Catholic Church

By David Mills, a Senior Editor, The Stream - Christians seem to like this meme. The line usually goes with one of the classic pictures of Christians being martyred. Like the one above, showing Christians in a Roman coliseum as the hungry lion sees them. The line is: “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.”... It’s funny, and a good reminder of where your faith can take you. But only if you really have enough faith to go all the way. Do we? Would we die for Jesus? We have one way of knowing — that is, as much as we sinful creatures can know.

By F.X. Cronin, Catholic Exchange - For many in the modern West, God is merely a matter of belief, usually supported with selective  evidence rife with confirmation bias.  It is an unscientific belief driven by personal needs for meaning and moral certainty unmet by a mechanistic, material universe and psychological comfort in the face of the terror of life in an empty, silent, purposeless cosmos of matter and energy alone. 

By Charles Coulombe, Crisis Magazine - It’s very simple. Loyalty to a team has always meant loyalty to a city, but that city is part of one of fifty states. When athletes insult the national anthem and the flag, they are not merely insulting the symbols of a system which has allowed them the chance at immense wealth most Americans shall never know; they are insulting their fans—whether the fans are smart enough to notice that or not. As with actors and other entertainers, professional athletes exist because of their audience.

By Fr. Jerry Pokorsky, Catholic Culture - Discouragement is a form of anger, the result of chronic suffering or its prospect, real or imagined. We’re often discouraged because of deep-seated personal problems, family difficulties, political turmoil, fear of the future, and so on. We look for easy answers, but answers usually don’t come easily. Of course, the remedy for discouragement is the practice of the Catholic faith.