Paul's letters in the New Testament are not his primary evangelism tool. They are not his first contact with the Romans, Galatians, etc. They are a follow-up to his in-person preaching of the Gospel in those places. So it is worth asking, based on these letters, "What would Paul's original preaching have to have been like?"
Read MoreI had one goal when starting out this series of posts - to end the Catholic love affair with suffering, at least in the minds of some. In this final post (4/4), I want to focus on how to live a victorious Christian lifestyle. This is not a formula - all of this must flow out of a living, breathing relationship with Christ - but is meant to provide certain guideposts for pursuing the victory that Jesus has already won and wishes to extend to us.
Read MoreGo ahead and re-read the Gospels. Keep a tally if you want. See how much it portrays the triumph of Christ over what afflicts man, over what steals, kills, and destroys in man's life, versus how much it talks about the need to embrace suffering in our life. (Post 3/3 on suffering.)
Read MoreMalcolm Gladwell's Blink is a book about snap judgments, why they are sometimes better than our reasoned-out deliberations, sometimes worse, and how to identify which is which. It provides insights and challenges with implications on ministry and life.
Read MoreI was honored recently to be invited by the Youth Apostles community to speak at one of their regular formation nights. The invitation was extended based on a series of posts I wrote on Inviting the Act of Faith, which was an exploration on my part of how we can invite people to make an explicit decision for Christ in a Catholic context. The talk I presented, which can be viewed on Youtube below, was a summary of that series with practical pointers for how to put it into practice.
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