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A Book Review . . . Using Ten Talents To Reap A Spiritual Harvest

August 2, 2016 Featured Today Comments Off on A Book Review . . . Using Ten Talents To Reap A Spiritual Harvest

By MITCHELL KALPAKGIAN Unearthing Your Talents: A Thomistic Guide to Spiritual Growth by Kevin Vost (Sophia Institute Press, Manchester, NH: 2009); 241 pp. $19.95. Available through www.SophiaInstitute.com or 1-800-888-9344. Inspired by Christ’s parable of the talents (Matt. 25:20-21) and informed by the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas, Dr. Kevin Vost presents selects ten talents that all persons can use, invest, and multiply to reap a rich spiritual harvest in their personal lives. Selecting seven natural virtues and three theological virtues as the God-given talents for all people to utilize in their lives, Vost explains clearly and carefully how they develop the power of the intelligence, order the passions and appetites, and cultivate the works of love. Applying the parable of…Continue Reading

Churches Galore: Patrick Keely

August 1, 2016 Featured Today Comments Off on Churches Galore: Patrick Keely

By RAY CAVANAUGH If a Catholic church went up on the East Coast in the latter half of the 19th century, your best bet was that Patrick Keely designed it. After building his first church in Brooklyn in 1847, he proceeded to design an estimated 700 churches and other religious buildings, becoming the nation’s most prolific Catholic architect. This August 9 marks the 200th anniversary of his birth. Keely was born in Ireland’s County Tipperary, entering a family that lived in “comfortable circumstances,” according to Francis W. Kervick’s brief but thoughtful biography Patrick Charles Keely, Architect: A Record of His Life and Work. Keely’s father was a builder and most likely the one who trained him. The younger Keely emigrated to the U.S.…Continue Reading

Companions Of Jesus

July 31, 2016 Featured Today Comments Off on Companions Of Jesus

By JAMES DRUMMEY Part 2 (Editor’s Note: Below is a talk given by James Drummey, editor of the Catholic Replies column, at a retreat in Vermont, June 11, 2016. We published his talk in two parts because of its length; part one appeared in last week’s issue.) + + + There are many saints we could talk about, but I want to focus on just three of them who lived within the last 100 years. The way in which God raised them up is truly remarkable, and their stories should inspire us to follow them in such a way that we will be recognized as “companions of Jesus.” Amazingly enough, the three saints I’m going to mention all grew up…Continue Reading

Will Putin Get A Pulitzer?

July 30, 2016 Featured Today Comments Off on Will Putin Get A Pulitzer?

By PATRICK J. BUCHANAN Waving off the clerics who had come to administer last rites, Voltaire said: “All my life I have ever made but one prayer to God, a very short one: ‘O Lord, make my enemies look ridiculous.’ And God granted it.” The tale of the thieved emails at the Democratic National Committee is just too good to be true. For a year, 74-year-old Socialist Bernie Sanders has been saying that, under DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the party has been undercutting his campaign and hauling water for Hillary Clinton. From the 19,200 emails dumped the weekend before Clinton’s coronation, it appears the old boy is not barking mad. The deck was stacked; the referees were in the…Continue Reading

Restoring The Sacred . . . The Indissolubility Of Marriage, As Affirmed By The Liturgy

July 29, 2016 Featured Today Comments Off on Restoring The Sacred . . . The Indissolubility Of Marriage, As Affirmed By The Liturgy

By JAMES MONTI Later this year, as you may have already read, a revised edition of the Order of Celebrating Matrimony is going to be promulgated in the United States, featuring notably a new, more accurate translation of the Latin text revised according to the principles of the Holy See’s 2001 instruction Liturgiam Authenticam. Additionally, the revised rite will allow for the first time in English-language celebrations of matrimony, when one or both of the spouses is Hispanic, the introduction of the centuries-old Hispanic custom of the lazo, also called the jugalis, a ribbon or cord, or veil, placed round about or over the two spouses during the wedding ceremony as a symbolic expression of the indissoluble bond that the…Continue Reading

James Patrick: The Loss Of A Child

July 28, 2016 Featured Today Comments Off on James Patrick: The Loss Of A Child

By DONALD DeMARCO We had five healthy and happy children. “God giveth and God taketh away.” And so, in His inscrutable wisdom, He called our sixth child to His home the day after he was born. It would have been far more difficult for us if we had lost our first child. And it would have been immeasurably more difficult if the child God reclaimed so early in life was to be our only child. I thought about the excruciating pain Rose Hawthorne Lathrop and her husband, George, felt when they lost the only child they would ever have. Little Francie passed into God’s protective arms when he was five. The couple left to posterity poignant expressions of their sorrow…Continue Reading

Companions Of Jesus

July 27, 2016 Featured Today Comments Off on Companions Of Jesus

By JAMES DRUMMEY Part 1 (Editor’s Note: Below is a talk given by James Drummey, editor of the Catholic Replies column, at a retreat in Vermont, June 11, 2016. We are publishing his talk in two parts because of its length.) + + + Of all the 73 books in the Bible, only one — the Acts of the Apostles — describes the early history of the Church, beginning with the Ascension of Jesus into Heaven in AD 30 and ending with St. Paul in prison in Rome around AD 62. We know from other sources, and from Sacred Tradition, that Paul was beheaded in Rome, and Peter was crucified there upside down sometime during the persecution of the Emperor…Continue Reading

Restoring The Sacred . . . The Indissolubility Of Marriage, As Affirmed By The Liturgy

July 26, 2016 Featured Today Comments Off on Restoring The Sacred . . . The Indissolubility Of Marriage, As Affirmed By The Liturgy

By JAMES MONTI Later this year, as you may have already read, a revised edition of the Order of Celebrating Matrimony is going to be promulgated in the United States, featuring notably a new, more accurate translation of the Latin text revised according to the principles of the Holy See’s 2001 instruction Liturgiam Authenticam. Additionally, the revised rite will allow for the first time in English-language celebrations of matrimony, when one or both of the spouses is Hispanic, the introduction of the centuries-old Hispanic custom of the lazo, also called the jugalis, a ribbon or cord, or veil, placed round about or over the two spouses during the wedding ceremony as a symbolic expression of the indissoluble bond that the…Continue Reading

UN Court Rebuffs China’s Claims To South China Sea

July 25, 2016 Featured Today Comments Off on UN Court Rebuffs China’s Claims To South China Sea

By JOHN J. METLZER UNITED NATIONS — In a major legal setback for Beijing, an international tribunal has rejected and rebuffed many of Mainland China’s claims regarding exclusive sovereignty and rights in the disputed South China Sea. The mid-July landmark ruling in The Hague, by the Permanent Court of Arbitration, stated there was no evidence that China had exercised exclusive control over the region’s waters or resources. Whether this significant legal ruling defuses competing political claims or energizes Chinese nationalism toward the region remains unpredictable. The Hague ruling clearly favors the Philippines; the court ruled that China had violated the Philippines’ sovereign rights. Beijing predictably bristled at the judgment which it calls “ill founded.” Xinhua, China’s state news agency, said…Continue Reading

A Book Review . . . Readings And Meditations For Praying The Rosary

July 24, 2016 Featured Today Comments Off on A Book Review . . . Readings And Meditations For Praying The Rosary

By DONAL ANTHONY FOLEY How to Pray the Secret Rosary by Frank M. Rega OFS (CreateSpace, 132 pages, Paperback $11.43, ebook $6.30). Available at amazon.com. This slim paperback from Frank Rega gives guidance on how to pray the rosary when you aren’t necessarily able to pray with rosary beads — if you are doing household chores, for example. It has 15 chapters, and a three-part preface, with the first ten chapters focusing on what the author describes as “Aves” in which he looks at virtues such as humility, faith, and love, as well as the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity. The themes of these chapters are then associated by the author with the ten Hail Marys of each of…Continue Reading