Browsing Father Stephen's Columns
Five Precepts #4 (11/3/24)
Posted by Gail Schlicht on 10/29/24
Fasting and Abstinence Fasting is the worst! No matter how much I learn of its physical and spiritual benefits, I have had a bear of a time getting myself to enjoy the process of fasting and abstinence. Now that you’re sufficiently scandalized by my laxness, let me explain what ... Read More »
Five Precepts #3 (10/27/24)
Posted by Gail Schlicht on 10/29/24
Communion with God This next precept will strike modern Catholics as the strangest of the bunch. The Church requires that all Catholics receive Holy Communion at least once during the year sometime during the Lenten or Easter seasons. To those of us accustomed to receiving Communion far more frequently, ... Read More »
Five Precepts #2 (10/20/24)
Posted by Gail Schlicht on 10/29/24
The Grace of Forgiveness No one enjoys admitting they’ve messed up. It’s a feature, not a bug, of humanity to run away from coming clean. Remember what Adam and Eve did after they had eaten the forbidden fruit? “the man and his wife hid themselves from the Lord God ... Read More »
Five Precepts #1 (10/13/24)
Posted by Gail Schlicht on 10/29/24
The Gift of Sunday In 2021, Archbishop Jerome Listecki published a document entitled ‘The Gift of Sunday’ (https://shorturl.at/c0xY0). It explored the various reasons why Sunday is a gift from God to humanity and how we in turn are called to give it back to God. This reflection was all ... Read More »
Response (10/6/24)
Posted by Gail Schlicht on 10/29/24
Response In some ways, this column of our series on the basic Gospel message is the most challenging. Once we have seen, heard, and understood all that God has done for us, we might be at a loss as to what to do next. The Psalmist King David says ... Read More »
Rescued (9/29/24)
Posted by Gail Schlicht on 10/29/24
Rescued I recently re-watched the HBO series Band of Brothers, a World War II story told through the eyes of Easy Company (a parachute rifle company in the US Army) from training for D-Day in June 1944 to the end of the war the next summer. The scenes of ... Read More »
Captured (9/22/24)
Posted by Gail Schlicht on 10/29/24
Captured The story is told that one year the London Times sent out an inquiry to famous authors asking them to answer the question, “What’s wrong with the world today?” to which the English author and Catholic convert G.K. Chesterton replied, “Dear Sir, I am. Yours, G.K. Chesterton”. Last ... Read More »
Created (9/15/24)
Posted by Gail Schlicht on 10/29/24
Created The following articles are inspired by The Rescue Project, a series of videos explaining the fundamental Christian message by Acts XXIX. More information will be shared about this movement when we host the series in the future.
In order for you to be reading this right now, ... Read More »
Kerygma (9/8/24)
Posted by Gail Schlicht on 10/29/24
Kerygma - Back to Basics It’s never a bad idea to go “back to basics” once in a while and re-emphasize the most elemental things. NBA players practice free throws and layups, teachers do long division by hand, and chefs come back to their grandmother’s recipes. As ... Read More »
The Eucharist in the Early Church Part VII: The Bread of Eternal Life (8/25/24)
Posted by Gail Schlicht on 10/17/24
The Eucharist in the Early Church Part VII: The Bread of Eternal Life This is the seventh in a seven-part series on the Eucharist in the Early Church. This series began as an attempt to show, by reference to the earliest witnesses, the consistency of the ... Read More »