Looking to Further Your Catholic Education?

At the heart of all conversions we encounter people. People who, by their example and leadership, guide those who are seeking into fullness of truth. Augustine had Ambrose. Aquinas had Albert the Great. And we, who do we have?

Maybe you have enough disposable income to take coursework through an orthodox college or university. The majority of us do not. We have our minds, our books and an ocean of information on the internet that we aren’t sure if it is fact, opinion, truth or heresy.

We need someone to help us discover truth. And we need a means to be able to connect with that someone, one that is both inexpensive and time manageable.

The Dominican Institute is that someone.

My friend, T.J. Burdick, has created a learning platform for those who seek the timeless truths of the Catholic faith but do not have the economic or scheduling stability to do so. Courses cost less than 10% what you would pay at other Catholic Colleges and Universities and more courses are begin added all of the time. To top it off, each professor has earned their Masters Degree or their Doctorate in their subject discipline and all are 100% loyal to the teachings of the Magisterium of the Catholic Church.

This project is exactly what the new evangelization is all about. It creates a space for the Ambroses to meet with the Augustines, the Alberts with the Aquinas’. It places Christ at the center of learning and illuminates the minds of truth seekers in the light of objective truth. What’s more, since St. Dominic is the founder of the Order of Preachers, the site provides evangelistic content worth sharing- videos, memes, posts, you name it, they’re preaching, and they’re winning souls.

Had this site existed when I was going through my conversion, I would have become Catholic a LOT quicker. Even now that I’ve crossed the Tiber, the first place I’ll look to learn more will be through the Dominican Institute. Do yourself a favor and go and explore what they have to offer. I promise you won’t be sorry.

In fact, they are running a massive giveaway at the moment and you could land yourself a free spot in one of their courses on top of a multitude of other free things.

Click here check it out. 

Jesus Had Me Surrounded

I just returned from a Saturday evening Mass, on the eve of a snowstorm in St. Louis ... if you think Christmas Eve is crowded, you have no idea!  (Personally, I found it pretty darn awesome.)  Shoulder-to-shoulder with my brothers and sisters after Communion, I had the simple thought, "Jesus has me surrounded."  And it was absolutely true. 

I found myself in the middle of a visible manifestation of that tremendous mystery written of by St. Paul: "we who are many are one Body, for we all partake of the one Bread" (1 Cor. 10:17).  Our communion in Jesus' sacrifice (made present in the Eucharist) creates the Church and deepens its unity.  As St. Augustine taught, "“If you have received worthily, you are what you have received [the Body of Christ]." There I sat, visibly surrounded by other cells of Jesus' Mystical Body!  It is a constant spiritual reality - for each of us - and tonight's experience made it visible.  Pretty cool that it happened as we celebrate Epiphany, Jesus' "manifestation" to the Gentiles (represented in the Magi).

Let me leave you with one last thought:  The next time you and your brothers and sisters are walking to your cars after Mass, remember these words of St. John Chrysostom, "Let us return from that Table like lions breathing out fire, terrifying to the devil!"  (Yeah, they didn't call St. John "the golden-tongued" (chrysostom) for nothing.)

Guest Post: St. Augustine on Jesus' Ascension (and Ours)

Peter Paul Rubens' St. Augustine

Today our Lord Jesus Christ ascended into heaven; let our hearts ascend with him. Listen to the words of the Apostle: If you have risen with Christ, set your hearts on the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God; seek the things that are above, not the things that are on earth. For just as he remained with us even after his ascension, so we too are already in heaven with him, even though what is promised us has not yet been fulfilled in our bodies.

Christ is now exalted above the heavens, but he still suffers on earth all the pain that we, the members of his body, have to bear. He showed this when he cried out from above: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? and when he said: I was hungry and you gave me food.

Why do we on earth not strive to find rest with him in heaven even now, through the faith, hope and love that unites us to him? While in heaven he is also with us; and we while on earth are with him. He is here with us by his divinity, his power and his love. We cannot be in heaven, as he is on earth, by divinity, but in him, we can be there by love.

He did not leave heaven when he came down to us; nor did he withdraw from us when he went up again into heaven. The fact that he was in heaven even while he was on earth is borne out by his own statement: No one has ever ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven.

These words are explained by our oneness with Christ, for he is our head and we are his body. No one ascended into heaven except Christ because we also are Christ: he is the Son of Man by his union with us, and we by our union with him are the sons of God. So the Apostle says: Just as the human body, which has many members, is a unity, because all the different members make one body, so is it also with Christ. He too has many members, but one body.