Oblate Program at Belmont Abbey, NC

Tag: sin

Ever higher up and deeper in

“Today, during Mass, I saw the Lord Jesus in the midst of His sufferings, as though dying on the cross. He said to me, “My daughter, meditate frequently on the sufferings which I have undergone for your sake, and then nothing of what you suffer for Me will seem great to you. You please Me… Read More ›

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Help Me Understand Attacks of the Devil

Dear Father John,  I seem to be constantly tempted to, or away from, one thing or another.  I would like to arm myself as much as possible against this spiritual darkness.  Would you help me understand attacks of the devil? SECULAR ATHEISTS CAN develop strong willpower and natural prudence,  and they can put them to… Read More ›

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Truth lives and is embodied in men

A sincere man is not so much one who sees the truth and manifests it as he sees it, but one who loves the truth with pure love. But truth is more than an abstraction. It lives and is embodied in men and things that are real. And the secret of sincerity is, therefore, not… Read More ›

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Hey Future Husband, I’m A Sinner. How Are You?

“Look at all these sinners.” My friend sent me that text earlier today as I stood in line for confession, attached was a picture he took of me standing in the line across from him waiting to enter the confessional. I couldn’t help but laugh when I saw the text. It’s true, I am a… Read More ›

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In ‘Review’ of Life, Bad Events Disappear after Repentance

There is nothing of this earth worth a hurtful word. When we die, we will relive what we thought, said, and did. Take it from RaNalle Wallace, who nearly died in 1985 during the crash of a small plane in Utah. We are always careful with near-death accounts. There are often elements that we have… Read More ›

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The evil rising around us is now extraordinary

The evil rising around us is now extraordinary. It is volcanic — on fire. It portends many things, including flame. Evil is now good and good is evil (as prophesied). Should we be surprised? Many disorientations, in our time. Is the horse out of the barn — the horse of Revelation? Ireland votes overwhelmingly to… Read More ›

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The Return of the (Pagan) Gods

A modern historian would have to labor to get a grip on the soup of religious ideas and practices that existed in the first century at the very dawn of Christianity. Yet the modern world is reviving precisely that as it progressively detaches itself from Christianity. Those ideas and practices are inspired by evil spirits now,… Read More ›

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Weep for the Sinner

A brother questioned Abba Poemen in this way, ‘My thoughts trouble me, making me put my sins aside, and concern myself with my brother’s faults.’ The old man told him the following story about Abba Dioscorus, ‘In his cell he wept over himself, while his disciple was sitting in another cell. When the latter came… Read More ›

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Defenseless

The child comes into the world helpless, in need of constant love and care, it reaches out, it’s need apparent as it whimpers for the touch, the mother’s smile, totally dependent, the weakest of the weak, defenseless before those who do not love. To be held, caressed and treasured, to feed from the mother’s breast,… Read More ›

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No one can strip us of the dignity bestowed upon us by Christ

Oh, if placed on that lofty watch-tower, you could gaze into the secret places–if you could open the closed doors of sleeping chambers and recall their dark recesses to the perception of sight–you would behold things done by immodest persons which no chaste eye could look upon; you would see what even to see is… Read More ›

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