Catholic East Texas
The Magazine of the Diocese of Tyler
The Incarnation of Jesus Christ
Who is Jesus Christ? When we profess the Nicene Creed, we declare that Jesus is uncreated, of the same divine substance as God the Father, eternal, truly God and that he became man. The Church also teaches in the Catechism of the Catholic Church that “Jesus...
Get Out of the Boat
One of my favorite Gospel stories is Matthew 14:22-33, the story of Jesus walking on water. In fact, I like this story so much, there’s a large painting of this scene in my office. We’ve all heard this reading at least once in our lives… How the disciples were...
A Treasure in Clay
Recently, news spread from the Diocese of Peoria that the Beatification of Venerable Fulton Sheen, which had been scheduled for December 21, would be postponed. The press release gave few details, merely noting that a group of American Bishops asked for further...
The Doctrine of the Holy Trinity
In the Catechism of the Catholic Church we are taught that the central mystery of the faith, the fundamental and essential teaching of Christianity, is the doctrine of the Trinity (234). This is the revelation that our Almighty Creator is one God in three Persons: the...
What Do I Do with My Hands?
Ever been at a formal social event and found yourself wondering, “What do I do with my hands?” If not, count your blessings. A lot of people have this experience of feeling tremendously awkward in a social setting, simply for not knowing what to do with their hands....
“Turn Back O Children of Men!”
The tragedy of the story is that humans used their intellectual and physical powers to stop babies from happening so much so that their bodies followed suit. When Julian conceives against the stark backdrop of a childless landscape, there is no doubt that there is a human child’s life at stake, and her companions risk everything to protect mother and baby.
Let the Little Children Come: The Power, Risk, and Joy of our God-Given Fertility
The joining of a man and a woman in marriage invites us to take up our cross and follow him to Calvary. This cross does not only consist of learning to love one another in the face of unspoken expectations, rough edges, and a failure of communication; it involves the uncertainty and the risk of fertility.
Temperance: The Virtue That Expresses Our True Humanity
Through temperance, we are free to live to the fullest because our humanity is not enslaved to its own flesh. This same temperance liberates us so that we can seek the highest and loftiest purposes for which God created us; that is, so that we can seek God himself.
The Virtue of Hope
Too often we see the gloom of our culture, a world fractured by division that stems from so many sources they are too numerous to count, and we become despondent; that is, we begin down the road of despair. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI said once, “To have Christian hope means to know about evil and yet to go to meet the future with confidence.”
The Early Church Prayed for the Dead
A non-Catholic funeral usually is not a prayer for the person who has died, just a memorial service. This is why non-Catholics are often struck by the beauty and foreignness of a Catholic funeral: unlike many non-Catholic Christians, we Catholics are there to pray for the dead.
The Apostasy that Wasn’t: The Extraordinary Story of the Unbreakable Early Church By Rod Bennett
For many who believe in the “Great Apostasy,” this is where the story ends. But Bennett gives us the rest of the story, showing that much of the support that existed for Arius’s teaching was more about political power than a search for truth.
The Early Church’s Contribution to Marriage
The distinctly Christian understanding of marriage comes out in three aspects: permanence, equality, and fidelity.
