Ephesians 5:15-16

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil.

Periodically, the editors of the New York Times or CBS or some organ for Ted Turner…

Genesis 1:2-3

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters.…

Recently a reader wrote me to say, “I read a story on the Internet about a Catholic couple whose new baby was diagnosed with spina bifida and anencephaly (no brain).  They chose to abort it.  How on earth would you…

Isaiah 42:16

And I will lead the blind in a way that they know not, in paths that they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground.…

Psalms 119:105

Thy word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path.

We can sometimes forget that Scripture was written in a time very different from our own.  We can forget, for instance, what “night” meant in the ancient…

2 Corinthians 1:3

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are…

Hebrews 4:15-16

For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the…

1 John 1:5

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him is no darkness at all.

There is a famous story of a woman who tried to read St. Thomas…

Ephesians 6:13

Therefore take the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

The ancient king Pyrrhus fought a tremendous and ultimately successful battle with the foe, but with…

Matthew 25:37-40

Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see thee hungry and feed thee, or thirsty and give thee drink? And when did we see thee a stranger and welcome thee, or naked and clothe thee? And…

As we know, Chesterton famously observed that the mark of madness is not the loss of reason, but the loss of everything except the reason. Periodically, something in our culture will show me the brilliance of that insight with great…

Philippians 1:27-28

Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you stand firm in one spirit, with one mind…

Psalm 9:1

“I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart;

I will tell of all thy wonderful deeds.”

One of the funny things about praising God in the Bible is how much of it consists of telling other people, not…

1 Corinthians 7:32-35

I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to please the Lord; but the married man is anxious about worldly affairs, how to please his wife,…

Romans 12:2

Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.

Winnie the Pooh says at the point…

Psalm 127:1

Unless the LORD builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain.

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: `Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage…

1 John 4:15

Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

In the early Church, a “confessor” was someone who had gone on declaring their faith in Christ even under torture.  Confessors were,…

I just got back from Mass. Nobody followed me home in a mysterious black car.

Yesterday, my wife went swimming with her head uncovered and her legs and arms exposed. Nobody tried to beat her to death as a harlot.

Not one…

Matthew 6:34

Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil.

One of the traps of the enemy is to get us to be preoccupied with tomorrow.  This tactic is very clever…

James 1:5-6

But if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and he will be given it. But he should ask in faith, not doubting, for the one who doubts is like…

Philippians 4:11-13

Not that I complain of want; for I have learned, in whatever state I am, to be content. I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound; in any and all circumstances I have learned the…

Philippians 4:8

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

God has blessed us…

Hebrews 10:32

But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings.

In one of the Rocky movies, Rocky’s grizzled old trainer tells him he has to go back to the days when he was “hungry”…

Galatians 5:13

For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another.

G.K. Chesterton once remarked that he found it funny, but not ultimately strange,…

Isaiah 64:8

Yet, O LORD, thou art our Father; we are the clay, and thou art our potter; we are all the work of thy hand.

Jane Studdock, the heroine of C.S. Lewis’ That Hideous Strength has a ghastly moment where she realizes…

John 14:27

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

We are living today in a time of…

A couple of weeks ago, I made the case that the biblical warnings against confusing the traditions of men with the Tradition of God still apply in our day. A few days later, as if divinely ordained to illustrate my…

Colossians 3:12-14

Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience, forbearing one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also…

Proverbs 3:5-6

Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.

So often we expend tremendous amounts of energy trying to map out a…

Malachi 4:2

But for you who fear my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings. You shall go forth leaping like calves from the stall.

Today, like all Sundays, the Lord’s Resurrection is celebrated anew in the…

Psalm 23:1

The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.

We live in a society that bombards us with messages designed to make us feel dissatisfied with our state in life. Mass marketing campaigns can fool us into thinking that our…

Psalm 78:5-6

He established a testimony in Jacob,
and appointed a law in Israel,
which he commanded our fathers
to teach to their children;
that the next generation might know them,
the children yet unborn,
and arise and tell them to their children.

Recently, there has been a…

Galatians 6:2

Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.

The “law of Christ” is quite simply the law of total self-donation to God the Father, for it is the nature of the Son to give himself totally to…

It is an old truism that there is Tradition and there are traditions. Catholic apologist types typically illustrate this by showing clear examples of Big-T Tradition (the Creed or the canon of Scripture) vs. small-t traditions such as, say, birthday…

Galatians 2:20 

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved…

John 1:14 

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.

The great marvel of Christianity is the Incarnation. Not only did God…

Revelation 22:20

He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

Christ comes as our neighbor, especially our weak, wounded or poor neighbor.  He comes in the Eucharist and the other sacraments.  He comes in…

Jude 17-18

But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; they said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.”

“It can’t happen here” is the famous epitaph…

3 John 11

Beloved, do not imitate evil but imitate good. He who does good is of God; he who does evil has not seen God.

Christianity has produced a large number of originals.  There’s nobody quite like St. Francis, or Leonardo,…

2 John 9

Any one who goes ahead and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God; he who abides in the doctrine has both the Father and the Son.

The Church perpetually faces two problems, those who…

1 John 4:1-3

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are of God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit which…

In 1998, I was asked to give a talk at my parish on my conversion to the Catholic Faith. The local Catholic bookstore set up a table of various materials on the Catholic faith and as I perused them, I…

2 Peter 2:1

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.

Attention: Priests and…

1 Peter 4:12-14

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal which comes upon you to prove you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice in so far as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also…

James 2:24

You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.

Asking whether you are saved by faith or works is like asking which blade on the scissors does the cutting.  It’s like trying to saw Jesus…

Hebrews 10:19-20

Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way which he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh.

This verse more or less sums…

Philemon 10

I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I have become in my imprisonment.

Onesimus was a slave who ran away from his master, Philemon.  Philemon was one of Paul’s disciples.  So Onesimus, perhaps in a bid for…

Titus 2:1

But as for you, teach what befits sound doctrine.

Titus is the last of the pastoral epistles.  “Pastoral epistles” (1 and 2 Timothy and Titus) are written to give basic instructions to the shepherds of the Church.  Unlike so many…

2 Timothy 4:7-8

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on…

1 Timothy 6:20

O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you.

A bishop’s job is to preserve what has been entrusted to him.  What has been entrusted to him is not a thing, not a mere body of doctrine, not a…