Superheroes: Overcoming trauma, and Self-sacrifice
All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy. That’s how far the world is from where I am. Just one bad day. You had a bad day once. Am I right? I know I am. I can tell. You had a bad day and everything changed. Why else […]
When You Give, God Gives More
By guest writer Tasman Westbury. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. – Luke 6:30 If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one […]
Listen and Ask Before You Give
Lawyers are taught to listen carefully to what our clients say and to ask questions, because a client might think that one issue presents the right course of action to take in court, but in reality a detail that may seem incidental to them could present a stronger case with a different line of argument. […]
Michael’s Conversion: Finding God Through Darkness
By guest writer Michael Goo. As a typical Singaporean Chinese, I was raised with a mixture of Buddhism and Taoism. I came to know and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ when I was very young and studying in the Canossian School for the Hearing Impaired. After graduation, I enrolled into Montfort Secondary School’s Express […]
The Church Embraces All People: Thoughts on the Beatification of Fr. Stanley Rother
“They must be going to the beatification!” I yelped happily, as I pointed towards a well-dressed group of people walking down the sidewalk. It was early in the morning on Saturday, September 23rd, and I could not contain my excitement. Several minutes later, I found myself also walking down the sidewalks of downtown Oklahoma City. […]
Sacramentals: holy gifts
The lady on the bus Since watching Touch, my boyfriend has had a habit of reading number plates and, now that he’s Catholic, relating them to the faith. One day he was riding a bus when he noticed “MAS” on a car, and chuckled to himself, seeing it as a reminder to go to Mass. […]
Confession: Growing in Relationship with God
As we sat in the confession queue one Saturday afternoon at the Cathedral, my (newly-minted Catholic) boyfriend remarked to a friend: “I’ve never seen a church with a section where everyone’s sitting together and we all know we’ve screwed up in one way or another.” Indeed, the sacrament of Confession is an incredible gift. As […]
Why We Shouldn’t “Gloss Over” Marian Devotion
I’ve always enjoyed learning about epic stories of martyrdom. Even as a young child of 8 or 9 years old, I would read, in awe (and a little bit of shock) about the ways in which holy men and women across the centuries have lived and died as witnesses of God’s love and mercy. In […]
Fatherhood and Redemption in “Pirates of the Caribbean 5”
[Caution: spoilers ahead] Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales is a moving paean to fatherhood. The entire movie centers around Henry Turner’s quest to release his father Will from a curse damning him to eternal servitude on The Flying Dutchman. The movie opens with 12-year-old Henry locating the sunken ship which holds […]
A Vicarious Grief Observed
On the recent Feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord, my priest-uncle-spiritual-director, Father Jim, suddenly lost his brother Allan. Father Jim was abroad teaching a short course in Canon Law when Uncle Allan had a massive myocardiac infarction. I have never met Uncle Allan, since he lived far from Metro Manila. But Father Jim said […]
‘Apologetics and the Christian Imagination’ — A Richer, Deeper approach in connecting Souls With The Faith.
Are stories important for humanity? Is telling a story through books, movies, or the extemporaneous tales of mom and dad delivered to the children at bedtime simply an insignificant means of mere entertainment? In her book Apologetics and the Christian Imagination, Dr. Holly Ordway shows us that in truth stories are powerful tools of conveying […]
Review of “Christian Dating Simplified”
Aaron K. Torch’s Christian Dating Simplified: A Short, Practical Guide to the only Four Questions You Need to Ask is an enjoyable read, weaving scriptural exegesis and personal experience into a compelling analysis of how to date in a holy and healthy manner. As a Catholic who has studied scriptural theology, I have quibbles with […]
