Friday, May 25, 2018024This year, on May 21, we celebrated a new feast, the “Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church.” About three months ago, Pope Francis decreed that this feast, which since its creation in 1975 had been only a votive mass, should be celebrated by the whole Church every year on the Monday after Pentecost.
Sunday, April 29, 2018023One of my favorite musicians, Audrey Assad, once suggested we should be praying “with” the martyrs and not just “for” them. In this way, she introduced a very beautiful song, “Even Unto Death,” which was inspired by the execution of 21 Coptic Christians in Libya in February, 2015. She says she wrote it “to adopt the prayers...
Saturday, March 31, 2018016Lent is almost over, and many of us are already evaluating our Lenten resolutions. How did you do? Did you keep your resolutions? Let me suggest a few things to keep in mind as we reflect on our resolutions.
Tuesday, February 6, 2018033
By Father John Bayer
Special to The Texas Catholic
A thorny theological problem that occupies many people is the relationship between divine grace and human freedom. Nothing happens apart from the will of God, who creates and governs all things. And yet, we are still free to choose whether to go left or right every time we stand...
Monday, November 27, 2017041Christ commands us to love with “all” our heart, soul and mind (Mt 22:34-40). But what does that look like? To speak about “all” a heart is to speak about a “pure” heart: a simple, whole and straightforward heart, free from anything extraneous. When we love purely, we are unified by a single love.
Thursday, October 19, 2017070Confession is a great gift of Catholic spirituality. Thankfully, we enjoy it at every Mass; and, hopefully, we enjoy it sacramentally at least once a year. Catholic faith has always insisted upon freedom and so upon the need to examine our conscience and to accept responsibility for our lives. Anyone who follows Pope Francis knows that...
Thursday, October 5, 2017032A story. Some time ago I had lunch with a black friend in a major city. I asked him what it was like when he first met the couple that informally adopted him by mentoring him after he aged out of foster care. He said something like, “During the first six months I was suspicious, because I had been burned many times before, but then I...
Friday, June 30, 2017022
By Father John Bayer
Special to The Texas Catholic
Pentecost, which we celebrated last Sunday, commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Mary and the Apostles (Acts 2:1-47). Shortly before Jesus suffered, died and rose again, he promised an advocate, teacher and counselor to his budding church – the Holy Spirit (John...
Wednesday, May 10, 2017050I am convinced Catholics have an important gift to give to the world through the “social teaching” developing in the Church since Rerum Novarum in 1891. But even though all the popes between Leo XIII and Francis have put the economic, political and social impact of the Gospel at the forefront of their agendas, the world is still...
Thursday, September 8, 2016023Catholics emerged in the late 19th and early 20th century as a voting bloc united in defense of the poor and immigrant classes and against certain social changes: basically in support of the old Democratic party. This unity disappeared in the second half of the 20th century. According to the statistics, today a Catholic is as likely as...
