Madonna and Child with the Young St. John the Baptist, Sandro Botticelli, circa 1468 Ugliness is a spiritual problem. If beauty manifests the perfection and splendor of something, ugliness distorts it, corrupting what it is meant to be and blinding us to its true reality. A tree struck by lightning or blighted with disease is ugly. A building sculpted with cement, with little light or elegance, depresses us. The ugliness of most modern art disturbs us and does not uplift our

File photo by James Baca By Father Brian Kolodiejchuk, MC Father Brian Kolodiejchuk, MC was the postulator of the Cause of Beatification and Canonization of Mother Teresa of Calcutta and serves as director of the Mother Teresa Center in Rome. The Mother Teresa Center was founded in 2004 by the Missionaries of Charity religious family after her beatification. Its primary aim is to preserve the legacy of Mother Teresa by collecting and disseminating her written and spoken words

One of the famous episodes in the Old Testament is the wandering of Israel in the wilderness. The descendants of Abraham, whom God...

“I am with you always” (Mt 28:20). Quoting Jesus at the Ascension from the Gospel of Matthew, Pope Francis shared these words when he...

(Photo: Adobe Stock) For my last day of elementary school, my entire class went to Chuck E. Cheese for a pizza party. I remember saving...

Who is God? And how does his identity impact my life? These are big questions that most of us don’t think about often, if at all. But the...

Part of the tradition of the Catholic Church is meditation on “Fear of the Lord” as a gift of the Holy Spirit, based Isaiah 11:1-3 and Jesus’ fulfillment of its prophecy. Since fear has damaged so many of our human relationships, this part of our tradition can strike people as odd. How can it make sense to cultivate any kind of “fear” in our relationship with the Lord? It might be helpful to reflect on our own natural development to understand what the Church means by the s

family, childhood and fatherhood concept - happy father and little son playing and having fun outdoors over autumn park background...

VIENNA - JULY 27: Holy Trinity. Detail from fresco of scene from apocalypse from 19. cent. in main apse of Altlerchenfelder church on July 27, 2013 Vienna. By Elizabeth Klein Assistant Professor of Theology at the Augustine Institute If you are a lifelong Catholic or if you have taken theology classes at some point in your life, you are probably familiar with what the Church teaches about God: that God is Trinity, one God in three persons. You have likely made the Sign of the

In the Old Testament, God’s people of Israel knew of God as father, but only in a general sense. For instance, since God is creator of...

An image of a burning thorn bush christian symbol Even when Thomas Aquinas was young, he was known often to ask, “who is God?” As he grew into one of the Church’s greatest theologians, he realized that it was much easier to explain who God is not. This might be a good place to begin today as well. God is not just a more powerful being within the universe. He is not like Zeus, a human-like being with superpowers, bossing and bullying other creatures around. He is not an old ma

Today, many of us often hear the phrase that one “finds God in nature.” While something in that near cliché phrase rings true with me, my experience has shown me that this “finding” is quite a bit more challenging than it appears at first glance. The idea that one simply “finds” God in nature, perhaps like a friend waiting patiently on a park bench, seems to strike a dissonant chord with my own experience. There is evidence to support my intuition. Many people outside of the

(Photo: Adobe Stock) On the morning of August 10, 1628, the Swedish warship Vasa set sail from its harbor in the port of Stockholm. Built...

Writing on the quincentennial of the Reformation and its parallels with emerging problems in the 21st-century German Church t hree years ago , Charles Chaput, then the archbishop of Philadelphia, noted that: “Being human, bishops often disagree. Internal differences are common in any episcopal conference, and they’re handled—no surprise—internally. But two things set the German situation apart: the global prominence of the [German intercommunion] controversy and the doctrina

Detail of high altar by Sieger Koder in St. Joseph's Church in Bad Urach, Germany There are two people who could best provide a...

By Dr. Alan Fimister Assistant Professor at St. John Vianney Theological Seminary At the Last Supper, Our Lord told his disciples, “Amen, amen I say to you, he that believeth in me, the works that I do, he also shall do; and greater than these shall he do,” ¹ and this prophecy has been vindicated in the many marvels that have filled the lives of the saints throughout the history of his Church from that day to this. In one respect, however, no member of his mystical body has

“Truly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” There is power in words, and especially so in the words of Christ. While...

The Christ on a background of the sky ,3d render (Photo: Adobe Stock) The crucified Christ is both the most popular and powerful image in...

The Tower of Babel by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, c. 1563. (Photo: Public Domain/Wikimedia Commons) While not all may know about the story...

COL; (c) City of London Corporation; Supplied by The Public Catalogue Foundation (Painting: Briton Rivière, The Temptation in the...