Pope Benedict, in continuity with Pope St. John Paul’s Theology of the Body (TOB), speaks of three main aspects of the human person: communal, historical, and bodily. Does this mean that these two great popes don’t believe in the spiritual dimension of the person? Of...
Catholic Life
The Mind-Body Impact of Gratitude
Since the late 90's, Dr. Robert A Emmons, a psychologist and professor at the University of California, has been one of the world's leading experts on the study of gratitude and its effects on the human experience. In his many studies, he found that gratitude not only...
Given and Entrusted
“We must ourselves be a total gift, a disinterested, sincere gift in order to recognize, in every man, the gift that he is, and to thank the Giver for the gift of the human person.” -Saint John Paul the Great, Meditation on Givenness Imagine a world in which every...
Theology of the Body: Uniting Catholics and Protestants
“War against the body means we must do this with a clear emphasis upon the theological importance of the body. This will not be news to some. Pope John Paul II’s rich legacy on the theology of the body is meat and drink to thoughtful Catholics, yet it is not something...
How Volunteering Overcomes Hopelessness and Sloth
A friend of mine was looking for practical ways to overcome hopelessness and the vice of sloth. In her research for Catholic-based solutions, she encountered tried and true remedies such as adding frequent confession and adoration to her routine. However, she told me...
The Body and Your Spiritual Life
If you’ve been a Catholic for longer than five minutes, you probably take for granted terms like the “spiritual life,” or “spirituality.” A close friend might have asked you recently: “How has your spiritual life been going?” And perhaps you have a “spiritual...
Receiving Knowledge of Christ
I’m slowly making my way through Fr. Mike Schmitz’s Bible in a Year podcast. Not his newest one, mind you—I’ve just passed the halfway mark for last year’s podcast. Sometimes I go weeks without listening, but I keep coming back because gosh darn it, at some point I...
Rejoicing In Boundaries
“Catholic doctrine and discipline may be walls; but they are the walls of a playground.” - G.K. Chesterton People in our culture today—and I am by no means excluding Catholics from this observation—are both fascinated and repulsed by the idea of boundaries. We abhor...
Jesus’ Sacred Heart
June is traditionally the month dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus comes to us most popularly through St. Margaret Mary Alacocque, a 17th century French nun. She experienced visions of Jesus in which He shared with her the...
A Fresh Start
“Behold, I am doing a new thing...” (Isaiah 43:19) Somewhere along the way of the Christian life—somewhere amid all of the Masses, the Rosaries, the novenas, and the Confessions—anyone pursuing a life of Christian virtue very often ends up in a rut. The experience of...