Names of God in the Catholic Mass

It is instructive to consider the various names of God used in the Catholic Mass. The list below comes from the regular Order of the Mass, variable Eucharistic Prayers I — IV, and variable Eucharistic Prayers for Masses of Reconciliation I — II, as shown on the web pages of Felix Just S. J. .
God
One [...]

G. K. Chesterton – On those who criticize Christianity too harshly

“Methinks you do protest too much”, said Hamlet.
The harhsness with which some people criticize Christianity is revealing. G. K. Chesterton puts it very well in introduction to The Everlasting Man.
The point of this book, in other words, is that the next best thing to being really inside Christendom is to be really outside it. [...]

Evagrius Ponticus and the ‘Wanderer’ Demon

The Wanderer Demon
Evagrius Ponticus is an important but (in Latin Catholicism) under-appreciated Church Father. An astute psychologist, Evagrius analyzed in exacting detail the cognitive psychology of religious life. One major legacy is his formalization of the idea of the seven deadly sins. This is a more sophisticated concept than people often realize; his purpose was [...]

The Gnosis of St Thérèse de Lisieux

The Gnosis of St Thérèse de Lisieux
For October 1 2008
Summary: One can view St Thérèse de Lisieux as a gnostic — and, in a manner of speaking, an ‘alchemist’. A true alchemist seeks not gold, but happiness, and love is the key to true happiness.
Today the Roman Catholic Church is privileged to commemorate the [...]

St Columbanus

Reading From the Rule of St Columbanus
Perpetual light in the temple of the eternal High Priest
How happy, how lucky are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes! How blessed it is to be wakeful and watching for God, who created all things, who fills them with being and exceeds all of [...]

Why Catholicism for Europe: Reason 2

2. Philosophical and psychological depth
Today many people equate Christianity with simple-mindedness. Another group — fundamentalists — naively insist on a strictly literal interpretation of the Bible.
The truth is that Christianity encompasses an extremely sophisticated system of religious, philosophical, and psychological thought. This system, though based on ideas present in Scripture, required several [...]

10 Reasons Why Europeans Should Rediscover Their Catholicism

Today many people in Europe and the United States have rejected or view with little interest their own Christian traditions.  Since people naturally seek deeper meaning in life, this leads many to turn instead to Eastern religions — to Buddhism and the religions of India, for example — for spiritual answers.
There is certainly nothing wrong [...]