Archive for the Posts Tagged ‘grace’

Only excerpts or summaries of the posts are shown on this page. Click on the title of a post to see the whole post.

Why is Hell Eternal?

Tuesday, November 8th, 2011

There is general agreement among Fathers, Doctors, and recent theologians that those punished in hell are incorrigible. In cases where some allowed or allow the possibility of a certain soul's or person's conversion (whether that conversion occur through the first time meeting with Christ in the case of pagans who did not know Christ on [...]

3 Comments »

Homily for the 25th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year A)

Sunday, September 18th, 2011

"As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isa 55:9). As soon as anyone thinks he has God totally figured out, he is posed to discover that it isn't true. Granting that his insight into the ways of God is basically [...]

No Comments »

Perfect Contrition and the Sacrament of Penance

Wednesday, May 5th, 2010

I was struck today by a potentially misleading formulation in the Catechism of the Catholic Church regarding the necessity of intending to confess one's sins in the Sacrament of Penance. A certain inseparability of remission of sins and the Sacrament of Penance is taught by the Council of Trent and by Pope John Paul II: [...]

1 Comment »

Predestination and hope in St. Paul

Friday, December 5th, 2008

I've recently had the occasion, in working with a student on predestination, to consider once again the role of predestination in St. Paul's letter to the Romans. It seems to some that the doctrine of predestination is at best useless, and at worst a dangerous doctrine, which tends to produce either presumption or despair. There [...]

5 Comments »

The Gifts of the Holy Spirit according to Thomas Aquinas

Saturday, November 22nd, 2008

All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. (Romans 8:14) If you are led by the Spirit you are not under the law. (Galatians 5:18) What are the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and what do they do? This post proposes an interpretation of St. Thomas Aquinas's teaching on "being [...]

No Comments »