The Life of Virtue

Today, the Catholic Church celebrates the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord.  This celebration commemorates the day when the Messiah, Jesus Christ, was dedicated in the Temple at Jerusalem according to the Law of Moses.  On the fortieth day after birth, each first-born Jewish male was presented for service to the Lord.  It makes sense that Jesus was presented and consecrated in this way since He was both the first-born of Mary and the Eternal Son of God.  This moment  enables the Temple to become Jesus' natural and comfortable habitat, and it  marks the first step in allowing the Him to increase "in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man" (Luke 2:52). Rembrandt, Simeon's Song of Praise (1631) Although we are not still bound by the Law of Moses, it is good and right for Christian parents to follow the same process for our children and our families.  If parents desire that the place of worship, the Church, becomes a natural and...

As I've been reading, teaching, and praying over the past few days, a basic theme of God's revelation has come into my consciousness again and again.  This significant part of God's plan for humanity has always been true, it has never been negated, and I can recite it as a truth in the same way that I might recite multiplication tables.  I am quite sure, however, that God has brought this reality into my line of sight more frequently recently because He knows that I have yet to perfect it as He intends for me.  The simple truth is that love of God is inseparable from love of neighbor.  Neither of these is attained fully without the other. It is always true that love of God leads directly to love of neighbor; it leads in no other direction.  Two passages of Sacred Scripture have reiterated this to me in recent days.  The first of these is from the book of Deuteronomy.  As the Israelites wander in the desert, nearing the end of their forty-year communa...

An envelope arrived in my mailbox, sometime late last year.  Above my name and address, this envelope encouraged me to "Give the World What It Needs Most..."  The return address bore the emblem of my alma mater.  Given that I attended a really big, state-funded university without religious affiliation, I was curious as to the claim about "what the world needs most."  I was virtually certain that my answer and the university's answer would differ greatly. The claim surprised me.  My university wasn't trying to give the world more technology or more business professionals with higher degrees or more access to secularized "arts."  My university wants to provide leaders to the world.  With some slight adjustments of their understanding of leadership and the value that it provides to the world, I just might be able to get behind this project.  If there were dollars in my family budget to give toward cultivating great leaders for the next generation, ...