Back in the mid-1980s I was a student of noted philosopher and author Peter Kreeft while attending an east coast seminary. I've been blessed to have had many outstanding teachers through the years, but Dr. Kreeft had the incredible gift of being able to make even the most abstruse philosophical concepts accessible to everybody.

Today I stumbled upon the transcription of a talk he gave last fall at the national convention of the Catholic Medical Association. His topic was to show the profound connection between religion (i.e., Christ) and sex to a culture of sex addicts. His presentation was part theology of the body, part commonsense philosophy and social commentary, and it was all vintage Dr. Kreeft. It's one of the best articles I've read in a long, long time. Here's how he opens his discussion:

"To see that the Sexual Revolution has been radical in thought as well as behavior, just look at the revolution in language. When people use the word 'morality' today they almost always mean sexual morality. That's a remarkable new development, an astonishing narrowing; it's as if we started to use the word 'state' to mean only Russia, or the word 'technology' to mean only 'computers.' The reason for the new development is obvious from my two comparisons: sex, Russia, and computers are where there have been the most radical revolutions.

"No one speaks of a revolution in any other area of morality. No one speaks of the Property Revolution or the Bearing False Witness Revolution. In fact the rest of the natural moral law is pretty much still in place. Almost no one defends terrorism, sadism, cannibalism, insider trading, nuclear war, environmental pollution, rape, hypocrisy, torture, or murder. We are still 'judgmental' about those things. But if it has anything to do with sex we dare no longer be 'judgmental.'"

It only gets better. For the complete text, click here. Kudos to the excellent Catholic Education Resource Center website for transcribing the lecture and making it available to the public!

Today, as sort of an annual ritual around the end of the Christmas season, I meticulously went through all the cards, Christmas letters, and family photos that we received over the past several weeks. I saw many of them as they came in, but I always go through the whole pile to make sure I didn't miss anything.

One thing that fell out of a Christmas card from a dear priest friend was a leaflet from the Apostleship of Prayer, containing the Pope's intentions for each month of 2011.  It dawned on me that this would be a most helpful thing to post at the beginning of each month. Before giving the Pope's intentions for January (I'm 12 days late, so another few minutes won't hurt anybody), I'd like to recommend two privileged times for remembering the Pope's intentions:

First, there's the Morning Offering, which is a great way to start the day:

O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer You my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day, in union with the holy sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world. I offer them for all the intentions of Your Sacred Heart: the salvation of souls, reparation for sin, and the reunion of all Christians. I offer them for the intentions of our bishops and for all the intentions recommended by our Holy Father this month. Amen.

Second, there's the family Rosary. At the beginning or end of the Rosary, to gain the indulgence for praying the Rosary, as well as to manifest the unity of our prayer with that of the universal Church, it's customary to pray an Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be for the Pope's intentions.

But what are the Pope's intentions this month? Here they are:

Care for Creation. That the riches of the created world may be preserved, valued, and made available as God's precious gift to all.

Unity of Christians. That Christians may attain full unity, witnessing to all the universal fatherhood of God.

I will post his intentions for subsequent months at the beginning of each month. In the meantime, check out the website of the Apostleship of Prayer for more information on this pious practice.

When something goes wrong in my family, my initial, emotional reaction is often to look for someone to blame. Only after that am I able to comfort the "victims" (e.g., the six-year-old that just got knocked down or poked in the eye). As I gather myself, I become better able to address the situation in a reasonable manner.

I think a similar dynamic is at work in Tucson. In the wake of the tragedy that took place there over the weekend, it's not altogether surprising that blame is extending well beyond the deranged shooter, Jared Lee Loughner. It's especially disappointing that some of the commentary is politically motivated, as though "the Republicans" or "the Tea Party" or "the Democrats" are to blame for this. I think most people are put off by this outrageous, inflammatory rhetoric.

Occasions such as these should bring us together as a nation. We've had our initial emotional reaction. Now it's time to mourn the dead, heal the wounded, support and comfort the victims' families, honor the heroes, and pray for all concerned. And then Loughner and any related societal issues can be addressed in a just and reasonable way. That's my two cents' anyway.

Click here for the comments of Archbishop Timothy Dolan, the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. 

The first reading at Mass today (and any day) is not taken from the Gospel, but it sure is good news! Below is the text, with verses that I find especially inspiring highlighted: 

Beloved, if God so loved us,
we also must love one another.
No one has ever seen God.
Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us,
and his love is brought to perfection in us.

This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us,
that he has given us of his Spirit.
Moreover, we have seen and testify
that the Father sent his Son as savior of the world.
Whoever acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God,
God remains in him and he in God.
We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us.

God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him.
In this is love brought to perfection among us,
that we have confidence on the day of judgment
because as he is, so are we in this world.
There is no fear in love,
but perfect love drives out fear
because fear has to do with punishment,
and so one who fears is not yet perfect in love. (1 John 4:11-18)

Today is also the feast of St. John Neumann, not to be confused with the recently beatified John Henry Newman. This 19th-century immigrant priest became known as the Apostle of the Alleghenies, and he later became the Bishop of Philadelphia. While most saints lived long ago in far away places, St. John Neumann is very much part of our own cultural history. This was brought home to me when I lived in Ohio. I belonged to the St. John Neumann Knights of Columbus Council, and in our St. John Neumann adoration chapel, we actually had baptismal and marriage records signed by none other than this holy cleric!

St. John Neumann eventually became a U.S. citizen, and he was the first U.S. bishop to become a saint. Let's take this opportunity to pray, through the intercession of St. John Neumann, for our own bishops and priests.

On a personal note, I will be away from my computer for a few days. I will resume my daily posts next week. 

Ignatius Insight, an outreach of My Catholic Faith Delivered partner Ignatius Press, has posted its annual "The Best Books I've Read in . . ." entry. Each year Ignatius Insight asks Christian intellectuals to provide lists of the best books they have read during the past year. 

This year's post has recommended reading from the likes of Michael O'Brien, Joseph Pearce, and Fr. James V. Schall, S.J., just to name a few. Some simply offer lists, while most provide some description of the merits of each book.

I'm still finishing my reading from last year (see last week's "Becket List"), but when it comes time in a week or so to pick out a new book, I will turn to these lists for some helpful guidance!

Today is the memorial of the Holy Name of Jesus. The saints through the ages have borne witness to the Holy Name of Jesus. Here are a few noteworthy examples:

"At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." --St. Paul (Philippians 2:10-11)

"St. Paul bore the Name of Jesus on his forehead because he gloried in proclaiming it to all men; he bore it on his lips because he loved to invoke it; on his hands, for he loved to write it in his epistles; in his heart, for his heart burned with love of it." --St. Thomas Aquinas

"Jesus, Name full of glory, grace, love and strength! You are the refuge of those who repent, our banner of warfare in this life, the medicine of souls, the comfort of those who mourn, the delight of those who believe, the light of those who preach the true faith, the wages of those who toil, the healing of the sick. To You our devotion aspires; by You our prayers are received; we delight in contemplating You. O Name of Jesus, You are the glory of all the saints for eternity. Amen." 
--St. Bernardine of Siena

In our online Faith Foundations course at www.mycatholicfaithdelivered.com, we discuss how devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus More...

My “guardian angel” left this quote from St. Francis de Sales on my desk a couple years ago, and it's been there ever since:

"The worst defect in talking is talking too much. Hence, in speech be brief and virtuous, brief and gentle, brief and simple, brief and charitable, brief and amiable.”

Okay, I get the message. (Don’t have to hit me over the head!) Need I look further for a New Year's resolution?

For many people, Christmas ends on Christmas day, so over the ensuing few days, amidst the various after-Christmas sales, the trees are unceremoniously taken down and dragged out to the curb.

But for those of us who do have a sense of Christmas extending beyond December 25th, the question still remains: When does Christmas season actually end? When should we take down not only our tree, but also other seasonal items such as nativity sets?

Traditionally, Christmas season is twelve days (like the song), which would take us to January 6th, the traditional date for celebrating the Epiphany, when the wise men brought gifts to the child Jesus. Now Epiphany is only approximately 12 days after Christmas, as it falls on the second Sunday after Christmas. This year, since Christmas was last Saturday, the feast of the Epiphany will take place this coming Sunday, January 2nd. 

But while Epiphany is an important feast within the context of the Christmas season, it doesn't bring about the end of the Christmas season. The Christmas season ends on the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, at which point "Ordinary Time" begins. The Sunday after the Baptism of the Lord is thus the second Sunday of Ordinary Time.

The Baptism of the Lord usually falls on the Sunday after Epiphany, which this year will be January 9th.

Lastly, prior to the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), the Christmas season extended all the way to February 2nd, the feast of the Presentation of the Lord (aka Purification of Our Lady or Candlemas), based on Luke 2:22-38. While that is no longer the case, there is still something of a Christmas "flavor" to the early weeks of Ordinary Time leading up to the Presentation of the Lord.

But what does all that have to do with taking down my tree? And besides, if I wait too long to take it down, the garbage trucks won't take it!

Well, rest assured there are no "rules" on all this. My recommendation, based on the liturgical season, is to keep Christmas decorations up till the Baptism of the Lord (January 9th). If that seems a little extreme for your household, I'd counsel at least waiting till after Epiphany (January 2nd). That's especially true for nativity sets that include the three wise men.

And after all, why cut short "the most wonderful time of the year"?

I'm sure many readers have heard of The Bucket List. It's the movie in which characters played by Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman have terminal cancer. They decide to make the most of their remaining time by composing a "bucket list" of things they wanted to do before they die.

And then the adventures began! 

Since the new year is now only three days away, I thought I would do something a little different. So, I have composed a "Becket" list, in honor of St. Thomas Becket, the 12th-century archbishop and martyr whose feast the Church celebrates today. The Becket list, part serious and part whimsical, contains things I would like to do before the end of the year. Without further ado (after all, I gotta get busy!), here's my list:

(1) Recall all the blessings of 2010.

(2) Do all the things I put off till the Christmas holiday, when presumably I would "have more time."

(3) Pray for those who "left" us this year. I'm thinking mostly of those who died in 2010, especially my oldest brother, Bob, but also of my daughter Mary Kate, who in August became Sr. Mary Kate.

(4) Figure out how to operate the kids' Wii game.

(5) Lose ten pounds (five "old" pounds and the five put on over Christmas).

(6) Finish the three books I'm presently reading (without starting a fourth until they're finished!).

(7) Set goals and make resolutions for 2011.

(8) Clean my office!

(9) Tax stuff. Sure, the IRS gives us extra time for some things, but as much as possible I like to have my "ducks" lined up. And surely this includes end-of-the-year donations to Catholic apostolates and charities!

(10) Playoffs! Of course I have to make plans to watch the playoff run of the Kansas City Chiefs, the AFC West champs! 

What's on your Becket list?

Today the Church celebrates the Feast of the Holy Innocents, the little boys who were massacred by Herod in an attempt to put the Christ Child to death. These “innocents” are now venerated as martyrs.

There is an obvious connection between the Holy Innocents and the victims of abortion, whose deaths are also made possible by political regimes that really want to kill God. After all, not only does Christ present Himself as an alternative to Caesar, but His Church is the definitive bastion of the natural law, objective truth, and moral goodness in the public square. In other words, the Church is the leading voice against the “tyranny of relativism” and immoral expedience imposed by modern-day Herods.

But there is yet another set of innocents. I’m thinking of today’s youth, whose psychosexual development has largely been left in the same hands as those who wanted them killed in the womb.  And so, in the name of “sex education,” today’s youth are robbed of their human dignity, their reproductive capacity, and ultimately the spark of the divine that makes them capable of receiving the gift of eternal life.

Against these odds, we have the Feast of the Holy Innocents to remind us that God’s mercy and goodness will triumph, though our witness requires courage and possibly martyrdom.

Father, the Holy Innocents offered you praise by the death they suffered for Christ. May our lives bear witness to the faith we profess with our lips. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

In honor of the feast of St. John the Evangelist, I thought I would devote a "top ten" list today to my favorite quotes from St. John's Gospel.

I was going to open it up to all five books of the Bible written by St. John, so that I could include favorite quotes from his epistles (e.g., 1 John 3:1) and the Book of Revelation (e.g., Revelation 21:1, 4). However, the magnificent Gospel according to John provides more than enough material to work with! Here's my list:

(1) And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father. (John 1:14) What a profound teaching on the Incarnation!  And I'm pleased that in both of my children's schools they pray the Angelus daily, which includes this beautiful verse.

(2) For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16) This verse gives us the motive for the Incarnation, that in the words of the early Fathers of the Church, God became man so that man could participate in the very life of God. Wow!

(3) Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you." (John 6:53) The entire Bread of Life discourse in John 6 is fantastic. I chose this verse as it vividly teaches that the Eucharist sustains us in our journey to God. I could easily have chosen the response of St. Peter to Our Lord's words: Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life . . ." (John 6:68)

(4) The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. (John 10:10) This is part of Our Lord's "Good Shepherd" discourse. What's not to love about a God who is our good shepherd, who came to give us abundant life? Baaa!

(5) Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. (John 12:24) This may be my favorite verse in the entire Bible. Dostoevski said that his classic, 1,000-page novel Brothers Karamazov is but an artistic reflection on this profound verse. And the next verse continues the paradox: He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. (John 12:25)

(6) A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. (John 13:34) Not only is this a powerful verse in its own right, but I think this teaching of Our Lord is one that really resonated with John and sustained him for decades. Later in life, he is reputed to have told his disciples over and over again: "Children, love one another."

(7) I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:5) I love this verse because it reminds me that apostolic fruitfulness is entirely dependent upon our connectedness to Christ through prayer and the sacraments.

(8) "I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me." (John 17:20-21)  The ecumenical imperative that we encounter today is rooted in these words of the Lord that are recorded only in St. John's Gospel. God is one. The Church is one. Christians still have a little work to do!

(9) When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, "Woman, behold, your son!" Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother!" And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home. (John 19:26-27) This one is especially dear to me, since today is the feast day of my son Samuel John. I gave him that name because I wanted him to be a "beloved disciple" who welcomes Mary into his heart and, one day, into his home (or rectory).

(10) When they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. (John 19:33-34) This one may leave some readers scratching their head. I marvel at the way in which all the prophecy comes together in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. And here in particular the Church has always interpreted the blood and water flowing from the side of Christ as symbolizing the life-giving sacraments, as indeed the Church in a sense was "born" when His side was pierced (see Catechism, no. 766).

And btw, honorable mention goes to:

John 3:31--He must increase, but I must decrease.

John 16:33--I have said this to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.

John 20:22-23--And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."

Merry Christmas, everyone!  All is well here in KC, the home of the Kansas City Chiefs, the AFC West champions!

When you think about it, doesn’t “Christmas Eve” sound like an apt title for the Blessed Virgin Mary?

As Christmas day rapidly approaches, I thought our readers would appreciate a snippet of a sermon by St. Augustine, which is the reading for today’s Office of Readings (matins) in the Church’s liturgy:

“Awake, mankind! For your sake God has become man. Awake you who sleep, rise up from the dead, and Christ will enlighten you. I tell you again: for your sake, God became man. . . .

“Let us then joyfully celebrate the coming of our salvation and redemption. Let us celebrate the festive day on which he who is the great and eternal day came from the great and endless day of eternity into our own short day of time.”

Come Lord Jesus, do not delay; give new courage to Your people who trust in Your love. By Your coming, raise us to the joy of Your kingdom, where You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.