News - June 2021 RSS Feed

It’s curious fact that modern science, including both research and clinical interventions, is revealing more and more about the importance of spirituality — which is not going away because some earlier thinkers like Freud disapproved of it or disbelieved in it.

By Christ’s mandate, it is not only the Church’s right, but her duty to see that her teachings and laws are heeded. That includes the teachings people do not want to hear – moral teachings concerning human sexuality included – and the sacramental laws that abortion-enabling politicians such as Speaker Pelosi think they can disregard. The Church’s primary method of teaching is through Sunday homilies and formal instruction of the young, of catechumens, and of those seeking sacraments. For very grave matters, the Church can enforce her law through excommunication. The intention in doing so is to help the guilty realize the gravity of their sins and the need for repentance.

As Catholic fathers, we are similarly entrusted by God to be the humble, obedient and self-sacrificing spiritual leaders of our families. St. Joseph’s example inspires us to practice heroic generosity and love in caring for our wives and children. We protect our families through countless acts that will often go unnoticed and unrecognized. These small, selfless acts allow the Holy Spirit to work and can influence our families in ways we don’t often recognize.

Kelly proclaimed that the Knights must also serve Jesus as the truth. Noting the difficulty of serving the truth in the modern era, Kelly called the present a “time of bigotry and intolerance.” “Key truths — truths about marriage, about life in the womb, about the nature of the family and the meaning of freedom — are often denied and even vilified,” he said. “Yet, this makes our commitment to truth all the more important.”

Excerpts: "• Fathers, your kids don’t need you as a friend. They need you as a father. Expect their respect. Discipline them in charity and justice. • If you have kids in public schools and are oblivious to the family-life education program, you are bad parents. Never allow that brood of vipers to corrupt your kids. Begin by making principals cringe at the sound of your voice. • Speaking of broods of vipers, do not allow Catholic authorities who dissent from the Church’s teaching on human sexuality to ruin your life. They risk the fires of Hell and threaten to take you with them."

"Politics first and foremost is merely a process. It’s a way to do things. It cannot give us the purpose of life. Our political views don’t make us human so they shouldn’t be the basis of determining who we are willing to “do life with” or are willing to forgive, or willing to learn from, or are willing to love. Having the right politics isn’t the fullness of our calling as followers of Jesus any more than having the wrong politics is eternal condemnation."

"A wise mentor once pointed out how differently Proverbs describes seekers — those pursuing the truth and willing to reckon with it when they find it — and mockers – those who are cynical truth even exists and are committed to their skepticism even if truth hit them between the eyes."

If we could sum up the goal of Shore Catholics, it would be to bring the men of our community back into communion and relationship with the Eucharist and the Sacramental life of the church.

Now, such criticism could be true, if the Church’s doctrines were merely antiquated rubrics that have long since lost their utility and efficacy. We must ask, however: Which dogmas are dead letters or no longer life-giving? When these questions are properly addressed, we find that what the Church has dogmatically taught over the centuries is at the very heart of the Gospel. Church doctrines are not unwarranted “add-ons,” but are contained within Sacred Scripture and the living ecclesial tradition.

Without the continuing “real presence” of the Body of Christ – in the Church, the Eucharist, and the other sacraments – we are merely remembering some event that happened centuries ago but is no longer present to us now. Yet the Catholic faith has always held that Christ lives and is as present to us as He was to the apostles – as present to us as He was to St. Paul. We are not transformed merely by remembering something past; we are transformed by encountering something eternally present.

Our son got married during the pandemic. It was clear that the world was quickly shutting down and their May 2nd 2020 nuptials would not be taking place. Their priest invited them to come to the Basilica (in Alexandria) the next night and he would marry them. We, and our other children, watched by live stream. It was beautiful and moving. The homily focused on what we were witnessing: what was essential. It may not have been the storybook affair they had envisioned, but they celebrated what was essential.

In reflecting on the joy of the Gospel that inspired St. Philip Neri’s denial of self, it is ironic that today, in a more materially advanced and opulent society than any that has come before it, the plagues of loneliness, depression, and rage devastate our families and communities. A yearning for relationship and belonging leads millions of souls down the path of error in search of angry false gods and utopian ideals in the hopes they will mend our fractured world. Millions more, overwhelmed by fear at the trajectory of the culture, allow their God-given gifts to be squandered when they are paralyzed with hopelessness at the storm clouds of depravity building around us.