Sunday, October 3, 20210134By Father Thomas Esposito
Special to The Texas Catholic
Near the end of his letter to the Colossians, St. Paul includes a greeting from his fellow disciple Epaphras, “a slave of Christ Jesus, always fighting for you in his prayers so that you may be perfect and fully assured in all the will of God” (Colossians 4:12). Paul’s...
Thursday, September 16, 20210605Pope Francis recently made a much-discussed decision to restrict the celebration of “the Latin Mass,” also known as the Extraordinary Form of the Roman rite. As the bishop of Rome, he has the power to give bishops the authority to allow the celebration of the Tridentine rite in their dioceses. But his judgment, expressed in a motu...
Wednesday, July 21, 20210291Few religious orders can match the Carmelites’ All-Star lineup for sanctity of life and brilliance of theological writings: John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, Thérèse of Lisieux, and Elizabeth of the Trinity are the heaviest hitters in this illustrious branch of contemplatives. Equal to those great figures, in my opinion, is the...
Friday, May 21, 20210217As the successor of St. Peter, the bishop of Rome receives the command from Jesus to the first of the apostles as his own: “Strengthen your brothers” (Lk 22:32). Catholic theology has always understood that command, along with other references to Peter’s primacy (Mt 10:1-2; 16:16-18; Acts 1-2; etc.), to reflect the unique mission...
Sunday, April 18, 2021087The first Christian Bible study was held Easter Sunday on the road to Emmaus. Cleopas and his anonymous traveling companion are wallowing in despair about the death of Jesus, to such an extent that they are fleeing Jerusalem moments after hearing reports that the tomb was empty. Jesus, unrecognized on the road, joins the conversation and...
Sunday, March 21, 20210285I am not a psychologist in the modern technical sense of the term. I have no training in matters dealing with the brain or nervous system, and I possess only a rudimentary knowledge of human biochemistry. But I do love uncovering the etymologies of words, and therefore I can say that I aim to be a psychologist in the original sense of...
Friday, February 5, 20210195mmanuel Kant is not a household name among suburban Americans who don’t read philosophy, but he is one of those giants in the history of human thought whose influence is so immense that it appears anonymous to most.
Friday, January 8, 20210244I learned recently that the priest who baptized me, Monsignor Joseph Ferraro, died of Covid-19 on December 17. Father Ferraro was a Navy chaplain stationed in Oakland, California when my father was on active duty, and he de-heathenized me when I was a month old. I never met Monsignor Joe as an adult, but we exchanged emails several years...
Saturday, November 28, 20200371Christians look to the light of Christ, the true light that knows no darkness or extinguishing (see John 1:4-5), to irradiate the gloom of their own suffering. Our efforts to purify the weak and fluttering flame of our heart from the ravenous cravings of selfishness, lust, and greed dim the light we radiate to others, and can bring us to...
Saturday, October 31, 20200160The prophet Isaiah surely knew he was introducing a shocking concept when he communicated a message of the Lord beginning with the words “Thus says the Lord to His anointed Cyrus” (Isaiah 45:1). The shock is not that the prophet refers to a king as the messiah, but rather that this particular king is not even an Israelite. Cyrus the...
