In answering that question, there are a couple of important distinctions which must be made. The first distinction that we should make is that the Catholic Church…
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An Integration of Church and State
I don’t often post political pieces. In fact, this may be a first. But as I sit at my desk writing this, I find myself deeply troubled by our current state of affairs. In our nation, the term, separation of Church and state, has been aggressively employed in an effort to remove any influence of religion or faith from the public sphere. We live…
