Spiritual direction: What is it, who needs it, and why?

Seated in a comfy leather chair in a rust-colored office near downtown Denver, McDowell serenely and thoughtfully explains the “art and science” of her particular trade – and it’s not surprising to learn that she has a background in clinical psychology. Today, McDowell serves not as a psychologist, but as one of many spiritual directors available to Catholics and other Christians through the Lanteri Center for Ignatian Spirituality in Denver, Colorado. The center is a house founded by the Oblates of the Virgin Mary, with the mission of bringing spiritual direction to the “popular level” of parishes and lay people. …

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7 Gifts and 12 Fruits Of The Holy Spirit That Sanctify Us And Make Us Into Other Christs

Everything that we traditional Catholics believe in and do must have only one end; HOLINESS.  The work of the Holy Spirit is to SANCTIFY US and make us into other christs. Prophet Isaias writes about the 7 Gifts of the Holy Spirit. 1) Wisdom.  This enables us to know God and esteem divine things above worldly things. 2) Understanding.  Helps us to understand our Catholic Faith, the Bible and Saints. 3) Counsel.  This is the knowledge necessary to guide ourselves and others to do God’s will.  It helps us help others get through spiritual and temporal problems. 4) Fortitude.  This …

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For Integralism: A Realist’s Case for the Confessional State – Against Integralism: A Thomist’s Case for Limited Government

For Integralism: A Realist’s Case for the Confessional State by Jonathan Culbreath Jonathan Culbreath is a graduate of Thomas Aquinas College, and has studied philosophy at the graduate level at the University of Leuven in Belgium. He is an assistant editor at The Josias, an online manual of Catholic social teaching and Catholic integralism. He lives with his wife and son in Southern California, where he teaches Latin at a small Catholic high school. He tweets @maestrojmc. Catholic integralism holds that the state must confess the Catholic religion. Integralism follows the teaching of Pope Leo XIII (as in his encyclical Immortale Dei) …

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ON VATICAN II NEWS: COMMENTARY

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò is countering suggestions that, through his recent criticism of Vatican II, he is flirting with schism.   In an open letter to Italian journalist Sandro Magister, the Vatican whistleblower reaffirms the need to highlight unresolved problems stemming from the Second Vatican Council and warns that “conspirators” have capitalized on the 1962–65 gathering to “demolish the Church from within.” 3 July 2020Saint Irenaeus, Bishop and Martyr Dear Mr. Magister, Permit me to reply to your article “Archbishop Viganò on the Brink of Schism,” published at Settimo Cielo on June 29. I am aware that having dared to express an opinion strongly critical of the …

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Wojtyla’s Athenian catechesis: An antidote to the culture of veriphobia

About Eduardo Echeverria 25 ArticlesEduardo Echeverria is Professor of Philosophy and Systematic Theology at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit. He earned his doctorate in philosophy from the Free University in Amsterdam and his S.T.L. from the University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome. A review of Archbishop Karol Wojtyla’s newly discovered and published 1965 reflections on St. Paul’s discourse at the Areopagus, titled Teachings for an Unbelieving World. Archbishop Karol Wojtyla’s newly discovered 1965 reflections on St. Paul’s discourse at the Areopagus (Acts 17: 16-32), Mars Hill, is the starting point for Wojtyla’s cycle of catecheses in this book, Teachings for an …

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The Dangers of Proliferating Communion Service

Fr. Jerry Pokorsky is a priest of the Diocese of Arlington who has also served as a financial administrator in the Diocese of Lincoln. Trained in business and accounting, he also holds a Master of Divinity and a Master’s in moral theology. Father Pokorsky co-founded both CREDO and Adoremus, two organizations deeply engaged in authentic liturgical renewal. He writes regularly for a number of Catholic websites and magazines. The cancellation of the public celebration of the Mass in dioceses across the US and the world—beginning in Rome—has established dangerous precedents. In addition to the breathtaking surrender to secular authorities with no …

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10 Things You Need to Know About Holy Thursday

Holy Thursday was one of the most important days in all of history. It was a pivotal day in the life of Jesus Christ. Here are 10 things you should know about it and how we celebrate it today – Jimmy Akin Every single Mass, we hear the words “on the night he was betrayed.” That night was Holy Thursday, and it is one of the most important nights in all of history. Here are 10 things you need to know. 1. What happened on the original Holy Thursday? An amazing amount of stuff! This was one of the most …

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POPE FRANCIS STRIPS GOD’S WRATH FROM MASS FOR PANDEMIC

by Jules Gomes  •  ChurchMilitant.com  •  April 2, 2020 Catholics mock new liturgy as ‘April Fools’ joke’ You are not signed in as a Premium user; we rely on Premium users to support our news reporting. Sign in or Sign up today! VATICAN CITY – The new “Mass in Time of Pandemic,” published on April 1 by the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship, has been stripped of all references to the “wrath of God.” The liturgy, approved by Pope Francis, eliminates all prayers emphasizing “repentance” — references which abound in the “Recordare domine testamenti” [Remember, Lord, thy covenant] votive Mass — composed and used for deliverance from pestilences since the Black …

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Doubling down on a bad deal

Perseverance on a difficult but noble path is a virtue. Stubbornness when confronted by irrefutable evidence of a grave mistake is a vice. The latter would seem an apt characterization of a letter sent on Ash Wednesday to the entire College of Cardinals by its new Dean, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re. In that letter — his first official act as Dean — Cardinal Re reprimands the redoubtable Cardinal Joseph Zen, SDB, emeritus bishop of Hong Kong, for his criticisms of the agreement the Vatican made with the People’s Republic of China in 2018. The bloom is off the Chinese rose …

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“Wittenberg” in synodal slow motion

George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of Washington’s Ethics and Public Policy Center, where he holds the William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies. He is the author of over twenty books. The gears of a vast, well-funded ecclesiastical bureaucracy are grinding away toward outcomes that seem baked into the process from its inception. As Yale’s Carlos Eire masterfully demonstrated in Reformations: The Early Modern World, 1450-1650, there was no one “Protestant Reformation” but rather several religious movements, often in disagreement with each other, that shattered western Christendom in the 16th century. Still, Martin Luther’s protest at Wittenberg on October 31, 1517, …

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