Catholic Café

Brother Dylan Perry, FSC, is a De La Salle Christian Brother who serves as a school principal on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Northwest Montana. This is the second episode of a three-part series about his experiences and continues with Brother Dylan and his vocational call and discusses the charism and history of the De La Salle Christian Brothers.

Welcome to the luxurious corner booth of The Catholic Cafe, comfortable conversation about Catholic beliefs. Hosted by Deacon Jeff Drzycimski, a traveling speaker, professional producer, and father of nine. Not a convert, but a re-vert.

The Catholic notion of making reparations to God for sin, especially blasphemy, is an ancient and constant teaching of our faith. As we prepare our spiritual houses for Christmas this Advent season, we need to start making amends for our poor and sinful choices.

Many of us have places or rooms within our hearts where no one, not even our Lord, is welcome. Perhaps as we enter the season of Advent, we should learn to forgive and forget so that we can best prepare for the Coming of the Lord at Christmas.

As we prepare for the season of Christmas, a season which for many in the modern culture has become very materialistic, perhaps we should take this time of Advent to look into what the Catholic Church teaches us about the universal destination of goods.

Thanksgiving is usually a grand feast and, for many, ushers in a month of feasting and celebrating until Christmas arrives. Perhaps we should take this opportunity to view the Thanksgiving holiday a bit more like Mardis Gras before Lent so that we may properly see Advent for the spiritual time of preparation that it should be.

Spending time in Adoration before our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament is a wonderful time to ponder His might, and to realize you are sitting before a person, the Second Divine Person of the Trinity. That is Who He is. So, this is also the perfect time to listen to the Lord and hear who He thinks that we are.

With the innovations which modern technology have afforded us, there is a superabundance of information available to everyone about virtually everything. While this transparency and opportunity can be very good for society, it is also can a create an unnecessary distraction which can actually challenge us in our faith life.

When speaking to the Jews in the synagogue about the Pharisees and the Scribes, Jesus says that they have taken their seat on the Chair of Moses, which is a curious phrase that speaks of the authority the Pharisees have been given by God. One should wonder since Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law of Moses, then there must be a fulfillment of the Chair of Moses.

When Jesus was asked about the greatest commandment, he answered with not one but two commandments. The love of God and love of Neighbor are intrinsically related and dependent upon each other.

As so many of us are aware, it seems forever that there has been strife between Muslims and Jews. While God will never break His covenant with Israel, His Chosen People, we must continue to pray for peace in that region of the world.

The time for the Synod On Synodality is here and all the delegates have arrived in Rome. This is an interesting time for the Church as the faithful have exhibited a mix of feelings from confusion and worry to great joy and expectation for the outcome. Perhaps the best way forward for Christian disciples is faith and trust in the Holy Spirit.

As another presidential election season looms over the nation, there is a resurgence of calls for accountability of especially Catholic politicians who do not legislate according to moral principles in line with Church teaching. We tend to judge them and blame them and even hate them. Perhaps our fight is not with them at all, but with Evil.

Demographic studies as well as media coverage tell us that the number of Hispanics in the United States continues to grow. That means the Church must be diligent and purposeful in evangelizing these families. Radio Resurrecion founder Sergio Vasquez shares that Hispanic radio ministry has been very active as of late.

There has been a shift of late in the world of evangelization. The number of those who do not believe in God has been increasing every year to crisis levels. This means that how we evangelize needs to change. There may be need for a new New Evangelization.