Category: Ordinary Time

For a Doctrinal Homily Outline for the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, click here. Its focus is on kindness. After this Sunday, Lent begins. These reflections on books that I have found especially helpful in my life as a Catholic man seem to have turned into reflections on authors I have found especially useful. This…

For a Doctrinal Homily Outline for the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, click here. Its focus is on the natural virtue of optimism and the theological virtue of hope. A final book or author I have found especially helpful is the Catechism of the Catholic Church. As a writer about Catholic things, the Catechism is…

For a Doctrinal Homily Outline for the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, click here. Its focus is on the vocation to marriage and its defense. Another book that has done me a lot of good is hardly a book at all. It is hard bound (like a book should be) but only 46 pages long.…

For a Doctrinal Homily Outline for the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, click here. Its focus is contrition. Some theologians, even some who have received the Sacrament of Holy Orders, make ambiguous statements that seem to mean it is not necessary for a sinner to repent, that is, to turn away from his sin. Yet,…

The four levels of happiness One of the wisest Catholic writers alive is Fr. Robert Spitzer, S.J. Just one of his many insights into human nature and our salvation and sanctification is his model of the four levels of happiness. These four types of happiness, ranked in their natural order of value and importance, are…

This is the last of seven little reflections on the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. Etymologically, to understand means to stand-under, but the older meaning of under is in the midst of. When you understand something, you are standing within it. You are intellectually grasping what is around you. You get “it,” it being the…

The word wisdom is one we may use casually without really thinking about what it means. If we reflect on how we use it, the word wisdom relates to truth. It has to do with seeing the truth about something. The truth about that something might have many dimensions. In addition, we are not wise…

There is a famous (or infamous) meme that runs, “That’s what I do. I drink and I know things.” In reality, to be true, we should change this saying to “That’s what we do. We think and we know things!” Ordinary knowledge is when a person assimilates something outside one’s mind into one’s mind. Assimilate…

As a natural virtue, counsel is the good intellectual habit of seeking advice. The Latin word consilium means deliberation or advice. A person may take counsel in himself by thinking things through. One can also get good advice outside of oneself. This is why we call a lawyer a counsellor. As Fr. John Hardon, S.J. puts…