Association Of Catholic Bloggers

Squeaky Clean, a wealthy but honest businessman, was dissatisfied with life.  Although he was a practising Catholic as well as an active member of his parish, God seemed far away. Even worse his inner spirit was withering. When he stumbled on  a beautiful farm for sale, he just knew this was God’s answer to his dilemma.  Surely a back-to-the-earth lifestyle would bring him closer to God. Squeaky Clean worked long hours renovating the farmhouse, building barns, silos and fences, clearing brush and planting gardens. After a few years, his farm was charming and well-kept, a stark contrast to Sloppy Joe’s messy place just down the road.  Neighbours marvelled because not only was his farm picture perfect. continue reading

What happens to the seeds that fall to you? Matthew 13: 3-8 After my husband left, I spent hours, or was it days, weeks, or even months, wondering what had happened to his faith. Despite going through 12 years of Catholic school, his faith in God was weak. He'd claimed I brought him to faith and then ruined faith for him, but as I look back over the years at red flags I should have taken more notice of and at my own weaknesses, my own feeble faith, I wonder about the seeds each of us sowed and at the ground those seeds were planted in. If I follow his suggestion that my leading him to faith planted the Seed of the Word of God in him, then I also found myself asking… Was he the path and were the birds who came to eat up the little bit of faith I'd planted, devils of temptation in the forms of greed, lust, and pride? And why did I stop at just a little bit of seed? Why hadn't I planted so much seed that it couldn't be stolen away? Was he the rocky

When I asked which Bible verse makes people feel most loved, the answers were surprising. Very few verses mentioned love at all. Many people were deeply affected by descriptions of Jesus' agony, suffering, and death on the Cross to save us. Others were amazed by all God had promised to give to us and how close he had to be, how far he had to stoop, to give us these gifts. But everyone had a different favorite. It made me realize how intensely each line of the Bible speaks to us. God's strength and love shine through his Word with the power to pierce every human heart. Read more here

Catholic writers, especially those of us who expound on the inner, spiritual life should carefully follow Christ’s example. Jesus used simple stories and parables to explain spiritual truths. It was the only way He could come close to explaining the inexplicable. Although He could discuss complex theological issues with deep insight into scripture from the age of twelve, He preferred to teach using parables and metaphors that even a child or uneducated man could understand. Metaphors, or word pictures, are the language of God in the Old Testament, the language of Jesus in the Gospels and the Holy Spirit in the Epistles because images bypass the sceptical reasoning of our human minds and pierce our hearts. The danger of complicated, wordy theological explanations is illustrated humourously in a short, religious joke. I rarely remember even the simplest joke but I have never forgotten this intellectual one told 30 years ago by a Jesuit priest in front of a University New Testame