As Christians, we understand that "Christ died for our sins." But we should also meditate on the fact that he suffered for our sins as well. We should be willing to die for our brother, yes. But that includes suffering for him. Sometimes it feels like it would be easier to take a bullet for your brother than to suffer for him. It may not be "fun," but suffering is good if we join it to the sufferings of Christ.

I prefer learning from other people's mistakes over making them myself, though I make plenty of my own. The most tragic mistake is hardness of heart. That never ends well. Come Holy Spirit, fill our hearts. Enkindle in us the fire of your love. === Hebrews 3:14-19: For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

It's good to go through a nightly examination of conscience, to repent every day, to always root out mortal sin and the sin of indifference -- because one day you might either wake up dead (too late to change) or be too sick or old or mentally impaired (unable to change). Turn to God today while you still can.

As I'm here visiting family in my home state, I'm taking my parents to a funeral this morning that will be conducted by a preacher who believes in a form of "soul sleep," who believes the soul is unconscious until the resurrection, at which point the saved will be raised with "spirit bodies" -- entirely new bodies composed of spirit (which is a contradiction of terms), unrelated to the old. Meanwhile he insists that Catholics don't even believe in the resurrection (we allegedly only believe our souls flit off into heaven to live in a disembodied state forever). Yet the truth is we believe what the Apostles' Creed plainly proclaims: We believe in the resurrection of the body. ⬅️ Can't get clearer than that. This preacher baptized me in 1993, and he knows me well, and over the years I've explained to him exhaustively many times what Catholics believe. But in his stubbornness, he will not admit publicly the truth of what Catholics actually teach. He has no idea yet I'm in town. During his funeral talk, I hope he watches me watching him as he tells his lies. I should do that Robert DeNiro gesture to him with my fingers and eyes. 😆

Please pray an Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be for my wife and me, for our intentions. We are visiting family and have some difficult family discussions to get through tomorrow. People with older parents will understand. Also for another personal intention. Thank you. God bless you.

It is such a blessing, after a week of busyness and trying to live our lives the best we can as sinners, to have Sunday Mass. Going to the traditional Roman rite of the Mass gives us time to literally kneel before God; to reflect; to pray; to confess our sins with contrition; to lift our hearts to God; to accept his mercy; to accept him onto our tongue, down our throat, and into our tummy -- into our soul. Not only is it the highlight of our week, but it's indeed the source and summit of our Faith. It's where we encounter Jesus most perfectly, where he feeds us with his life.

Idols of any kind are evil. The First Commandment is “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” What are idols? Are Mount Rushmore and the Lincoln Memorial idols? No, they only represent respected men whom we want to memorialize so we don’t forget them. Idols represent false gods. Are statues of Mary or Joseph or Jesus idols? No, neither Mary nor Joseph are gods at all, and Jesus is the true God. Do we worship wood, metal, or mortar? No. That would be stupid. Do we worship Mary or Joseph? No, we honor them — not as we do secular leaders, but as important and holy figures in salvation history, prominent members of the family of God. Artwork, whether paintings or sculptures, indicates our communion with them, not our worship of them. We worship God alone.

The reason Hell is bad is NOT its undesirable location 📌 or poor climate control 😓🔥. It's bad because its inhabitants are in a fixed state of mind or soul that opposes the love of God. It is eternal hopelessness, the irreversible deprivation of all goodness by their own choice in this life. Likewise, heaven is not a location; it's our immediate face-to-face relationship (as it were) with our Creator and Father, who fills our every hope and desire with his love ❤. Don't presume your eternal fate: ✝️ "Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall" (1 Cor. 10:12). Because the stakes are so high, the most important hour of life is the hour of death. Examine your conscience and pray an act of contrition every day 🙏, because you never know when that last hour will come for you. 💀

Dear non-denominational Christian friend: Please don't take offense, but take this seriously. If you insist on being saved strictly by Christ alone, with no men in the mix needed other than Christ, then why do you insist on being part of a "Bible-based church"? The infallible, God-breathed #Bible itself was penned by fallible, sinful men, not Jesus. The leatherbound collection of scriptures in your hand is not Jesus (it came off a printing press!), yet you call it (rightly) the Word of God, a title referring to Jesus -- the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. So if you believe God can use mere men to write the Bible -- and that he used other men to compile it, to tell us which books comprise it, to tell us that the collection is infallible, and to preserve it through the centuries -- then how can you say we do not need men? Especially when you have human teachers in your churches. You don't really believe what you're saying. You just feel compelled to say, "Catholic bad." Because you have to.

If you seriously identify as "Christian" but oppose "organized religion" or consider yourself "spiritual but not religious," then what's the alternative you stand for? Disorganized religion? Subjective, every-man-for-himself religion? Following your own made-up religious opinions? Or, in lieu of a religion, do you treat Christianity as a rule-of-thumb set of ethics, a philosophy of life you judge to be mostly agreeable? These are objectively wrong approaches. Sober up, man.

OPEN CARRY WHILE DRIVING It's not always ideal, but some days you may need to squeeze in your spiritual combat training on the way to work. The #rosary is a powerful weapon that, if prayed well, will help you keep your eyes on the narrow road that leads to eternal life. You can't afford not to pray it every day. Ave Maria!