Oblate Program at Belmont Abbey, NC

Tag: conscience

I am both

As I monitor how I live up to my own beliefs, my many failures, starting over again and again; it is hard for me to be shocked, though I am often saddened, and yes angered by evils committed by others. For I can find excuses for my own weaknesses, often playing down the harm I… Read More ›

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A life long process

Once it is decided to grow, change or to convert, whatever name you want to call it, things begin to happen in the inner life.  Conflict arises, since responsibility for ones life is taken seriously and the freedom to act without a deeper conscience is now no longer possible. If the new path in fact wants… Read More ›

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Hypocrisy and lies, mother and daughter

Fire is produced from stone and steel; lying comes from loquacity and gossip. And the lie destroys love. No one who has any sense would say that telling lies is not an important sin. The Holy Spirit has severely condemned it. “You destroy those that speak lies,” says David to God ( Psalm 5: 7)…. Read More ›

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Cardinal Wuerl calls religion the ‘conscience’ of democracy

Washington D.C., Sep 13, 2012 / 05:03 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Since America’s founding, its people have understood the importance of religion as the conscience of the culture and necessary for a society to flourish, said Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington, D.C. From the earliest days of our country’s history, religion has been understood as… Read More ›

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Spiritual Combat Revisited

“Spiritual Combat Revisited” is a summary of the classic book “The Spiritual Combat” by Lorenzo Scupoli (1530-1610). The original, “The Spiritual Combat”, is an uncompromising account of the ascetical life. The book presupposes a moral and theological outlook that has largely faded into the background. This is why Fr. Jonathan Robinson has taken up the… Read More ›

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Make the Lord your joy

My advice to you is to turn aside occasionally from trou­bled and anxious pondering on the paths you may be treading, and to travel on smoother ways where the gifts of God are serenely savored, so that the thought of him may give breathing space to you whose consciences are perplexed. I should like you… Read More ›

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Why have sympathy for others, but none for yourself?

Now when a person comes to himself as did that young prodigal son, where does he find himself? Is it not in a far country, in the Land of Unlikeness, and in a strange land, where he sits down and weeps as he remembers his father and his home. And does he not find cause… Read More ›

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Psalm 112(111): Open-handed, he gives to the poor

1. After yesterday’s celebration of the Solemnity of all the saints of Heaven, we remember today all of the faithful departed. The liturgy invites us to pray for all our loved ones who have passed away, turning our thoughts to the mystery of death, an inheritance common to all men and women. Enlightened by faith,… Read More ›

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If today you hear his voice….

Saint Benedict takes his cue from Psalm 95(94), which he prescribed to be sung at the beginning of the first liturgical office of the day. Its message is clear: “Today if you hear God’s voice, harden not your hearts.” As we have seen, God’s light shines upon us every day and God’s call invites us… Read More ›

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Wisdom is more powerful than anything

There is many a consolation to relieve the torment of a guilty conscience. God is kind and does not let us be tempted beyond our strength. Especially at the beginning of our conversion, he anoints our wounds with the oil of mercy so that the acute nature of our sickness and the difficulty of the… Read More ›

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