The single life is the time to gain self-mastery, to learn true freedom through self-denial, and to learn to look forward to the sanctification of your future spouse.  You should be praying for her now, not longing for a female body to play with.  It’s time to grow up and conquer lust because marriage is not the cure for your slavery.   Freedom is.

There is a demon that the saints, especially the desert fathers, recognized in this vein – the one that comes in the daytime, during our work, to propel us further into nothingness. He was called “the noonday devil” precisely because he comes in the light of day while we are at our normal duties and work.

Very often I encounter Catholic men that desire to grow in holiness- whether this is to learn more about their faith, grow in prayer or tackle a serious sin in their life- but very often they are not sure exactly where to start. The challenge can be overwhelming (especially if we have been away from […]

After discovering that sin is empty and unfulfilling, turning away from it and living the Christian moral life seems like a pretty straightforward idea: don’t do the things that Jesus says are sins. Check. However, after a bit of time and effort, we find that there’s more to it than we first thought.

I'm afraid of God. I’ve probably always been afraid of Him but just realized it – put it into those words – at the Vigil Mass for the Solemnity of Mary. May she pray for me now and at the hour of my death. This may be Proverbs 9:10: “The beginning of wisdom is fear of the LORD, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” I hedge (“may be”), because the “feeling” I refer to is claustrophobia: I am overwhelmed by His presence and power and feel the need to escape.

O St. Joseph predestined and chosen by God from among men, you received the glorious honor of being the chaste, guardian of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary. Inflamed with divine love you received her as your beloved wife and through her God bestowed upon you the most privileged distinction of being the virginal father of God the Son.

“I will fear, love and honor God above all others, even at the cost of my own life.” The early Church was full of martyrs. These men didn’t simply give up their lives for Christ, they faced their death with courage and — sometimes — even jokes! It is said that as St. Lawrence was being roasted to death on an iron grill, he teasingly told his torturers, “I am done on this side, turn me over.” Christ was so real to the early Christians that they counted death as nothing so long as they could be with Him. You may not have to die for your faith. But you may suffer from “soft martyrdom,” such as losing friends over your beliefs. The word “martyr” means “witness.” By holding true to Christ’s teachings, you are witnessing to a higher order of values.

And what about “polite”? We think of the word today as meaning, more or less, mannerly. A polite person is somebody with manners; somebody who has the kindness to say please and thank you. But in origin the word is closer to polish, with the sense that the polite person is a sort of gleaming silver teapot. From its Latin roots (politus, the past participle of polire, to smooth or polish) through its emergence in Middle English and well into the 1700s, the word meant a thing buffed up or cleansed or even organized, although other meanings also emerged. So it always is with important words.