The Temptation to be Normal

Alone in a Crowd 

 

I have been flooded with emails the past two weeks, and will do my best to respond to them. Of note is that many of you are experiencing an increase in spiritual attacks and trials the likes of never before. This does not surprise me; it is why I felt the Lord urging me to share my trials with you, to confirm and strengthen you and remind you that you are not alone. Furthermore, these intense trials are a very good sign. Remember, towards the end of World War II, that’s when the most fierce fighting took place, when Hitler became the most desperate (and despicable) in his warfare.

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The Death of Logic

THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent, March 11th, 2015

Liturgical texts here

spock-original-series-star-trek_Fotor_000.jpgCourtesy 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).

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Servants of the Truth

THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for Wednesday of the Second Week of Lent, March 4th, 2015

Liturgical texts here

Ecce HomoEcce Homo, by Michael D. O’Brien

 

JESUS was not crucified for His charity. He was not scourged for healing paralytics, opening the eyes of the blind, or raising the dead. So too, rarely will you find Christians being sidelined for building a women’s shelter, feeding the poor, or visiting the sick. Rather, Christ and His body, the Church, were and are persecuted essentially for proclaiming the truth.

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Catholic Fundamentalist?

 

FROM a reader:

I have been reading your “deluge of false prophets” series, and to tell you the truth, I am a little concerned. Let me explain… I am a recent convert to the Church. I was once a fundamentalist Protestant Pastor of the “meanest kind”—I was a bigot! Then someone gave me a book by Pope John Paul II— and I fell in love with this man’s writing. I resigned as Pastor in 1995 and in 2005 I came into the Church. I went to Franciscan University (Steubenville) and got a Masters in Theology.

But as I read your blog—I saw something I did not like—an image of myself 15 years ago. I am wondering, because I swore when I left Fundamentalist Protestantism that I would not substitute one fundamentalism for another. My thoughts: be careful you do not become so negative that you lose sight of the mission.

Is it possible that there is such an entity as “Fundamentalist Catholic?” I worry about the heteronomic element in your message.

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