Category: news

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A few updates

So. COVID. Not fun. I don’t recommend getting COVID. I do recommend getting the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. They have a few ethical issues, but these are mitigated in many ways. For a really great write-up on the vaccines regarding their moral & ethical considerations, The Pillar has an excellent article on exactly that: The ultimate Catholic coronavirus vaccine morality explainer

I finally have gotten caught up on the homily podcast. I haven’t posted the videos of my homilies on YouTube yet, but plan to work on that next.

If you’re wondering why I’m not posting the text of my homilies, it is because there isn’t a text to post. While I have been preparing my homilies over the last few weeks, various circumstances have prevented me from preparing a manuscript.

Since I haven’t posted a homily in a while, here are some updates on what’s been going on.

The remains of Servant of God Fr. Emil Kapaun have been identified. This is amazing news. It was announced by Sen. Jerry Moran last week.

The Diocese of Wichita’s article about it can be found by clicking here. For Fr. Kapaun’s story and information about his cause for canonization, check out http://www.frkapaun.org/

Finally, Pope Francis is in Iraq right now, and he is doing some amazing things. All of his speeches and his travels can be found on the Vatican website: http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/travels/2021/outside/documents/papa-francesco-iraq-2021.html

While I haven’t fully read his homily at St. Joseph’s Chaldean Cathedral in Baghdad (the Chaldean Church is one of the many Eastern Churches in union with the Holy Father), I will be doing so later. He ends this homily with these moving words

Today I thank God with you and for you, because here, where wisdom arose in ancient times, so many witnesses have arisen in our own time, often overlooked by the news, yet precious in God’s eyes. Witnesses who, by living the Beatitudes, are helping God to fulfill his promises of peace.

I normally wouldn’t post so many tweets here, but that seems to be where to find the most recent news on his historic trip.

Perhaps most impactful is that Pope Francis visited Mosul, where the Islamic caliphate was declared who swore to conquer Rome. Today, we see that the wisdom of God has won out.

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Quarantine Lecture Series from the Thomistic Institute

I listen to many podcasts. The Thomistic Institute, run by the Pontifical Faculty at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C., puts many very good excellent lectures online. They recently posted one called “Grace and Anxiety: Spiritual Growth in a Time of Turmoil”. I would highly recommend listening to it. I found it to be a very re-assuring talk for what’s going on in the world right now. Here are, approximately, 50 different ways you can access it:

While putting this post together, I found out that this and another (excellent) talk I was listening to this morning are part of a Quarantine Lecture series that the Thomistic Institute is putting online, which you can find here: https://thomisticinstitute.org/quarantine-lectures.

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Urbi et Orbi Blessing Today & Interesting Reading

The Pope gave an extraordinary Urbi et Orbi (To the City and the World) blessing today. As part of this hour of prayer, Pope Francis preached a wonderful homily. The text of it is available on the Vatican’s website. Click here to read it.

Vatican News has a video with English commentary, which I have included here:

L’Annonciation (The Annunciation) by Philippe de Champaigne, 1644.

In other news, I recently stumbled on an interesting little article by Philip Kosloski about the development of the Hail Mary prayer. The first half of the prayer is quite ancient; however, the second half seems to have developed during the dark times of the Black Death. If that is the case, than we should not hesitate to pray to Mary to ask for relief from this plague!
Click here to read the article on Aleteia.