Brian Killian has an excellent article up at Catholic Exchange taking a look at the romanticized Hollywood “love” scenes and how we typically view the act of sexual intercourse today: Remember the older Hollywood love scenes? A man and woman are wrapped in each other’s arms in front of gently billowing curtains and moonlight as they tenderly and lovingly kiss … Read More
TOB Tuesday: West is Back!
After the recent criticisms about his Theology of the Body interpretation and delivery from some prominent Catholic theologians, Christopher West took a 6 month sabbatical this year to reflect on his teaching methods. It is a shame that this decision caused West, who is one of the most popular TOB evangelists in the world, to miss the very first National … Read More
TOB Tues (LATE!): The Curriculum for the Culture of Life
I’m still bummed that I wasn’t able to attend the very first National Theology of the Body Congress last week. But I got lots of updates by following them on Twitter – mostly quotes from the different speakers throughout the three day event. By far, one of the best quotes I came across was from Cardinal Justin Rigali who, in … Read More
TOB Tues: Unwanted Children vs. Unwanting Adults
Jill Stanek’s most recent weekend question was that ever-popular pro-choice, knee-jerk reaction to pro-life opposition: “So…Are pro-lifers going to adopt all the unwanted babies?” One of Jill’s followers on Facebook had several great responses. This one was my favorite: Unwanted describes not the child but an attitude of some adults toward the child. The real problem isn’t unwanted children, but … Read More
TOB Tuesday: The Golden Sea
Drawing inspiration from the song 31 Flavors by Trevor Hall and his upcoming wedding anniversary, Theology of the Body speaker/teacher Bill Donaghy has a delicious reflection the true meaning and purpose of earthly marriage: “Tell me how many songs that I must sing before I can see you in your glory, hear your whole entire story, bathe inside your golden, … Read More
TOB Tuesday: The Mystery of Sex and Love
Brendan Roberts has a great Theology of the Body primer up at Catholic Exchange: Sexual messages are thrust upon us almost everywhere we turn. The sexual content of most television programs are helping to form the morals of the young generation especially. Therefore there are constant themes of making marital infidelity, sex divorced from covenantal relationships, contraception, active homosexuality, lying, … Read More
TOB Tuesday: Real Chastity
A great explanation of what chastity really is from Carl Anderson’s book Called to Love: Approaching John Paul II’s Theology of the Body (p.150): Real chastity has nothing to do with so-called “puritanism,” but is a life-affirming self-mastery in love. Chastity is the fruit of Christ’s gentle education of the heart, which gradually shapes the heart’s desires and feelings into … Read More
TOB Tuesday: Father’s Day & the TOB
In honor of Father’s Day this Sunday, see Fr. Thomas Loya’s latest article for Catholic Exchanges TOB Channel. The intro: It is appropriate that in our culture we observe “Father’s Day” during the warm weather time of year. This is a time of year when we see fathers doing a lot of outdoor grilling. We see Dad taking the kids … Read More
TOB Tuesday: Priests and Fatherhood
Father’s Day is coming up in a little less than two weeks and tomorrow marks the beginning of the end of the Year for Priests. In anticipation of these two events, I like Fr. James Farfaglia’s column over at Catholic Exchange on spiritual and natural fatherhood: [S]ome men are called to be fathers of a family through the sacrament of … Read More
TOB Tuesday: The Trinity and the Heart of Marriage
This Sunday Catholics celebrated the feast of the holy Trinity, three Persons in one God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – existing in an eternal exchange of love. From all eternity the Father makes himself a gift to the Son and the Son receives this gift and makes Himself a gift back to the Father in return. This love … Read More