Dwight Longenecker's Blog, page 43

Should Pope Francis Celebrate the Reformation?

Embed from Getty Images My latest article for CRUX asks what Pope Francis is doing by planning to go to Sweden in the Fall to commemorate the Reformation Pope Francis has built bridges with Protestants in remarkable ways. His personal friendship with the late Anglican-style bishop Tony Palmer, and his video greeting to American pentecostal [Read More...]

Lenten Thoughts from The Suburban Hermit

What do you really want? Today’s Lent post at the Suburban Hermit makes you think… My brother in law is an artist and a wise man. He is fond of saying, “Every person, everywhere will always do whatever they can to get as close as they can to what they perceive as love.” During the [Read More...]

Take Up Your Cupcake and Follow Me?

In today’s gospel Jesus says we must take up our cross and follow him. The Anglican Church–ever on the lookout for a new way to be trendy, relevant and cool has suggested that we take up our cupcake instead. Across the water Fr Ed Tomlinson reports that the Anglican Diocese of Leicester distributed cupcakes to [Read More...]

Why Are Young People Cheering for Socialism?

Embed from Getty Images Winston Churchill said something like, “If a man is not a socialist in his twenties he is a scoundrel. If he is still a socialist in his fifties he is mad.” He was acknowledging the attractive idealism of the young. He was also acknowledging its impracticality. So often I heard, “All these people [Read More...]

Bad Catholics? Fuhgeddaboudit

What do you say when presented with the bad example of bad Catholics? My latest blog post for National Catholic Register thinks about it. Father,” said the middle aged man,  “When I was ten years old I was a faithful altar server and I turned up one day to serve wearing sneakers and the priest [Read More...]

Lent, Fasting and the Purpose of Prayer

My latest article for National Catholic Register explains why we fast and how our prayer connects with the will of God. It is posted today here. In the fourth century, Anthony of the Desert and his fellow hermits retreated into the wilderness to live in caves. They practiced vegetarianism, extreme fasting and mortification of the [Read More...]

Eliot’s Ash Wednesday

T.S.Eliot was baptized in 1927 and turned away from a life in the wasteland of modern atheism, decadence and despair His new found Christian faith inspired his great poem of repentance–Ash Wednesday. Go here to read the poem, and even better, click on the window on the top right to listen to Eliot himself reading [Read More...]

That Divine Mercy Movie and Me

It seems that Jim Gaffigan, Harry Connick Jr. and a host of other stars get to be in the same movie with me. Wow! Lucky them! Seriously. I had no idea when I was asked to do a short comment on the Divine Mercy for a new film that it would be featuring some big [Read More...]

Ten Lessons from Padre Pio for Lent

With Padre Pio’s relics visiting Rome for the Year of Mercy we’re reminded of his amazing biography and how infused his whole life was with the miraculous. This website chronicles some of the astounding miracles attributed to him. The one thing which is most devastating for the Catholic faith is modernism. Modernism is like a watery [Read More...]

The Suburban Hermit on Lent

Over at The Suburban Hermit is my first post on Lent This is not because physical things are bad and we must punish ourselves, but because we are disciplining our appetites. If we cannot control our stomach, our need for sexual pleasure, our need for alcohol, our need for sleep which are visible things,  then why do [Read More...]