Act I: The Lonely Question For Hans Urs von Balthasar, there is no question as important or as lonely as, “Who am I?” It is important because—and this will seem strange at first—it is impossible to answer. Impossible, at least, using all the things and meanings and people around us.
Many are hesitant to accept the orthodox Christian doctrine on which it is possible for someone to abandon God and end up in hell forever. The reason for this resistance is obvious: if God could have a good reason for permitting such a bad thing to happen to anyone, it might
Theological and Pastoral Concerns with the Tridentine Mass Movement In this section, we will outline the concerns that Traditionis Custodes and Desiderio Desideravi attempt to address. It is important to note that while some of the pope’s doctrinal and liturgical criticisms apply to the Tridentine Mass and the movement itself,
Would religious thinkers in times before the Scientific Revolution ever have considered accepting the word of scientists over a plain reading of the Bible? Yes, they would have. And, in fact, they did. St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, and John Calvin all took the words of astronomers over a plain
Near the beginning of Lent each year, it is not uncommon for parishes to print in their bulletins the required penances for the season. Catholics are required to fast and abstain during Lent. By fasting, we mean that we are allowed up to one full meal, and two smaller meals
For centuries since antiquity, many an intermediate Latin student’s experience with Latin prose began with the same sentence: “Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres” [Gaul as a whole is divided into three parts]. This matter-of-fact opening of Julius Caesar’s Commentarii de Bello Gallico, documenting his nearly-decade-long campaigns in Gaul
Varying events in the life of the Church—from the approach of the Synod on Synodality to the “Synodal Way” of the Church in Germany—have once more brought to light the importance of Vatican II’s teaching on the “signs of the times.” Since the Council, the phrase has become shorthand for