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Catholic Faith Corner

Living in the Light
of Jesus Christ

Sea of Galilee at Sunrise

Catholic Faith Corner

Living in the Light
of Jesus Christ

The Bible: God’s Personal Words to You

“My words will never pass away,” Jesus said. His Word is contained in Scripture. This sacred book is meant to be a personal letter. It’s not addressed “To Occupant.” It’s not a duplicated letter like you might send at Christmas. No. It is a love letter from God to you, assuring you that he is […]

The Parables in General

The Bible Walk in Mansfield, Ohio, is a life-size wax museum that houses many large oil paintings of the parables by Mark Pedro. Some are pictured at the end of this blog. Did you know that parables are one-third of the Synoptic Gospels? They are a main teaching device for Jesus through which he revealed […]

The Bible: God Speaks

Don’t expect God to talk to you on your cell phone. He doesn’t zoom or text either. God communicates through the written word in a sacred book: the Bible. For thousands of years people have found strength, courage, and comfort in Scripture. It is a powerful book because it is God’s Word. One way to […]

Down with Bible Illiteracy!

Last week on “Jeopardy” the final “answer” was “He tells his Son not to worry about the lamb for the burnt offering. God will provide it.” The brainy contestants wrote Joseph, Job, and Jonah. None of them recognized one of the most famous stories in the Bible: Abraham and his willing sacrifice of his son […]

Psalms: God’s Love Poems

I was going to write a post on the psalms but then discovered that I already had written three of them! Here is one resurrected from the past: Did you know that we pray to St. Anthony for lost articles because he once lost his Psalter and the AWOL novice who took it came back […]

Expressions Rooted in the Bible

In talks to religion teachers, I offer reasons to teach Scripture. First and foremost, the Bible is God’s Word to us and he speaks to us personally through it. Second, we come to know Jesus through Scripture. And third, an educated person is expected to know Scripture. (How often “Jeopardy!” as well as crossword puzzle […]

Up a Tree for Jesus’ Sake

My new book “Bible People for Young People” (“reviewed” at the end of this post) shows Zacchaeus on the cover. I thought I’d draw some lessons today from this man’s story. If you recall, Zacchaeus, who collected taxes for Rome and pocketed some for himself, was possibly the most despised man in Jericho. Perhaps as […]

Are There Miracles Today?

Each year a team of medical professionals from my parish, St. Dominic, spend a week in a poor village in El Salvador screening and treating more than 1,000 patients. On their visit last month, to their dismay there was only enough lidocaine for local anesthesia for five or six patients. However, each time the doctors […]

Proverbs, Adages, and Pithy Sayings

We enjoy proverbs and sayings. Witty ones bring a smile to our face. We post them on Facebook and buy t-shirts and mugs that display them. They capture the wisdom of the people. We admire Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanac, the source of adages such as “birds of a feather flock together,” “a stitch in […]

The Bible: You’ve Got Mail, Part 2

Here is an excerpt from Chapter 2 of my latest book, Praying with Scripture. Come to the Bible, not to study the history of God’s action, but to be its object; not to learn what it achieves throughout the centuries and still does, but to be the subject of its operation. ~ Jean-Pierre de Caussade, […]