For the most part, my childhood in Catholic parochial schools was a nightmare. Almost from the get-go I was a rather shy, artistic, and introverted kid. I was woefully uncoordinated and completely disinterested in the
“And Jesus said: Neither will I condemn thee. Go, and now sin no more.” (John 8:11) “Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within
For this reason, a pastor cannot feel that it is enough simply to apply moral laws to those living in “irregular” situations, as if they were stones to throw at people’s lives. This would bespeak
When I returned to the Catholic Church in 1999, after an ineffectual childhood in the California parochial school system, and after a decade in the “gay” lifestyle, at best – what I found in the
“St. Joseph takes us into his carpenter shop; and (as the sun glances through the open door) he teaches us not in words but in deeds that in the glorious drama of life in which
“Pray the gay away” is a slogan often heard in the “gay” rights movement used as a pejorative in order to mock any and all efforts by Christian churches or groups to deal with the
Prologue: When I got to San Francisco in 1988, I expected an endless funeral procession to be moving down Castro Street – there wasn’t. Instead, I saw hundreds of boys, just like me: rather wide-eyed,
The icon I bought in 1992. “This world deceives even the wise with its appearance, for at times it appears desirable. It even offers benefits and treasures for loan, but in the day of death
I receive a lot of questions about getting out of the gay lifestyle; well, it’s easy to get into, but very difficult to get out. For, over the years, I never knew one person, heavily
At the moment of Christ’s intervention in my life, I saw the beautiful countenance of Jesus in the Image of Divine Mercy; at the time, I had no idea the history or background of the
In describing a dream in which he had a vision of various young men who had been taken over by the sin of lust, St. John Bosco (1815-1888) said: “I saw another throng of boys,
(Above: Dolores Park, 2014.) On January 15, 2015, Pope Francis announced that he would canonize Fr. Junipero Serra: the humble Spanish Franciscan Friar who founded a series of Catholic missions along the California coastline during
“Ostrov” (Russian: Остров, The Island) was a 2006 Russian biographical film about a fictional 20th century Eastern Orthodox monk; although the story bears a striking resemblance to the life of Orthodox mystic St. Theophilus (Feofil)
In the Orthodox faith, especially in Russia, there is a long tradition of “fools for Christ;” these holy men and women, according to Orthodox sources: “…battling within himself the root of all sin, pride. In
“…lust not only takes possession of the whole body and outward members, but also makes itself felt within, and moves the whole man with a passion in which mental emotion is mingled with bodily appetite,
“…evil is removed, not by removing any nature, or part of a nature, which had been introduced by the evil, but by healing and correcting that which had been vitiated and depraved. The will, therefore,
“…the Eucharist is the sacrament of Christ’s Passion according as a man is made perfect in union with Christ Who suffered.” ~ St. Thomas Aquinas Every gay man is a broken individual. For, in early
“God found in St. Joseph, as in a second David, the man that His heart desired, the man whom he could entrust with the deepest and most sacred mystery of His heart. To him as
(Above: St Francis sends a Brother to expel demons from a city.) Although the practice of Exorcism was not confined solely to clerics in the early-Church, since at least the third century, the Catholic Church
“The evil spirits, cunning thieves that they are, can take us by surprise and rob us of all we possess. They are watching day and night for the right moment. They roam incessantly seeking to
I regularly rewatch the 1953 film “The Robe” at least twice a year. Seeing the movie as a kid, it was one of the first VHS tapes my dad bought, is a happy memory from
(Above picture: From the below mentioned article.) In an ironic turn of truthfulness, that invariably reveals much about homosexuality and its root causes, a famous gay web-site heralded: “This Father’s Day there’s no shortage of
Picture caption: Photo is of actor Alessandro Preziosi as St. Augustine in the film “Augustine: The Decline of the Roman Empire” (aka Restless Heart;) the quote is from “A Woman of No Importance” by Oscar
“How beautiful, meek and charitable is Jesus, the incarnate Wisdom! Beautiful from all eternity, he is the splendor of his Father, the unspotted mirror and image of his goodness. He is more beautiful than the
“…dark contemplations is painful to the soul in these beginnings. Since this divine infused contemplation has many extremely good properties, and the still unpurged soul that receives it has many extreme miseries, and because two
From Thomas of Celano’s authoritative “Saint Francis of Assisi:” “A certain spiritual brother, long in religion, was afflicted with a great temptation of the flesh and he seemed almost sunk into the depths of despair…One
“And it came to pass, in those days, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And forthwith coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened,
Two things are plainly clear about St. John Paul’s view of homosexuality: 1.) His teachings were both grounded solidly on Holy Scripture and Tradition and his own philosophy popularly known as “The Theology of the
After seeing the dismally bad Ignatius Press re-edit of “Mary of Nazareth,” in which we are inflicted with a St. Joseph who violently screams at the Virgin Mary, angrily rips down a house with his
The life of St. Francis of Assisi is filled with numerous incidents that exemplify his devotion to physical mastery and the control over the passions: “…he designed for himself a tunic that bore a likeness
According to his contemporary biographer, Thomas of Celano, St. Francis believed: “…only the wall of the flesh would stand between him and God.” And, for this reason, Francis is well known as a great advocate
“Saint Joseph, our Father and Lord: most chaste, most pure. You were found worthy to carry the Child Jesus in your arms, to wash him, to hug him. Teach us to get to know God,
“Joseph loved Jesus as a father loves his son and showed his love by giving him the best he had. Joseph, caring for the child as he had been commanded, made Jesus a craftsman, transmitting
