A men’s group on the campus of Ave Maria University in Ave Maria, Florida, is equipping young men with the tools necessary to become selfless husbands and loving fathers. The St. Joseph’s Men’s Group is made up of roughly 190 men striving to emulate the group’s namesake.

Through fellowship, presentations, and small-group discussions, these young men help one another grow and support one another in their vocations. The group is made up of two kinds of members — regular members who actively participate in the group’s community life and “fraternity” members who lead smaller, more intentional gatherings on specific topics. There are currently 12 fraternity members.

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The FBI released its latest Uniform Crime Reporting survey last week that revealed a notable positive trend continuing across the US—with violent and property crimes dropping by double digits.

Compared to January through March 2023, data from the first quarter of 2024 indicates that reported violent crime decreased by 15.2 percent.

Murder decreased by more than 26 percent.

Rape is down by 25.7 percent.

Robbery dropped by 17.8 percent.

Aggravated assault reports decreased by 12.5 percent.


Property crime also decreased by just over 15 percent.

The report includes data from more than 18,000 city, county, state, tribal, university and college, and federal law enforcement agencies.

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Michie said:

These holy men were wonderful fathers, or father figures, and can provide a real source of inspiration today.

Father's Day gives us the opportunity to honor men the men in our lives past and present, and this can also extend to the Church.

If you take a look back over the centuries, there are plenty of saints who were not only devout in their faith, but extraordinary fathers as well. While you'll be familiar with saints such as St. Joseph and Mary's father, St. Joachim, there are a myriad of less talked about saints who through their dedication to their families and their virtuous lives, can provide inspiring examples of fatherhood today.

As these eight saints below show, faith, love, and commitment in nurturing and guiding a family are just as important today as they were centuries ago.

1ST. THOMAS MORE (1478-1535)​

St. Thomas More, an English lawyer, social philosopher, and statesman, was also a devoted family man. Despite his demanding career, he made his family a priority, ensuring they received an excellent education and were nurtured in faith and virtue. His famous highly-educated daughter, Margaret, shared a close bond with him, reflecting his influence as a loving and attentive father. St. Thomas More's balance of professional and familial responsibilities, along with his moral integrity, stands out as a model for fatherhood.

2ST. LEOPOLD III (1073-1136)​

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8 Less talked about saints who were epic fathers

These holy men were wonderful fathers, or father figures, and can provide a real source of inspiration today.

aleteia.org

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God bless these 8 saints.

Brihaha said:

If Mr Trump's communication skills were good, y'all wouldn't have to translate them with these ineffectual excuses.

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I can't argue for his great communication skills. It would make it more difficult for the left to pull his statements out of context. His oratory skills are certainly lacking.

The Walking Tree named New Zealand’s 2024 Tree of the Year – SWNS

A lone tree that looks like it’s out for a stroll has been crowned the 2024 Tree of the Year in New Zealand.

This extraordinary Metrosideros robusta, nicknamed The Walking Tree, ‘walked away’ with the award bestowed by the New Zealand Arboricultural Association.

Located near a cemetery in South Island, its quirky leg-style trunks immediately conjure Tolkien’s sentient walking Ents in the fantasy trilogy Lord of the Rings.

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We are admonished not to take part in the communion in an unworthy manner. I think that if this was ever a concern in Christendom, then we would not have 40,000 churches arguing and fighting each other.

Akita Suggagaki said:

Is this what you are expreincing? The church teaching that realization of the truth, and actually be delivered from sin is not necessary or even unattainable?

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Yeah I don't see even so much as a desire to be free from sin. People seem to be content that their sins are "covered", and that they have the necessities of life, they might even be "prosperous", but an actual heart for those afflicted, and the lost, or even the realization of their own state, I don't think I've ever seen that to be honest.

No more use of the term “Church Teaching,” that is. The Church needs to use “Catholic Doctrine” instead of “Church Teaching,” because the Church needs Catholic Doctrine. Without the deliberate attempt to be faithful to Catholic Doctrine, the effort to be Catholic – as a person, a parish, or an institution – will not consistently avoid errors in belief and practice or commission and omission.

I will make this case in two columns. In this column, I will explain what doctrine is. In the second column, I will show ways the Church needs doctrine and “doctrine.”

Defining “Doctrine”​

The word “doctrine” has been used countless times in the history of official Church documents, including official documents from the Vatican during the reign of Pope Francis. Yet outside of official documents, “doctrine” is a word almost unused in the Church since Vatican II. When is the last time you found “doctrine” used in a homily; or in a Catholic radio or TV program, video, podcast, or column; or in the mission statement, promotional material, or instruction of a Catholic educational institution or organization?

Amazingly, there is no official definition of “doctrine.” Therefore I offer the following definition, which I have used in my monthly column on the doctrinal meaning of the Sunday Readings. Catholic Doctrine is the essentially unchangeable clarification of Revelation and Faith that only the pope and bishops in union with him have the authority to make and that must be accepted as objectively true in order to be Catholic. I believe it is in harmony with the Catechism of the Catholic Church, e.g., 85-90, 94-95, and 888-892; the “Doctrinal Commentary on the Concluding Formula of Professio Fidei” issued under the authority of then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as the Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith; and Avery Cardinal Dulles’ Magisterium: Teacher and Guardian of the Faith(Sapientia Press, 2007). I will explain my definition point by point.

Revelation and Faith​

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Various spiritual writers have seen apocalyptic symbolism in the destruction of Jericho, looking at it from a Christian perspective.

In the book of Joshua, God commands Joshua to march around the walls of Jericho, promising to deliver to him the city:

Now Jericho was shut up from within and from without because of the people of Israel; none went out, and none came in. And the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have given into your hand Jericho, with its king and mighty men of valor. You shall march around the city, all the men of war going around the city once. Thus shall you do for six days. And seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark; and on the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, the priests blowing the trumpets."
Joshua 6:1-4

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Apocalyptic symbolism​

As with any part of the Bible, the story can be viewed from a variety of angles, including a spiritual reading that looks to the end of the world.

The Christian writer Origen detailed his thoughts in a homily that was included in the Church's official Office of Readings:

In the Scriptures Jericho is often represented as an image of the world. There can be no doubt that the man whom the Gospel describes as going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and falling into the hands of brigands is an image of Adam being driven out of paradise into the exile of this world. Likewise the blind men in Jericho, to whom Jesus came to give sight, signified the people in this world who were blinded by ignorance, to whom the Son of God came.

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Origen then sees in this story of the fall of Jericho, the fall of this world:

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Kristina Bessolova | Shutterstock



As we celebrate all the fathers this Sunday, here's a special tribute to those NICU daddies supporting their preemie babies and wives.

Becoming a father necessitates a huge emotional, physical, and spiritual change in a man's life. It's an exciting moment that will lead them on an unknown path full of chaos, extra responsibility, new skills, but above all, love.

Bearing all this in mind, it's hard to imagine how hard it must be for new dads when the delivery day doesn't go quite so smoothly. Perhaps the baby comes too early, or the baby is born with health issues that require special treatment in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit).

A sense of "helplessness and anxiety"​

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Happy Father’s Day!

Still undergoing chemotherapy, the 42-year-old princess attended an important royal event with grace and courage.

On Friday, June 14, the Princess of Wales shared that she would be attending the Trooping the Colour today, an impressive military parade that marks the reigning British sovereign's official birthday. It would be the first appearance of Catherine since she announced in March that she would be undergoing preventative chemotherapy.

The news was greeted with much excitement as wellwishers of the princess were keen to see her out and about, and to be reassured that she is on the road to recovery.
And as the royal stepped out in all her finery today, accompanied by her three young children, it was hard not be full of admiration for her, and the impeccably behaved Prince George and Princess Charlotte, and a near perfect performance from Prince Louis, who couldn't resist a large yawn (we don't blame him!) and playing with the curtain.

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A reminder.

It’s nice to have resources on hand.

In honor of Father’s Day.

Amen.

Thought I’d bump this up.

George Soros left his estate in good hands.

"The New York Times reported. Alex, in a July 2023 interview with the Wall Street Journal, described himself as “more political” than his father and said he would focus on advancing abortion rights."

The Barbarian said:

For example, kinetic theory is science. Phrenology was never science.


The rules. For an idea to become a scientific theory, its predictions must be repeatedly verified by evidence.
You don't have elections to decide what science is.

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Who makes these rules?

The Barbarian said:

It's not like that. The process evolved over a very long time, People like the Ionian philosophers, Arabic scientists, Europeans like Roger Bacon, and so on, discovered and perfected a methodology that works. It is a logical process of induction that formalized what many people had discovered over thousands of years.

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Induction is only one part of science, in fact the larger part of science is critical redaction. There are numerous epistemic issues that are often less clear than people believe as to what makes a science and what doesn't.

The Barbarian said:

There's nothing idealized in the notion that we can systematically learn about the world. It's just a method. The problem is that for many laymen, science is visualized as something like a religion. It's not like that at all.

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It's not just a method, it's a model.

The Barbarian said:

There is a philosophy of science, but it's merely the application of inductive reasoning. Nothing that depends on public opinion or faith.

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There's more than just inductive reasoning involved, in fact one of the biggest epistemic problems for philosophy of science is the induction problem since there is no non-circular way to justify the inductive method itself. Though that's a bit outside of our current discussion, which is the demarcation problem. While some things easily fit under the purview of science, what makes something a science and what doesn't qualify is a matter of debate. So to unilaterally say "that's not a science" requires some sort of non-question begging definition of science, and while our understanding of what is and isn't a science may change over time the question we're currently discussing rather falls more into the issue of the entire naturalist program since we can functionally treat them as identical for the purposes of our discussion.

The Barbarian said:

For example, "how many times must the predictions of a hypothesis be verified in order for it to be a theory?"

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The Barbarian said:

Discovering a way to make logic circuits fit in a smaller space is science. Building 4TB drives is technology. Technology is application of science. And this is a sore point with some engineers. They aren't junior scientists; they have their own discipline, no less demanding than that of science, and it is their work that makes science save lives.

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Applied science is still science.

I agree vs 21 is important to the section.

IbelieveinmyGodnotHuman said:

Thanks that's what I would like to say to my sister I hope she think about it carefully.

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You are welcome. I hope that the church thinks about it carefully, and allows your sister to go for free or reduced price.

Kokavkrystallos said:

There are a number of factors of what could happen, and what the causes are.

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Yep, it could be both climate change and a nuclear war, or something else, such as a meteor, but probably the first two.

AlwaysInquisitive said:

This is how I interpret Rev 21:1-27

Rev 21:2 Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

Here, the holy city, New Jerusalem is not called or named “the bride”.
Rather its glory is likened to the beauty of a bride prepared and adorned for her husband.

Rev 21:9 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me, saying, "Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife.”
Rev 21:10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,

You can take this two ways. Only one makes sense to me.
1) The Lamb will be marry a city (New Jerusalem), or
2) The city (New Jerusalem) is the dwelling place of the Lamb’s bride

I choose to believe the latter.

This is how I interpret John 3;29:

There are 3 individuals mentioned: the bride, the bridegroom, and the friend of the bridegroom.

Joh 3:29 He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled.

Taking the whole passage (John 3:22-36) in it’s historical context:
The Lord Jesus Christ was the bridegroom. John the Baptist was merely the friend of the bridegroom, the “best man.” The bride does not belong to the friend of the bridegroom, but rather to the bridegroom himself. Therefore, it was fitting that the people follow Jesus rather than John.

“The bride” was used in this passage to refer in a general way to all who would become disciples of the Lord Jesus (i.e. those who had left John the Baptist when the Messiah appeared). It did not mean either Israel or the church. It was John’s great joy to hear the bridegroom's voice. He was satisfied that Jesus was receiving all the attention. His joy was fulfilled because Christ was receiving praise and honour from men.

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There is also:
Col 1:18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.

Grip Docility said:

1 John 1:8

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Well if I recall correctly the next verse says that he will forgive our sin. Hence how is it possible to continue in sin?

How do I know God's real?
What makes me think that I am a Christian?
What distinguishes me from a Buddhist, Muslim, or any non-religious good man?
What is the evidence that Jesus exists?
What makes you feel loved by God?
How do I know that God is a living God?

God lives in me. 1 Corinthians 3:

16 Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?

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I can sense the Paraclete in me all the time. Whenever I focus on him, I feel peace no matter what is happening outside. I cannot deny the reality of the Paraclete in me.

Romans 8:

16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.

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I have been born again.

My Paraclete in me is the best subjective proof that I am a Christian. This is how I know that I am saved.

What is unique about Christianity?

The divine personal mystery of the Father and Son is not a human concept, and I don't think it was a concept invented by humans (the apostles). It reflects the transcendence and ineffability nature of the true God.

Is there any religion where God sent himself to die for people's sins, other than Christianity?

No. While other religions offer various paths to spiritual growth, moral improvement, or liberation, none share Christianity’s emphasis on a Father God who personally intervenes to redeem his creation by sending his one and only Son.

How do I know that someone is saved?

I can't know for sure unless specifically by a revelation. In the meantime, I can observe his behaviors and guess. Galatians 5:

22 The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

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What makes my experience with Jesus true, but the experience of others with their religion is fake?

I don't know about them. I can only sense my Paraclete/Spirit in me.

Do you ever consider the possibility that you only believe in God, because you're afraid of death?

Before I called myself a Christian, I didn't believe in the afterlife. I had a scientific worldview. If I died, that's the end of my existence. Even after I called myself a Christian, I do not quite believe in conscious torment over an infinite period of time. I have always been against hell-fire evangelism.

See also

• What's your best argument for God's existence?