In the above picture, I am seen with Abba Nathanial, the bishop of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in Colorado.  Keep in mind as you read this article that the Ethiopian Catholic Church (which maintains seven valid sacraments and is in communion with Rome) is different from the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (which maintains seven valid sacraments but is not in communion with Rome.)  In the above picture and the following pictures, I am seen with a member of the clergy of the latter. Why?  It is not because I am going Eastern Orthodox.  It's simply because I made a new friend who is not Catholic.  But touring his Church made me [...]

Quicumque enim Spiritu Dei aguntur—hii filii sunt Dei. (For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.)—Rom 8:14. Normally, our New Year's Resolutions as Catholics should be few and concrete.  In past years, I have made so many resolutions at New Year's that I just drop them all in some sense of exasperation by the end of January.  (I think this is common for most of you.)  This is why I am simply going to do my best on the dozen resolutions that play into my rule of life instead of making concrete resolutions. Normally, I think such amorphous (eg "do my best at everything") [...]

In November 2024, I spoke at a conference in Rio De Janeiro hosted by Centro Dom Bosco that had over 1000 Catholics attending it.  I didn't know they had a professional photographer there, but they did.  They sent me some pictures:

Many years ago, before I entered seminary, I remember hearing about a conservative priest who went to dinner at the home of his more progressive parishioners.  Before or after dinner, one of the spouses said to the priest, "Why don't you relax and take your collar off?"  The priest replied, "Why don't you relax and I keep the collar on?" I thought that was quite a funny zinger when I heard the story about 25 years ago.  But now I wonder why a conservative priest would ever spend time with progressive parishioners unless his goal was to convert them.  And I don't think talking to them that way is going [...]

At the end of summer 2024, I was in Western Europe and Western Africa on different missions.  While in Europe, I was about to offer Holy Mass a pro-life center and I noticed after donning my alb and cinture that I had the rest of my vestments on a car seat (see above picture.)  As it was a pro-life center across from an abortion center, the car seat was clearly destined for a poor family who would say "no" to abortion after being abortion-minded.  (Notice I don't say that we hope they would say "yes" to life, as saying "yes" to life already happened the minute they chose to unite [...]

Below are two interesting questions I received on email.  I publish with his permission: Dear Father Nix, Please be so kind and share with me your explanation of following passage: Mark 6:1-6 "Jesus left there and went to his hometown, accompanied by his disciples. When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed. “Where did this man get these things?” they asked. “What’s this wisdom that has been given him? What are these remarkable miracles he is performing? Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” [...]

Fr. Prümmer wrote the definitive book on Catholic morals in 1921. His section on Magnanimity is worth printing out and putting on your wall (as I did in my hermitage:) "The characteristics of this virtue are well portrayed by St. Thomas following the teaching of Aristotle: the magnanimous man a) takes a restrained delight in even the greatest honors offered to him, b) remains unruffled both by prosperity and adversity, c) willingly helps others although he himself asks hardly anyone to help him, d) does not fawn upon important personages neither does he allow his liberty to be restricted by their authority, e) is not ambitious, f) expresses his opinions [...]

Late last week I visited a family that lives an hour and a half from my hermitage.  The wife of the family has been my friend for 20 years.  The husband has been my friend for about 10 years.  They have six children.  After a nice dinner of street tacos, they asked me for blessings with St. Charbel oil that I keep in my car, confessions for everyone, and a blessing of the home.  Upstairs, three boys share a room and three girls share a room.  The family loves outdoor sports and they seem afraid of nothing.  That is why I was surprised at what happened next. The oldest girl, [...]

Some people debate online if I'm a hermit because I asked to leave parish life or because I was kicked out of so many parishes.  The fact is that I asked to leave parish life because I wasn't willing to fight with lay "Eucharistic Ministers" about their lack of Eucharistic vigilance.  The problem is that I thought the next Novus Ordo parish would magically have more care for the Eucharist.  Of course, I was wrong. Thus, I switched entirely to the old seven sacraments.  The pain of the battle in the Novus world led to the glory of now using all the ancient rite sacraments—which I would not give up [...]