15 08, 2015

Immaculata Dedication

By |2015-08-15T19:26:21+00:00August 15th, 2015|Theology|

I petition the intercession of the following two saints as I  consecrate this blog to St. Maximilian Kolbe and the Holy Mother of God, aka the Holy Theotokos, the Immaculata, Mary Most Holy..."Mamma Mary!" as all the Philippina women at my parish lovingly call our mother.  I also dedicate it to all the guardian angels of the entire world, and especially the angels of any people the Eternal Father has destined to read my mediocre but true blog. May I suggest St. Maximilian Kolbe's consecration prayer to the Mother of God?  I believe St. John Paul II prayed this every day: O Immaculata, Queen of heaven and earth, refuge of sinners [...]

25 07, 2015

St. Mary Magdalene Part 2 of 2

By |2015-10-12T01:48:21+00:00July 25th, 2015|Theology|

The above picture is taken from Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ.  It is clear in this movie, and in most private revelations, that Mary (the Mother of Jesus) knew Mary Magdalene long before the crucifixion. Granted, Scripturally I know of no other time when Mary and Mary are found in the same place, except John 19:25 (the three Mary's at the crucifixion.)  So my theory can't be proved from Scripture.  However, using common sense, we can be very sure that Mary and Mary didn't simply introduce oneself to each the other at the foot of the cross.  It can be assumed that this would be an inappropriate time for introductions; [...]

22 07, 2015

St. Mary Magdalene Part 1 of 2

By |2015-10-12T01:47:48+00:00July 22nd, 2015|Theology|

Before I was a priest, I was a paramedic.  I remember running a call with the SWAT team in Southwest Denver. It was a midnight drug-bust and we had to accompany the police in the event that someone become wounded in the raid. We entered minutes after the SWAT team...and it had a pretty anticlimactic ending.  The police arrested only two people.  The young man and woman were caught in a compromised position, so to speak…and it smelled filthy. I was surprised at the stench, and it wasn’t the smell of drugs that was off-putting. Later in seminary, I remember reading on my own about how certain saints (like St. Christina the Astonishing) could smell impurity [...]

21 07, 2015

Ransom Note

By |2015-07-22T14:11:20+00:00July 21st, 2015|Theology|

Last week, Planned Parenthood was exposed for handing over the tissue of dead babies for research.  The president of Planned Parenthood, Cecile Richards, immediately made a press release explaining that Planned Parenthood itself did not make any money on this. Here's proof she was lying: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjCs_gvImyw America will be shocked, but the question remains:  What will end abortion?  Today, a woman in Louisiana texted me the answer:  "Our Response: Prayer and fasting isn’t enough! We need to sacrifice all for the love of God." We need to sacrifice all for the love of God. America has seen the evil of abortion, but we continue to slaughter 3,500 children a day.  Why?  Most [...]

12 07, 2015

Miracle

By |2015-12-08T01:58:19+00:00July 12th, 2015|Life|

As a seminarian in 2009, I introduced two of my close friends to each other at the March for Life in San Francisco.  Although from different parts of the country, they too became good enough friends for Beth to fly out to Denver for Fr. Nepil's ordination in 2011.  There, Beth came to know Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati, a 20th century Italian mountain-climber and servant of the poor who died young; he was found on Fr. Nepil's ordination card. What Beth did with that ordination card led to a series of events (on Long-Island with her family of origin) which were recently scrutinized by the Papal Nuncio of the Vatican to possibly make [...]

17 06, 2015

Sons of Thunder

By |2015-07-10T13:26:32+00:00June 17th, 2015|Theology|

By a strange turn of events, I have to spend a day in Istanbul while trying to get home from Spain—even though it's the opposite direction. The reason this is especially strange is because these two countries were evangelized by the brothers James and John, sons of a Galilean fisherman named Zebedee.  These two men became first century Apostles of Jesus Christ.  Jesus nicknamed them "Sons of Thunder" because of their attitude towards life.  After His resurrection, Our Lord sent St. James to Spain and St. John to Turkey (with His own Blessed Mother.)  I flew from James' land to John's land today, and I'm tryıng to navigate a keyboard set up for the Turkish language at 9pm here in the city [...]

2 05, 2015

Fire of India

By |2015-07-10T13:27:26+00:00May 2nd, 2015|Theology|

Y'all know I'm in India, but I haven't told y'all about why I came to India for the first time last autumn. It was to help with a new video on the lives of three saints who came to India (St. Thomas the Apostle, St. Francis Xavier and Mother Teresa.) The short movie was produced by my friend Anand and created by my friend Keenan. My job was apparently to sit on the set and drink chai tea. I was very good at that, and good at little else.  But I'm happy to say it's going to be released on Ask a Bishop, so here's the short preview of what [...]

1 05, 2015

Sr. Nirmala, Missionary of Charity

By |2015-07-10T13:28:52+00:00May 1st, 2015|Life|

Sr. Nirmala Joshi MC is found to the left in the picture above.  It's taken on 14 March 1997, the day that Mother Teresa and a closed-door vote of about 100 sisters made Sr. Nirmala the Superior General of the 5,000 Missionaries of Charity world-wide.   CNN took notice in this article because a Hindu-convert to Catholicism took over the most rapidly-expanding religious order of the 20th century. (Up to that point, her CV was already impressive, as Mother Teresa’s co-founder of the MCs and the foundress of the Contemplative Branch of the Missionaries of Charity in 1976.) Now Sr. Nirmala is 81 years old. She had a heart attack about [...]

28 04, 2015

Jesus and Religion Part III

By |2015-07-10T13:29:34+00:00April 28th, 2015|Theology|

For a few weeks, I’m living in the Muslim quarter of Kolkata. I wear my Roman collar around here, and what's peculiar is that I rarely get snarky looks from the swarms of Muslims and Hindus packed into this city. Actually, I was shocked at how much respect the Muslims gave me on Qatar Airlines even as I wore my cassock. On the other hand, a certain generation of Catholics in the United States treat me very differently when they see the cassock. That generation of Americans always stops me with a unconvincing rictus to tell me some combo of the following: 1. I’m glad that what you’re doing “works for [...]

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