De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

My life is far from perfect, I have many issues, struggles, and challenges that I deal with every day, as do all of us. In today's society, mediated & transmitted to us as it is by Facebook and Twitter, I think it can often seem that everyone else has all the fun, that everyone else's life is perfect. This can lead you to think that you are the only one struggling. This is not true. everyone struggles. This morning, as regularly happens in my life, I found myself in conversation with someone, face to face, about the troubles in their life. There are lots of petty troubles in this persons life which seem to be fairly obviously about a lack of spiritual depth, but he just does not get that. He regularly asserts his general affinity with Catholicism, but states that a lot of it is rubbish. When I ask him what bits he is referring to, he demurs to answer, usually saying something like "Let's not get into that!" Why does this chap always, always , want to ...

As we begin the Synod on the Family, my thoughts are largely focused in that direction. We must pray for the work of the Synod, and to that end, I implore all Catholics serious about the faith to subscribe to the Voice of the Family website . They are soon to begin distributing news and information which you will find invaluable. Simply add you email address in the box provided on their website here . Meanwhile, Thomas Joseph White, O.P., the director of the Thomistic Institute at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C, has written this excellent article published on First Things . In it, he explains how the Sacrament of marriage is grounded in the twin principles of nature and grace. He looks at the issues to be discussed at the Synod and Pope Benedict XVI's idea that many Catholic marriages may be invalid through lack of faith, suggesting that "a radically “anti-modern” theology that claims that “only intentional Christians can truly get married integrally” i...

A friend has asked me to spread the word about this great opportunity. From June 16-29th, the St. Albert the Great Center for Scholastic Studies will hold a summer session in Norcia. In partnership with the Monasterro San Benedetto, this will be the third year they have held the Summer Institute. The St. Albert the Great Center is dedicated to the revival of higher studies in theology undertaken according to the mind and method of the great scholastics, and in particular the work of St. Thomas Aquinas. This summer's program is focusing on St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans. With the sacred text as our primary source, we will also follow along the interpretive tradition of the Church by reading commentaries of the Fathers and in particular St. Thomas's commentary on the epistle. In many ways, the epistle is already an early synthesis of the Faith that the Evangelists witness to, and it offers us the opportunity to explore in depth many theological questions suc...

No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path. One that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass... then you see it! White shores... and beyond. A far green country, under a swift sunrise. (Gandalf the White to Pippin in The Return of the King). Losing a child is an impossible blow. When I lost my precious, precious daughter Ruth in July 2009, I called out to God in utter anguish. His response was immediate and overwhelming, to the extent that we were left in no doubt that He well knew what was going to happen and had put in motion hundreds of tiny events that would allow my wife, family, and I to, somehow, cope with the devastation. I have often thought that I should have documented these things. Some where tiny coincidences some huge miracles. One was that I was in my third year of a five year degree in theology. Just at the time all this happened, I was studying Moral Theology, the source of ...