Oblate Program at Belmont Abbey, NC

Tag: materialism

Baubles

Every once in awhile, one of my friends will ask me why I am so obsessed with death, time and the overall fragility of life. I am always surprised by that question, since I am not sure ‘being obsessed’ is the right adjective to use. I am pretty much an average person and I would… Read More ›

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Baubles

Every once in awhile, one of my friends will ask me why I am so obsessed with death, time and the overall fragility of life. I am always surprised by that question, since I am not sure ‘being obsessed’ is the right adjective to use. I am pretty much an average person and I would… Read More ›

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The Wilderness of Our Own Abominable Selfishness

[A]ll men who live only according to their five senses, and seek nothing beyond the gratification of their natural appetites for pleasure and reputation and power, cut themselves off from that charity which is the principle of all spiritual vitality and happiness because it alone saves us from the barren wilderness of our own abominable… Read More ›

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8 Reasons Why It Is So Hard To Find Someone Decent To Marry

It is not easy to be single in America today. If you are a man, it can be exceedingly difficult to find a good woman to marry. If you are a woman, it is literally a miracle if you can find a good man to marry. So is it just our imaginations, or has the… Read More ›

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Struggle with the eight main passions: Avarice

“… a person of double heart cannot wage war for the Lord, for ‘a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.“(XV.2) Our third conflict is with avarice, which we can call the love of money. It attacks are from without and is not natural, and it does not have its source in the monk… Read More ›

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The benefits of self-denial in a must-have world

It’s great to have what we want, but once we have a certain amount, having more doesn’t make us happier. Shark Tank is my favorite television show. I like to guess which products will (and won’t) get investments, and which ones have succeeded in the past. I’m always wrong. Among the products that have gone… Read More ›

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In this America. . .

[In America today], the ancient Christian teaching that the Scriptures are simultaneously divinely inspired and open to multiple interpretations has become an either/or choice instead. You’re either a rigid fundamentalist who believes that dinosaurs just missed hitching a ride on Noah’s Ark, or a self-consciously progressive believer for whom the Bible is a kind of… Read More ›

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Even the tiniest Lenten sacrifice is valuable

The Catholic Herald (28/2/14): . . .There was a time when the concept of penance was widely understood even if the practice of it was in decline but that was also the time when biblical literacy was prevalent and there was some corresponding understanding of the concepts of sin, judgment and offending Infinite Goodness. Yet… Read More ›

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Christmas in America: Belief in the Virgin birth and visits from Santa

WASHINGTON (RNS) Nearly one in three Americans, including many with no little children at home and those with no religious identity, say they pretend Santa will visit their house on Christmas Eve. Overall, 31 percent of  U.S. adults play up the Santa role in their holiday season, according to a survey released Wednesday (Dec. 18)… Read More ›

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Spirit of Our Time is Division

There is a difference between “truth” and “information.” We are deluged with the latter. We are starved for the former. On social media, we have much access to information about people but not the truth of their essence. Meanwhile, it has become nearly impossible to access objective and clean media. Surely you have noticed how… Read More ›

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