Ever since Thomas Kuhn popularized it with his 1962 book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, the notion of a “paradigm shift” has led to fascinating arguments about whether this or that break with previous scientific understanding counted as one. But that a “paradigm shift”—like the “shift” from Sir Isaac Newton’s cosmology to Albert Einstein’s, or the shift from the miasma theory of disease to the germ theory of disease—is a rupture in continuity is not in much dispute. A “paradigm shift” signals a dramatic, sudden, and unexpected break in human understanding—and thus something of a new beginning. So, are there …
Author: Manuel Xavier
The Bad News About the Good News
The Bad News about the Good News We know from Greek, Latin, and Old English sources, that the word Gospel, means “good news.” It is, indeed, good news, for Gospel refers to the teaching and revelation of Christ. St. Paul says (in the Good News Bible translation): “I reckon my own life to be worth nothing to me; I only want . . . to declare the Good News about the grace of God.” (Acts 20:24) In many liturgies and homilies these days, we seem to be thoroughly marinated in good news. Masses are happy, homilies are happy, Church music …
The Art of Home Visitation
THE ART OF HOME VISITATION A successful Praesidium By William M. Thompson, Jr. The art of home visitation pertains to all the many times that you and I as legionaries have occasion to go to a private home i.e., Auxiliary call, sick or condolence call, a specific case call as a fallen-away/marriage validation or simply on a house to house basis. It is this last category that I would like to explore first. Many times we are asked for a specific approach that maybe memorized and used by all legionaries. Actually, the making of an approach at a home is …
The Apostolic Secession
The Apostolic Secession An axiom in the legal profession is that a lawyer should never ask a question in court to which he doesn’t already know the answer. Getting an answer, you don’t want can be embarrassing and may even harm your case. Pope Francis has asked young people to write to him with their concerns. This is part of the lead up to October’s synod: Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment. Reading that text, you may be surprised that every papal document cited is by Pope Francis. No Paul VI, no John Paul II, no Benedict XVI? This …
The Apostasy of Our Times
The Apostasy of Our Times Fr. Timothy V. Vaverek, STD has been a priest of the Diocese of Austin since 1985 and is currently pastor of parishes in Gatesville and Hamilton. His doctoral studies were in Dogmatics with a focus on Ecclesiology, Apostolic Ministry, Newman, and Ecumenism. For over fifty years, there has been a relentless campaign to reinterpret the Gospel in order to remove the Cross from Christian life. This has been done in the name of love, mercy, and realism – but it is none of these. It is a denial of God’s love manifest in the suffering …
The Angelus
The Angelus The Angel of the Lord declared to Mary: And she conceived of the Holy Spirit. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Behold the handmaid of the Lord: Be it done unto me according to Thy word. Hail Mary . . . And the Word was made Flesh: And dwelt among us. (genuflect) Hail Mary . . . Pray for us, O Holy …
Talk About Silence
Talk about silence We’ve heard that Cardinal Sarah in town, speaking after Vespers in the Cathedral, and at St Augustine’s Seminary. It was hard to get in, even to the Cathedral — long waiting lists for the tickets — but I was able to pose as another man’s wife. (She had to drop out at the last minute.) Saint Michael’s, here in Greater Parkdale, isn’t very large. When a certain Cardinal Ratzinger came, some thirty-two years ago, the churchwardens had the good sense to rent a hockey arena. We underestimate the star power of these quiet, undemonstrative clerics. Indeed, considered …
Stephen Hawking, John Lennon and Atheism’s Fear of Eternity
Stephen Hawking appears during the 2006 press conference at the National Library of France to inaugurate the Laboratory of Astronomy and Particles in Paris. (via Wikimedia Commons) There is no annihilation for our everlasting souls; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the light. John Clark In the recent book, God or Nothing, Robert Cardinal Sarah makes a comment that seems parenthetical to the rest of the work, but is nevertheless fascinating: “A Godless society, which considers any spiritual questions a dead letter, masks the emptiness of its materialism by killing time so as better to forget eternity.” …