Author name: Molly Hostetler

Luke Burgis and Josh Miller explain that there are three currents in today’s culture contributing to the crisis of vocations. If we don’t understand these currents, it’s easy to be caught in the riptide. But if we understand the problems facing our culture, we can better understand the vocations crisis and help cultivate each person’s unique calling.

Thank you to all who joined us in honoring Fr. George W. Rutler at our first annual Cardinal Newman Award Dinner on September 6, 2018. Held at the beautiful Union League Club of New York City, the dinner was at full capacity as friends and supporters traveled from as far as Florida and Texas to show their appreciation for Fr. Rutler’s outstanding contribution to the Church.

Music saved the world. That doesn’t mean that scholars, theologians, and saints didn’t play a role, but it wasn’t logical arguments that touched the hearts of millions. It was music that took hold of hearts and minds and helped spread the Gospel.

In the world of the pagan Roman empire, illness was viewed as an evil. Sick children were left on the dung heaps to die and the physically impaired were thrown to the streets. Pagan philosophers considered it a disgrace to serve the poor and advocated that beggars be driven out to die.

We profess it every week at Mass: the creed. It can often feel like a sixty-second test of memory, but Christians for millennia have lived and died to profess it. In the creed, we proclaim some of the most profound truths of the Faith: God’s fatherhood, Jesus’ divine sonship, the Holy Spirit’s divinity, the Church’s mission.

It’s been a rough week around here. Not “people dying, children starving, hurricanes hitting” rough. Just “deadlines looming, plumbing breaking, house projects overwhelming” rough. Or, more simply put, “stupid first world problems” rough.

Spiritual interpretation is a science that is not just analytical, but also spiritual. And it is not just a science, but an art, one that is rooted in contemplation. Some typology is the fruit of scientific exegesis in the Spirit; other typology represents the fruit of personal contemplation. Not all types are created equal.

The Second Vatican Council affirmed that the Holy Spirit can use non-Catholic traditions for the salvation of their members. If in ignorance of the whole truth of the Church these persons serve God as best they can, they can be saved. The Church also teaches that non-Christians can be saved if they strive to serve God with faith on the basis of the best information they have of Him.