THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent, March 11th, 2015
Liturgical texts here
Courtesy Universal Studios
LIKE watching a train wreck in slow-motion, so it is watching the death of logic in our times (and I’m not speaking of Spock).
THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for December 16th, 2013
Liturgical texts here
Christ in the Temple, by Heinrich Hoffman
WHAT would you think if I could tell you who the President of the United States will be five hundred years from now, including what signs will precede his birth, where he will be born, what his name will be, what family line he will descend from, how he will be betrayed by a member of his cabinet, for what price, how he will be tortured, the method of execution, what those around him will say, and even with whom he will be buried. The odds of getting every single one of these projections right are astronomical.
THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for December 13th, 2013
Memorial of St. Lucy
Liturgical texts here
SOMETIMES I find the comments beneath a news story as interesting as the story itself—they are a bit like a barometer indicating the advance of the Great Storm in our times (though weeding through the foul language, vile responses, and incivility is exhausting).
IN a recent letter exchange, an atheist said to me,
If sufficient evidence was shown to me, I would start witnessing for Jesus tomorrow. I don’t know what that evidence would be, but I’m sure an all-powerful, all-knowing deity such as Yahweh would know what it would take to get me to believe. So that means Yahweh must not want me to believe (at least at this time), otherwise Yahweh could show me the evidence.
Is it that God does not want this atheist to believe at this time, or is it that this atheist is not prepared to believe in God? That is, is he applying the principles of the “scientific method” to the Creator Himself?Continue reading
I have spent several weeks dialoguing with an atheist. There’s perhaps no better exercise to build one’s faith. The reason being is that irrationality is a sign itself of the supernatural, for confusion and spiritual blindness are hallmarks of the prince of darkness. There are some mysteries the atheist cannot solve, questions he cannot answer, and some aspects of human life and the origins of the universe that cannot be explained by science alone. But this he will deny by either ignoring the subject, minimizing the question at hand, or ignoring scientists who refute his position and only quoting those who do. He leaves many painful ironies in the wake of his “reasoning.”