Over the next couple weeks I’d like to provide our readers with some bite-sized insights from Pope Benedict XVI’s recent encyclical Spe Salvi, on the virtue of hope. The approach I’m going to take is to focus on a few biblical passages that help form the basis of the Pope’s discussion. Today we will examine […]
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Today we celebrate the feast of St. Josephine Bakhita, an African saint who was canonized just a few years ago by Pope John Paul II. I really didn’t know that much about her, other than the fact that she was from the Sudan, had been kidnapped in youth, and eventually became a religious in Italy. […]
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Yesterday I commented on the phenomenon of seemingly good spiritual fruit coming from questionable sources in the Church. Today, I would like to offer a few biblical observations to help us make more sense of this situation as lay Catholics. (1) As St. Paul writes, “Test everything; retain what is good” (1 Thess. 5:21). At least for […]
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Yesterday Pope Benedict XVI delivered his annual state of the world address to the Vatican diplomatic corps. When I think of “state of anything” addresses, I think of political speeches, which certainly are not in short supply this primary season. And of course the presidential “state of the union” address has become a major prime […]
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