Tag: consumerism
Foolish people at the mercy selling happiness
If we are fools enough to remain at the mercy of the people who want to sell us happiness, it will be impossible for us ever to be content with anything. How would they profit if we became content? We would no longer need their new product. The last thing the salesman wants is for… Read More ›
Christianity Is for Losers
Americans can’t seem to shake their notion that Christianity is a religion for the successful Aletetia:“I wouldn’t go to church with my plumber.” The speaker, dressed in a dark two-piece suit, with the aggressive pinstripes favored by some businessmen, went to a traditionalist Episcopal parish out on Long Island where the average income sails far… Read More ›
Haunted by Thomas Merton
How he has opened my spiritual life to new dimensions J. K. Rowling was inspired by visions of St. John the Baptist as the saga of Harry Potter and friends percolated in her mind. He became the archetype for Professor Dumbledore – a wanderer in worlds earthly and spiritual – as well as a tutor,… Read More ›
Pope targets worldly Church as biggest threat
Vatican City, Apr 30, 2013 / 06:50 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The “greatest danger” for the Church is if it becomes worldly, since this prevents her from communicating the message of the Cross, Pope Francis said. “When the Church becomes worldly, when she has the spirit of the world within herself … it is a weak… Read More ›
Consumerist Approach to Religion
As a newly ordained pastor, I was surprised and dismayed by the ego-centric, that I found to be rife in my congregation. When fellow pastors confided similar concerns about their own congregations, I began to wonder whether this “please me” approach to faith was in fact taking hold in churches across the country. What I… Read More ›
Making Good Use of the Internet
12. To all persons of good will. Finally, then, we would suggest some virtues that need to be cultivated by everyone who wants to make good use of the Internet; their exercise should be based upon and guided by a realistic appraisal of its contents. Prudence is necessary in order clearly to see the implications—the… Read More ›
The Loss of the Sense of Sin (part 2)
Why has this [loss of the sense of sin] happened in our time. A glance at certain aspects of contemporary culture can help us to understand the progressive weakening of the sense of sin, precisely because of the crisis of conscience and crisis of the sense of God already mentioned. “Secularism” is by nature and… Read More ›