Category Archives: Christianity

There’s been a big brouhaha in conservative Christian circles about the magazine, Christianity Today, which just published an editorial in which the Editor in Chief proclaimed, “Trump Should Be Removed From Office.”

Excerpt: “To the many evangelicals who continue to support Mr. Trump in spite of his blackened moral record, we might say this: Remember who you are and whom you serve. Consider how your justification of Mr. Trump influences your witness to your Lord and Savior. Consider what an unbelieving world will say if you continue to brush off Mr. Trump’s immoral words and behavior in the cause of political expediency. If we don’t reverse course now, will anyone take anything we say about justice and righteousness with any seriousness for decades to come? Can we say with a straight face that abortion is a great evil that cannot be tolerated and, with the same straight face, say that the bent and broken character of our nation’s leader doesn’t really matter in the end?”

If Christians can’t be authentic witnesses to our Lord and Savior while voting for Trump, then we’d have to either not vote (not an option, sorry) or else vote for the Democrat nominee. So let’s look at the top contenders, since surely one of these will be that nominee.

Biden is ahead in all the polls, with Sanders, Warren, and Buttigieg in 2d, 3d, and 4th. Every one of them is in favor of unrestricted, taxpayer funded abortion and an even worse version of Obamacare that would make it impossible for pro-life health care workers to refuse to participate in abortions. Continue reading →

I came across this today and it inspired me to delve deeper into something I’ve heard, but not really looked at closely before. I read some articles, but decided the graphic below summed up the main points they covered better than I could. The sites where I got the quotation and the graphic are linked below.

The job of Medieval monks, “more than anything else, was to focus on divine communication: to read, to pray and sing, and to work to understand God, in order to improve the health of their souls and the souls of the people who supported them. For these monks, the meditating mind wasn’t supposed to be at ease. It was supposed to be energised.

“Their favourite words for describing concentration stemmed from the Latin tenere, to hold tight to something. The ideal was a mens intentus, a mind that was always and actively reaching out to its target. And doing that successfully meant taking the weaknesses of their bodies and brains seriously, and to work hard at making them behave.”

From How to reduce digital distractions: advice from medieval monks by Jamie Kreiner, associate professor of history at the University of Georgia. Bolding by CtH.

Continue reading →

MUST VIEW VIDEO: It’s less than 5 minutes. Find the time.

CHRISTIANS MORE PERSECUTED THAN MUSLIMS: A Pew Research Center report shows that world-wide, Christians experience more persecution than Muslims. Continue reading →

The Paschal Triduum (pronounced PAS-kull TRID-yoo-um) begins on the evening of Holy Thursday when the Church celebrates the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper. After Mass, the Church is stripped of its decorations as a sign of mourning. No candles burn and the Blessed Sacrament is not reposed in the main tabernacle, but in another small chapel. Continue reading →

For centuries, Christians have celebrated Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem by waving branches of either palm or another local tree.

In the U.S. alone, nearly 18,000 Catholic parishes distribute fresh palm branches to the faithful and that doesn’t include all of the Protestant churches that observe the tradition.

The final destination of the palms is to be burned for the ashes used during the following year’s Ash Wednesday services. But where do they come from in the first place?

The work needed to provide palms for Palm Sunday is so immense that it actually constitutes a full-time year-round job for some harvesters. Continue reading →

In a comment on the story about church vandalism, Mindful Webworker mentioned reading up on St. Bernadette at Wikipedia. It reminded me of the lady I know who was miraculously and instantaneously cured in the water. I thought I’d share with y’all today.

My friend had a malignant tumor on her face. It had been removed twice, but had come back a third time. The first two surgeries had been done so skillfully that I had never noticed the scarring until she showed me the edges and then, yeah, it was a little shiny on that patch.

The third was going to disfigure her, but she was a WWII nurse, eminently practical, and not in the least vain, so she just said, “Okay, but I promised my friend I’d go with her to Lourdes, so it’ll have to wait until after the trip.” Continue reading →

I just read an article listing five common mental errors that sway us from making good decisions. Below, I’ve summarized them and added some spiritual ponderings.

Survivorship Bias – We tend to overvalue the strategies, tactics, and advice of successful people, while ignoring the fact that the same strategies, tactics, and advice haven’t brought success for most.

You are a unique creation of God. He knows what’s best for you.

Loss Aversion – We are wired to feel overly protective of the things we own.

All things come from and truly belong only to God. It’s easier to let material things come and go when you seek His will above all.

Availability Heuristic – We tend to overestimate the prevalence and impact of ideas and events that come readily to mind. Continue reading →

Everything was beautiful. The details came out just the way the bride and groom had dreamed they would. Ana Paula Meriguete and Victor Ribeiro got married in the Catholic Church and received the congratulations of their guests at a brief reception afterwards.

But the real celebration was yet to come, and it was not a traditional one: Instead of a typical wedding banquet, the young couple decided to offer a meal for poor children and their families in the coastal city of Guarapari, in the Brazilian state of Espírito Santo. There were 160 guests at the party. Continue reading →

Sir Alec Guinness is one of the most recognizable actors of the 20th century. While he appeared in lots of films over the years and won many awards, he is best known as having played Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars.

What many people don’t know about him, though, is that at the age of 42 he converted to Catholicism – in part because of a miracle. Continue reading →

Please find time somewhere in your day/week/month to watch this wonderful teaching.

The way she talks about first world problems is very funny! [13:30 ff] And too often true. Mama Buzz and I have been having fun the past few months mocking ourselves and our first world problems. It helps us keep our perspectives in godly order to laugh about how stupid most of our daily problems really are in the grand scheme of things.

Also a funny bit beginning at 23:30. She is SO good at inspiring, uplifting AND making me laugh.