Our Hearts Are Restless

[caption id="attachment_1127" align="aligncenter" width="522"] Apparently Alex is a cat person. We have a friendly little cat who was very interested in sitting on Alex's lap on Saturday.[/caption]

One of the many reasons I love Christendom is the beauty, present in so many ways on this campus.  There’s the immediate beauty, of course – a campus in a valley of the Blue Ridge Mountains, in a bend of the Shenandoah River, with majestic views on one side and tangled, fantastic woodland on the other.  We’re far enough away from light pollution that the stars are vibrantly clear.  I could even see the Milky Way a few days ago!  This Wednesday, the first quarter moon was stunning in the clear sky of early evening.  I took a few minutes away from my responsibilities and grabbed my camera.  Unfortunately, only one picture turned out with any clarity.  While it fails to do the brilliancy of the moon any justice, I rather liked the composition.  The statue is an image of Our Lady that stands tall on a pillar outside of the college library. There is more beauty, also, to be found at Christendom, including the beauty of dance.  I snapped a few pictures of Contra practice after I went out moo...

  At the request of my cousin, who is an Assembly of God minister, I wrote a synthesis (as best I could whip together in a few hours) of the top 5 differences between Protestants and Catholics.  It was hard to narrow the list down to 5, because of course I wanted to include every topic, all of the arguments, all of the ramifications.  But I did my best to keep it to a simple presentation of Catholic belief. The five topics I chose are the papacy, the Eucharist, Mary, Purgatory, and Sacred Tradition.  Thanks to Catholic Answers, I had scriptural references and great explanations at my fingertips through  www.catholic.com  and  Pillar of Fire, Pillar of Truth , a handy little tract.  Thanks be to God, I just happened to have that little book with me, and it came in very handy.  A lot of the explanations below are only slightly modified from that book.  I'll make this a 5-part series for the next Saturdays! All of Catholic teaching hinges on the doctrine of the Incarnation: that Chris...

[caption id="attachment_1114" align="aligncenter" width="418"] Alex with a kitten! We have a lot of feral cats around that are basically campus pets. They're more friendly this year than in the past.  So glad I snapped this picture even though it's poor quality.  :)[/caption]

At the request of my cousin, who is an Assembly of God minister, I wrote a synthesis (as best I could whip together in a few hours) of the top 5 differences between Protestants and Catholics.  It was hard to narrow the list down to 5, because of course I wanted to include every topic, all of the arguments, all of the ramifications.  But I did my best to keep it to a simple presentation of Catholic belief. The five topics I chose are the papacy, the Eucharist, Mary, Purgatory, and Sacred Tradition.  Thanks to Catholic Answers, I had scriptural references and great explanations at my fingertips through  www.catholic.com  and  Pillar of Fire, Pillar of Truth , a handy little tract.  Thanks be to God, I just happened to have that little book with me, and it came in very handy.  A lot of the explanations below are only slightly modified from that book.  I'll make this a 5-part series for the next Saturdays! All of Catholic teaching hinges on the doctrine of the Incarnation: that Christ ...

I hope everyone knows by now that Pope Francis has asked for today to be a day of prayer and fasting for peace in Syria, the Middle East, and throughout the world.  This danger that the world is in - it feels as if everyone is holding their breath.  The threat and the danger for the world are honestly terrifying.  Perhaps, as a history major, I'm so closely connected with the history of the world that I fear more clearly than others.  It wasn't too long ago that I was reading and editing Dr. Warren Carroll's book  The Crisis of Christendom .  The details of the World Wars and the crisis of totalitarianism are still vivid in my head. Fear can be a crippling thing if you don't have any hope. We have hope, though - we're Catholics, after all!  Even more, we have joy, a deeply abiding joy that undercuts all the fear the world can force upon us. It is so encouraging to think about the great power that God deigns to bestow upon our human actions.  Prayer and fasting are p...