A reader gave me permission to publish her letter to me (anonymously).  I include my reply below, too: Dear Father Nix, I just listened to your homily on Sensus Fidelium about Woman's Submission where you encourage and admonish the husbands to live like Christ in their marriages. I thought it was a wonderful homily and so true as to how easy it is for us wives to submit to and love well such a husband. However, it, and other homilies and conferences on the subject, leave me with a gaping question: How am I, a revert to Catholicism with a secular/agnostic husband (who was also born and baptized Catholic like [...]

The following is "Advice to Parents," by St. Alphonsus Liguori, Saint and Doctor of the Church: The gospel tells us, that a good plant cannot produce bad fruit, and that a bad one cannot produce good fruit. We learn from this, that a good father brings up good children. But, if the parents are wicked, how can the children be virtuous? Our Lord says, in the same gospel, Do men gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles? (Matt. 7:16). So, it is impossible, or rather very difficult, to find children virtuous, who are brought up by immoral parents. Fathers and mothers, be attentive to this sermon, which is of [...]

Lay folks are getting more and more into Carmelite theology.  And that is a great thing.  Carmelite theology is all about detaching from creatures in order to attach to the Creator.  For a Carmelite priest like St. John of the Cross, this was ascetically difficult but strategically simple:  Detaching from creatures will automatically make a soul in grace cling more closely to the Creator.  Thus, a monk can live alone with The Alone. What Eastern Rite Christians call askesis is to detach from all creatures (people, food, pets, comforts, pleasures, locations) in order to go deeper into the prayer life. Some of the greatest authors on this topic of ascetical theology [...]

Many conservative and traditional Catholic parents know the dangers of kids having cell phones.  These dangers include inappropriate images and bullying. But most good Catholic parents somehow still think their children are beyond the reach of predators because they have relatively-obedient children.  In this article, you're going see why that's you need to put away that pipe-dream forever. Ex-SEAL Shawn Ryan now has over 2.5M subscribers on his YouTube channel alone, not to mention many more listeners on other forums.  He's a conservative podcaster who recently became a Christian.  A year ago, he twice had on his show a 30 year old man named Ryan Montgomery who is known as [...]

N.B This blog post is from a lay guest writer. NOTES FROM A BATTLEFIELD OBSERVER I write this from the perspective of a fifty-something Catholic father with three grown children. Watching my children become young adults has given me a ringside seat from which to view many of the follies and customs of today’s young people, around dating, courtship, and views on marriage. What follows is practical advice. It seems obvious to me that “love” is almost wholly misunderstood, and because it’s misunderstood, it’s highly overrated. That tingle you feel – it’s most likely just a touch of eros. This is not enough on which to base a permanent relationship. [...]

I snapped the above pic in the home of some former parishioners of mine who had purchased a new home a few years ago and decided to turn a little circular hallway into a beautiful chapel.  Because I had my Mass kit on me while passing through their town recently, I was able to offer Holy Mass on one of the little ledges (less than 11" deep.) The above example is what one can do with a little paint and elbow grease.  The father of the family has many children and is a train mechanic, so I don't buy the argument that only the rich can establish a little sanctuary [...]

While it is true that religious congregations are rightly called "families" (and indeed, are built on the family structure, hence, "father" and "mother" and "brother" and "sister") most people today realize in their hunger for good (and sadly, missing) family life that religious life should reflect family life.  But few people remember that family life should also reflect religious life. When I was a neo-conservative (not yet a traditional priest) I noticed that most priestly discussions on the liturgy revolved around what would be most accessible and most pious for most of the laity. Similarly, during the first year of my priesthood, when I was pushing "Theology of the Body," [...]