It is faith (trust) that affirms that the light, the ultimate truth, is perfect love. (That’s because there is only one God, and He is both.) Therefore faith is the key to this absolute love of truth.
Humans are the lowest (least intelligent) of spirits and the highest (most intelligent) of animals. We are rational animals, incarnate minds, the smartest of animals and the stupidest of spirits:
He said He was God, in many ways and at many times in the Gospels. If this was not true, that would make Him either an insane fool, if He believed it, or a blasphemous liar, if He didn’t. His miracles...
Christians are good citizens, and take human laws very seriously, for religious reasons, not just for secular reasons. That’s why they are better citizens than atheists, and certainly better citizens...
Catholics have seldom had the difficulties and embarrassments many Protestants have had about creation vs. evolution. Ever since Augustine, they have interpreted Genesis‘ days non-literally.
But we can influence (not compel) each other’s choices through the mediating channels of imagination and emotion. So can angels. They can’t put judgments in your mind or choices in your will, but they...
But if scandal arise from truth, the scandal should be borne rather than the truth be set aside,
Between 50 and 75% of entering freshmen at large Catholic universities typically identify themselves as believing and practicing Catholics. Only 25-50% of graduating seniors do the same.
Because is ambiguous. It could mean only a subjective motive (Because I’m paranoid, I believe that man is going to kill me), or it could mean an objective reason (Because he’s pointing a gun at me and...
Sacramentally present at Mass—this Church is either God ‘s own or it is the devil’s own.
Therefore the prayers we offer in the Mass for the world are far more powerful than the prayers we offer outside the Mass, even if the prayers we offer outside the Mass are the same prayers, and even...
Therefore if we lack the feeling of repentance but nevertheless want to repent; if we choose repentance with the will; we are then repenting, since repentance is that choice of the will.
The person who is committing the sin of sloth may be doing nothing visible that is wrong. Yet he is rejecting the presence of God, refusing the joy of love.
So nothing can be ours by right, by nature, or by necessity. But one thing is mine by my free choice: the self I give away in love. This is the thing even God cannot do for me. It really is my choice....
Every human soul craves the good, the true, and the beautiful absolutely and without limit. And it is precisely about these three most fundamental values that the gap is the widest. Ordinary people st...
Each practical moral virtue has two opposed vices, a too much and a too little (e.g., cowardice and foolhardiness, or insensitivity and self-indulgence). Theoretical truth also usually contrasts with...
Now in giving honor to one’s parents or to the gods, as indeed the Philosopher says, it is impossible to repay them measure for measure; but it suffices that man repay as much as he can, for friendshi...
Dulia is like a high but finite number; hyperdulia is like the highest number out of a finite number of finite numbers; latria is like infinity.