Padre Peregrino – Page 62 – Theology from a wandering priest

11 11, 2015

Should We Sell Vatican Art for the Poor?

By Father David Nix|2015-11-21T00:06:51+00:00November 11th, 2015|Theology|

This actually isn't a debate coming out of Rome these days (thankfully) but I write about it because most of you have heard this question from some family member or a person on a plane at one point. Should we sell Vatican Art for the Poor? Of course, my answer is "No," but I want to give you some new answers for your friends. 1) The first great commandment comes before the second great commandment. Jesus said: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: [...]

5 11, 2015

Colbert vs. Mother Teresa

By Father David Nix|2015-11-06T10:06:27+00:00November 5th, 2015|Theology|

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5weP79J7bM In this short video, Stephen Colbert (comedian-turned-theologian) says “Faith ultimately can’t be argued; faith has to be felt." Let's cut through his poor philosophy and consider reality: 1) Feelings are often no different from biochemical pleasures. God uses feelings in all stages of prayer, but it is not central to the substance of the soul where the Blessed Trinity resides. If faith must be "felt" as Colbert said, then where does that leave Mother Teresa who couldn't feel anything for 60 years of prayer? But false-positives abound, too: If I drink an enormous Chemex hipster coffee and feel like a saint who could take on the world, did I just "feel" an increase in [...]

2 11, 2015

All Souls Day and Syria

By Father David Nix|2015-11-02T16:07:25+00:00November 2nd, 2015|Theology|

I have no intention of making this blog page a news source (much less a newsletter of personal prayer intentions) but I thought that today, All Souls, would be an important day to highlight the civil war in Syria. Today, I write a very short post to simply beg for your prayers on the behalf of 250,000 who have died. St. Thomas Aquinas said that the greatest work we can do on earth is to pray for the dead, as I blogged about here. It is good to visit the cemeteries and to pray for the repose of the souls of our loved ones, but our family is bigger than [...]

2 11, 2015

Repost: The Greatest Work

By Father David Nix|2015-11-02T16:42:27+00:00November 2nd, 2015|Theology|

All Souls Day and all of November is the month to pray for the dead, so I decided to run my first "re-post" on this very topic. (Don't worry. I have a new blog post coming out Friday called "Stephen Colbert vs. Mother Teresa," and also don't miss my recent commentary on New York Times' Ross Douthat.) Every Christian is called to do the "Works of Mercy," upon which our final judgment will be based, as seen in Matthew 25: The Final Judgment “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered [...]

29 10, 2015

How Long Is Eternity?

By Father David Nix|2015-10-29T21:04:57+00:00October 29th, 2015|Theology|

Welcome to Virginia Beach, home of America's friendliest people and worst drivers. (Well, that's my assessment, but it's a great place to be, all things considered.) This is a military area known as the "Redneck Riviera." The entire metropolitan area is a waterland of fresh and salty rivers containing about ten 100,000-person-cities collectively known as Tidewater or Hampton Roads. It's home to the Atlantic Fleet of the Navy, countless other military bases and real-life heroes they make movies about (literally.) But not every soldier comes back home to Hampton Roads... So, where do all the dead soldiers and normal civilians go? 100% of them ultimately go to heaven or hell. Do they all go to heaven? No. "Small is the gate and [...]

8 10, 2015

Marriage Prep and “Annulments”

By Father David Nix|2015-11-02T02:19:05+00:00October 8th, 2015|Theology|

The basics of annulments can teach us a lot about the beauty of marriage. The first thing to realize about an annulment is that it is not a Catholic divorce. The starting point for why divorce does not exist in the Catholic Church is simple: Jesus said: But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female. ’ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. ’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.—Mark 10:6-9. No man (not even a priest or bishop [...]

3 10, 2015

Incarnation Meditation

By Father David Nix|2015-10-03T08:41:41+00:00October 3rd, 2015|Theology|

“One will be sent in the flesh,” thundered the most beautiful Trinity to the angels and all the courts of heaven eons ago. In perfect harmony they rejoiced. But later, they wondered if anyone but a lowly archangel like Raphael (still more glorious than a burning star) could dare condescend again to take flesh as Raphael did for Tobit. Their best guess for the new assignment was Gabriel. God said “Gabriel will go…but in spirit as preparation. One much higher than he will become flesh.” “But how?” the angels wondered, “A cherubim's eyes would melt the trees and mountains. No human warrior's body could even instantaneously hold the power [...]

11 09, 2015

9/11 Hope

By Father David Nix|2015-10-18T22:18:44+00:00September 11th, 2015|Theology|

Bear with the background story before a bit of a show-stopper. My good friend Msgr. Philip Reilly, founder of Helper of God's Precious Infants is my hero of diocesan life. This Irish priest from NYC fasts all day (until 5pm) in front of an abortion mill in Brooklyn. God has closed over 60 abortion clinics due to his work. He trained the Franciscan Friars in sidewalk counseling. They believe he'll be canonized (literally, not figuratively.) This man lives all three munera of the priesthood to the maximum! (See my last post to get that one.) In any case, he was in front of an abortion clinic in Brooklyn when he [...]

9 09, 2015

End of the Priesthood

By Father David Nix|2017-11-01T00:57:40+00:00September 9th, 2015|Theology|

Today is the feast of the 17th century Jesuit, St. Peter Claver. He's seen above in his untiring work in Cartagena, Columbia to the slaves who were brought there from Africa. The "end of the priesthood" doesn't mean that the Catholic priesthood is coming to an end. By "end," I mean the final-end of something. As I wrote in the post The End of the Mass, "end" simply means telos or goal of its existence. What is the end of the priesthood? The answer: The glory of God and the salvation of souls. What is the means to this end? If you answer "the sacraments," then you're only a third correct. [...]

3 09, 2015

Offertory

By Father David Nix|2015-09-04T14:01:44+00:00September 3rd, 2015|Theology|

A friend recently e-mailed me and he said that reading my blog is "like drinking sparkling water while pulling nose hairs." Well, this is going to be one of those sparkling water ones without the pulling of nose hairs. Despite the seemingly-boring topic of this post, the Offertory of the Mass, I’m going to make a tall promise: What I show you on the Offertory of the Mass will transform your weekly worship into something new, interpersonal, meaningful and even thrilling if you enact it, as Mega-Churchy as that promise sounds. The offertory is the part of the Mass after the homily when the priest prepares the altar for the sacrifice. In sung Masses, the offertory prayer is sung. In the sung Latin [...]