A big part of the New Evangelization is the restatement of the obvious. Catholic convert Don Smith gives fantastic advice for identifying and seizing important evangelistic moments.
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September is 2012’s Catholic Speaker Month which you can read all about over at Brandon Vogt’s blog. The list of Catholic speakers has been narrowed down to the top 100 and my dear father, Marcus Grodi, has made the cut.
I have volunteered to supply his speaker profile for the month so read on and be sure to support and appreciate ALL the great leaders and communicators who spread the good news of our faith.
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Marcus Grodi was raised Lutheran, had a Christian re-awakening in college (after, among many things, studying the biology of the human eye) and went on to seminary to become a Presbyterian minister. As time went on, seeing the myriad of conflicting opinions and scriptural interpretations in the Protestant world, he began to have doubts about his authority to preach the gospel. He began to pray and study. Through a chance encounter with his former-seminary-friend-turned-Catholic Scott Hahn, reading the Early Church Fathers, discovering scriptures he had never seen before, getting pooped on by a sparrow in response to requesting guidance from heaven, and after much candid prayer and discernment he eventually left his pastorship and entered the Catholic Church. (Click here for a longer version of Marcus Grodi’s conversion story)
Marcus is best known for hosting EWTN’s weekly television program The Journey Home for 15 years running, during which he has interviewed converts to the Catholic Church from all denominations and walks of life. In addition, his radio program Deep in Scripture explores many of the scriptures Marcus and other converts just never “saw” before their conversion.
Marcus is the founder and president of the Coming Home Network International, a Catholic non-profit organization that offers fellowship, education, and advocacy to men and women on the journey to the Catholic Church. The Coming Home Network International especially focuses on standing beside clergy converts and those on the journey, like Marcus himself and Dr. Scott Hahn, individuals who risk career, friends, and family to seek the fullness of Truth in the Catholic Church.
Marcus edited a book of conversion stories entitled Journeys Home as well as a recent collection of his conversion-related articles in the book Thoughts for the Journey Home. In order that his father, an avid reader of fiction, could better understand his conversion to the Catholic Church, Marcus penned two fictional works – How Firm a Foundation and the recently released sequel Pillar and Bulwark. These novels chronicle the struggles of a protestant minister, his family, and those around him as he wrestles with issues of his authority to preach, the interpretation of scripture, and his growing sympathies for the ancient Catholic faith.
His most recent work is a smaller book entitled What Must I Do to be Saved? in which he addresses the “Jesus and me” individualism of modern Christianity. The book powerfully walks the reader through the continuity between Old Testament Judaism and New Testament Christianity showing that being part of the family – the “body”, the Church! – has always been a integral part of one’s cooperation with God’s salvific plan.
To put on the “son” hat again for a moment, my life and the lives of my mother and brothers have been blessed immensely both by Marcus’ courage and humility in bringing us home to the Catholic Church but also in all of the wonderful work he has done for the Church since. A hallmark of Marcus’ speaking, hosting, and writing is that he communicates from a pastor’s heart that dearly and clearly loves Our Lord Jesus Christ. That same pastor’s heart and love for Christ has made him a wonderful and inspiring father.
A Few Links
In December of 2010 my wife was leading a bible study on the Theology of the Body at our local Dominican parish, St. Thomas Aquinas. A couple of weeks before Christmas due to her having a cold on the scheduled night for the study, I myself bundled up and trekked out into the snow to lead the study in her place.
Due to the snow, the vigil mass for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, and little bit of scheduling confusion, only one other person showed up. As a result, I and the other gentleman only stuck very loosely to my wife’s discussion points about “Christ as the new Adam” and ended up simply pursuing tangents and enjoying our conversation. Somehow or another, we ended up talking lengthily about our love for and wonderful experiences of Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.
For those who might not be familiar, Eucharistic Adoration or Benediction is the practice of “adoring” Our Lord in the Eucharist. Our Lord Jesus Christ, present to us as the consecrated bread and wine, is placed on the altar in the church. The faithful come to pray, worship and adore Him in this Blessed Sacrament.
It was moving, to say the least, to find myself on a cold snowy night sitting in the conference room of the parish center, sipping coffee and listening to this gentleman – many years my senior – share his love for the devotion.
It came into the conversation that Eucharistic Adoration could be very inspiring and invigorating to lukewarm believers, as it had often been to both of us. We observed that the faith was, for many of our fellow parishioners, little more than a habit. Many were very involved with the parish, but few seemed to really know Jesus Christ. It was great to see people involved with the liturgies and events – to see new members being received into the Church and receiving the sacraments for the first time. However so many of them seemed to pass quickly through the various programs and initiations only to settle into a comfortable, complacent “Sunday morning at 10:00” Catholicism.
One reason we decided upon for this rut was that many people who became active in the church had not previously come to know Jesus Christ – in fact maybe they never even knew that they could have a personal relationship with their God or that that was the kind of relationship He wanted. These misconceptions are unfortunate ones. The Catholic faith is tasked with making Christ present in the world, making Him present in the sacraments. Yet many people to go through all the programs, prayers, and motions and somehow miss the person of Christ, the most important part of the faith. Even among those Catholics who attend the holy sacrifice of the mass every week, there are still many who would balk or stare at their feet were the doctrine of the “real presence” of Christ in the Eucharist explained in their midst.
With all this in mind we conjectured that Eucharistic adoration, if we were able to get people to attend, could be particularly effective in trying to fill in that crucial gap in the faith lives of many Catholics in our community. The devotion is unique and powerful in the simple and frank way in which it faces the participant with the presence of Christ. In addition, the meditative silence that usually accompanies a Holy Hour is uniquely purifying. We agreed that more people ought to be persuaded – nay, dared – to try a Holy Hour.
In fact our conversation confirmed what I have thought for a while: Not just that Adoration is a great devotion (for the obvious reasons) but that it is a particularly great devotion for the souls of modern men and women (for slightly less obvious reasons). It is my opinion that Eucharistic Adoration could be that spark that finally starts thawing a few of our many “frozen chosen”. Let me explain.
Consider the following scriptural image which is quite applicable to our modern day:
[2] For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, [3] inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, fierce, haters of good, [4] treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, [5] holding the form of religion but denying the power of it. Avoid such people. (2 timothy 3:5)
Now the line I am most interested in is that last one. What does it mean to “[hold] the form of religion but [deny] the power of it”?
There are a variety of causes causing a variety of ills, but that last image is, I believe, most telling. You see, people are comfortable with “morality”. They are comfortable with “church”. They are comfortable with “causes”, and “values”, and “goodness”, and even “God”, to a certain degree. However they are not comfortable with Christ Himself. Many of my fellow parishioners, dear souls that they are, are quite friendly and sociable talking to me about youth groups and turkey dinners and church renovations and Christmas concerts. However, when I try to bring up Jesus Christ, conversion, the Holy Spirit, or experiencing Our Lord in the Eucharist, awkwardness ensues.
Sadness, rather than indignation, is the emotion triggered by such attempted conversations. People need Jesus Christ and deep down they want Jesus Christ. But many people keep the “power” of religion, our Lord Himself, at a distance.
While there are among the many causes of our spiritual estrangement, there are two fears that often cause people to hold tight to their lukewarmness – that keep them from asking the perilous question: “Are you there God?”.
Some people avoid a real pursuit of God because they are afraid that he doesn’t really exist. People like the idea of God and all the other ideas that accompany Him but they are not confident that there is much beyond the idea. To press the idea, to question it, and to suggest that one really can come to know God personally – this brings the blissfully and intentionally ignorant person far too close to the perilous question. While the desire for God is strong, the fear of asking a question which could yield disappointing answers is stronger.
Other people fear to pursue God because, as C.S. Lewis explains, they are afraid they might actually find Him. He says:
An “impersonal God”– well and good. A subjective God of beauty, truth and goodness, inside our own heads — better still. A formless life-force surging through us, a vast power which we can tap — best of all. But God Himself, alive, pulling at the other end of the cord, perhaps, approaching an infinite speed, the hunter, king, husband — that is quite another matter. There comes a moment when the children who have been playing at burglars hush suddenly: was that a real footstep in the hall? There comes a moment when people who have been dabbling in religion (“Man’s search for God!”) suddenly draw back. Supposing we really found Him? We never meant it to come to that! Worse still, supposing He had found us? –C. S. Lewis
To face up to the tough questions, to face up to the “power of religion” is to face up to the possibility that Christ really is there pursuing us, desiring us, and calling us out. Along with the pervading propaganda of our culture, we dislike the mere suggestion that we still have room to grow, that we have a destiny, duty, and responsibility.
Because of these two fears, we latch on to morality or ritual or causes or values or lingo or community. We latch onto something that is “safe”, anything that can keep us occupied and make us “look busy” but which will never bring us face to face with the”power of religion” which is Jesus Christ Himself.
Have you ever wondered why people can talk endlessly about morality, values, church, worship, prayer, and even “God”, etc etc etc, but are uncomfortable talking about “Jesus”? The reason for this is that Jesus is where the “rubber meets the road”. He is what makes the transcendent God present in the world. He is the “word”, the “light of the world”. It is easy for most people to talk of religion or “God” but hard for them to talk about Jesus, because He is the point at which those two meet. Without Jesus Christ, man is relatively “safe” from God.
As a result “Jesus” is an uncomfortable name for people to say. That Christ is present is an uncomfortable suggestion. That Christ is present physically as a tiny communion host, sitting on a stone altar in your local church… more uncomfortable still. Uncomfortable, but oh so simple, clear, shocking, and utterly unabashed.
This brings us back to the power of Eucharistic Adoration, specifically for the sick soul of modern man. Like a wound that needs to be cauterized by fire or purified by alcohol, our hearts need to be brought where they are afraid to go. They need to be faced with the real fear and peril of asking ” Are you there God?”. He may not be there, and I may be heartbroken in disappointment. He may indeed be there, and my heart may be rent with love, convicted, burned, and purified more than I am presently comfortable with.
The beauty of Eucharistic Adoration is in the utter simplicity and clarity with which it faces us with the perilous question. There are few other prayers or liturgies that are so simple, so clear, so shockingly frank.
This is an extremely powerful antidote for the confusion and malaise that faces men and women of our time. It is powerful because it is uncomfortable. It forces us out of lukewarmness. It perfectly sets the stage for a modern man or woman to face up to the perilous question. It is a question we will otherwise avoid as long as possible knowing that once it is out there, our lives will not be able to be the same.
There is however a second aspect of Eucharistic Adoration that is of infinite practical import and must not be overlooked: It is silence.
Soren Kierkegaard stated:
“If I were a physician, and if I were allowed to prescribe just one remedy for all the ills of the modern world, I would prescribe silence. For even if the Word of God were proclaimed in the modern world, how could one hear it with so much noise? Therefore, create silence.”
We live in a world completely filled with noise, and I am not just talking about physically audible sounds. Consider how loud our world is physically, mentally, and emotionally. When do we ever get a break from all the noise?
Most of us don’t and that is why we have no spiritual silence either.
Usually we think of ourselves as victims of noise but I would suggest that this is simply self-deception become habit. In the book “Finding Sanctuary”, Chistopher Jamison discusses this phenomena. He states:
People speak and act as if being busy is a force beyond their control, as if somewhere back in history a malign spirit of busyness invaded the planet. There was a time, in the good old days, when people had time, and life moved at an easy pace. But modern society changed all that, and now we are stuck with a way of life that is a breathless rush. “People don’t have time like they used to” – and we all nod in agreement.
and later…
…if somebody says they are too busy, then either they are too busy or they think they are too busy. Either way, the responsibility lies with them; they choose to lead a busy life, or they choose to think that they do.
You and I are only as busy and our lives only as noisy as we make them or let them become. The reason we so instinctively deceive ourselves on this issue is that noise and busyness are often additional ways we keep from facing God.
Think about it. Why are silences so awkward? Why are we practically terrified of boredom? Why is it so excruciating for us to simply sit still nowadays? The truth is that noise and busyness can become like any other “attachment” which takes the place of or distracts us from God.
In the same ways that we cling to all manner of the “forms of religion” while avoiding real contact with Christ, we fill our lives with noisiness, busyness, and distraction to keep from hearing God’s voice. Nearly all of us, if we had less noisiness in our lives, would begin to notice things we were missing or passively ignoring. We’d notice the people in our life that are hurting or who need us but who we ignore. We’d become aware of little failings that we repeat over and over without improvement or effort. We’d realize our selfishness because we’d be more aware of the needs of others, etc.
There are many little realizations that we would have to face up to if we ever sat still for a moment – this is one of the reasons our modern world is so eager for constant and instant gratification, so insistent on having interminable noise and busyness, and is so absolutely terrified of being “bored”. The noise and busyness protect us from the “still small voice” of the lord, most perilous of all, and this is one of the reasons we hold on to the noise in our lives. Because of this, it is also the silence of Eucharistic adoration that make it such a prime opportunity for men and women to come to know Christ.
My challenge, thus, is this: When you have decided you are ready to know God better, to seek truth and accept no substitutes, and to face not only your fears but also the desire, deep down, to really come to know God…. Eucharistic Adoration is a perfect place to start.
Be open to the desire to know Him. Ask the perilous questions. Give the noise time to die down and the silence time to sink in. Don’t give up, even if the process is agonizing.
He is waiting for you.
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“Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10)
It is pleasant to spend time with Him, to lie close to His breast like the Beloved Disciple and to feel the infinite love present in His Heart….how can we not feel a renewed need to spend time in spiritual converse, in silent adoration, in heartfelt love before Christ present in the Most Holy Sacrament?
– Pope John Paul II
We too are called to withdraw at certain intervals into deeper silence and aloneness with God….
not with our books, thoughts, and memories but completely stripped of everything,
to dwell lovingly in God’s presence – silent, empty, expectant, and motionless.
– Blessed Teresa of Calcutta
Silence is something more than just a pause; it is that enchanted place where space is cleared and time is stayed and the horizon itself expands. In silence, we often say, we can hear ourselves think; but what is truer to say is that in silence we can hear ourselves not think….In silence, we might better say, we can hear someone else think.
– Pico Iyer
It seems to me to be a matter of common sense that vices are best treated by their corresponding virtues.
For instance, the prideful man must pray for and practice humility, the selfish and greedy man must look for opportunities to be generous and thus grow in charity, and so on and so forth.
This is common sense when dealing with our own spiritual lives, however I think the maxim is similarly useful when encountering vices in others.
It is easy for the vices (or perceived vices) in others to not only provoke the same vice in us, but for us to somehow feel justified in reacting thus.
For instance, when faced with someone who seems to be in the throes of pride – as evidenced by grasping for attention, easily taking offense, seeking constant affirmation, acting self-concerned, etc – how quickly we respond in a prideful iteration of our own, and think it somehow neutral or even virtuous!
I often find myself for instance actively ignoring or shushing a young, loud relative I perceive as prideful. In my heart, I somehow feel like i’m teaching them a lesson or doing right by “not encouraging them”.
But what’s really going on here? Why are they seeking attention so? Why are they being loud? Why do they seem self-concerned? Certainly there may be an element of pride there, though that is between them and God. But could it also be that they are insecure? That they are hurt or lonely? How quickly my judgement of them causes me to respond with the same vice I presume to perceive.
I often wonder how many other people whose brokeness and insecurities cause them to act out, have only been pushed further into themselves because I myself have ignored them or responded with rudeness.
The younger relative I previously mentioned has many behavioral problems. Oftentimes he will be very short with people or even begin to throw a tantrum when he is riled up.
In the recent years, my interactions with him have become an insightful and humbling source of self-reflection for me.
I noticed that while his behavioral issues and his tantrums and his attention seeking was a great source of annoyance to me, I always responded with my own vices, and at the same time felt justified in my mind.
I would be “short” with him, because I felt he needed to be quieted. I would talk harshly because I thought he needed to be taught a lesson. I ignored him because I didn’t want to reward bad behavior. All these rationalizations contented me for years, but I have begun to realize more and more how I was simply justifying responding to vice (or percieved vice) with my own.
This of course brings me back to my original suggestion: We must not only to respond to our own vices by pursuing their corresponding virtues, but we must always seek to respond to any vice (or perceived vices) in others with the corollary virtue also.
What would happen if we responded to the seemingly prideful and self-absorbed person with humility? Listening to them, letting them be first, etc. What would happen if we responded to the selfish and greedy person with charity? Being generous to them, giving even though we are liable to be taken advantage of?
Certainly such acts would seem to follow the biblical call to “love your enemies and be good to those who persecute you”. In doing so, not only do we grow in love but we can offer up our sufferings for the good of such people and our own souls.
However, I think there is also some very smart but simple psychology going on here also.
We are always responsible for our own vice – I bring up psychology not to suggest sin is simply a “social issue” or something like that. However, we can see by a mere moment of self-reflection that a lot of these vices are often rooted in deeper fears and brokenesses
In our own lives such a realization should be no cause for us to justify our sin – we are still responsible. However we should use such a realization to bring us to empathy and mercy whenever we begin to feel judgmental of others.
Often, when we act out of pride or vanity, some of the driving forces of these are our insecurities, loneliness, depression, lack of (healthy) confidence, etc. Also, many who are prone to selfishness and greed have a deep seated fear of want, fear of dependence, fear of being taken advantage of, etc.
Again, these can be no excuse for our own personal vices, however they should come into play when we deal with others.
When we encounter vices in others or what we perceive to be vices when we are annoyed or offended and are tempted to respond by our own acts of pride, selfishness, gossip, ill-will, etc, I believe we ought to attempt to recognize what virtue is needed in the situation and attempt to fill that need.
Consider the great and wise prayer attributed Saint Francis of Assisi:
“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury,pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen”
What it comes down to is this: whether there is a lack of God’s grace in another person or whether the lack is within us, our proper response should be to try to fill it with his love.
If there is a vice in another person, we should respond to it with virtue. Furthermore, if there is a loneliness, brokeness, or fear that is causing a person to act out, we must respond as an “instrument of peace” rather than responding with our own vices.
It should not only be our duty but our immense joy as Christians to love even the hateful person, to forgive the unforgiving person, to trust the mistrustful, to humble ourselves toward the prideful, and to give generously even to the greedy.
Our human instinct is to worry about being taken advantage of in these situations. To worry that all of our good work will simply be sucked into the black hole of anothers’ vices. However what a great honor and power to share in the sufferings of our Lord! Surely to be virtue in the face of vice embodies the very dying and rising we are called to.
As a final thought, consider the effects of responding to vices with virtue. Since the fall, sin and its effects have continued from one human to another like dominoes. We receive original sin, we experience personal sin, we experience the effects of sin, and we then respond with our own sins. As a result of this cycle, sin and its effects continue to compound and rebound and resound throughout the ages.
A grave but glorious question every human should consider is this: What will my effect be? As a member of the human race, I receive not only the tendency to sin myself but I experience the effects of the sins of others. Though this cannot be avoided, I and I alone can decide what happens to the sins that touch me.
Either these sins will be passed on, repeated, or even multiplied through my actions or… the sin will end in me.
I find this an astounding proposition: I cannot avoid the death, pain suffering, violence, fear, etc of this world, but I CAN be sure that they end with me.
I can emulate my lord in gladly accepting the pain, suffering, violence, fear, and other effects of sin that come to me, and letting them die in me. Christ took our sin and allowed it to be nailed to the cross with Him – in fact, to die with Him.
What if we were to emulate this! What if the annoyance, drama, gossip, selfishness, violence, greed, pride, lust and other vices that we encountered in the world were met with virtue in us? What if we were to take a stand and not allow these vices and their effects to live when we encountered them? What if we gladly soaked them up, gladly accepted the pain and suffering and turned it into only greater virtue, through God’s grace?
It is our choice. Either we are willing proponents of the infectious plague of sin and its effects, or we are those receive it, accept it, and let it die with us.
Thus, whenever we encounter sin or its effects – whether a vice in ourselves, a vice in others, or even simply the echoing effects of sin in the loneliness, insecurity, fear, brokeness, and others defects that cause so much acting out and unrest between humans – we should constantly exhort ourselves to joyfully embrace the situation and pursue the necessary virtues in it.
Because of Christ’s victory on the cross, the pursuit of virtue allows us not only to be healed of vice in ourselves but to heal and comfort others who suffer the same disease.
THIS is the greatness we are called to. THIS is the mission to which He has destined us. To be a channel of His peace wherever there is not peace, and to be His candle wherever there is darkness.
Every life is march from innocence, through temptation, to virtue or vice.
Lyman Abbott
The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried.
Gilbert K. Chesterton
If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair.
C. S. Lewis
I work at the Coming Home Network International as a webmaster. The CHNI is a fellowship of Catholic clergy converts and those non-catholic clergy and laity who are interested in making the journey home.
The office has been abuzz as we prepare for our annual “Deep In History” conference in Columbus Ohio. For information visit http://www.chnetwork.org/DIH/deepinhistory.html
My wife and I are visiting Dayton Ohio this thursday. I am giving a talk on “Faith and Reason” to the Theology On Tap, as per the invitation of my good friend DJ Swearingen.
I will be writing (and maybe sharing video!) about faith more in the future, but for now I ask you, what is faith? I, like you, have heard my fair share of definitions, but I, perhaps also like you, have not been satisfied with either the vague and convoluted (and under-explained) definitions I have heard.
The word “faith” is bandied about so much, but what does faith really mean?
>Does it mean, as our atheist friends assume, that we simply perform the mental act of “belief” without any reason, proof, adequate knowledge, or the like?
> Does it mean, as my freshman philosophy classmates concluded, that faith is adhering to the conclusion that seems to have the most evidence? Or to the one that has the highest potential beneficial yield? (the effect of reading Pascal’s wager out of the context of the rest of Pensees)
Are these all that faith is? Or is there something more?
The “Catechism of the Catholic Church” defines faith as “ Man’s response to God”.
While simple, I think this definition is both profound and powerful.
It seems to imply that God takes the first step. It seems to imply that man cannot put faith in God except in response to Him. It seems to imply that one puts faith in God in the context of one’s relationship with God.
You see, if you take a bird’s-eye view at Catholicism, the type of relationship with God it seems to be built to encourage is one of profound closeness and unity. The seven sacraments are visible signs of the spiritual reality of God’s work – they make present to us the ministry of Jesus Christ. We eat His body, we hear Him forgive our sins in confession, we hear God’s word proclaimed at every mass. We are called by the saints into profound contemplation and have examples of the great holy men and women who entered fully into union with God.
Deep down inside I think we all want this type of close relationship with God. However, we don’t pursue it and often avoid even admitting to ourselves we want this relationship because it involves, as I mentioned in my previous post, facing our fears about God (see “Two fears”)
As I said, more to come. This is a pretty big topic for me right now and has been for a while – I appreciate your thoughts and input, especially when I begin posting my more formal reflections.
Thanks for reading!
Great Quote:
“Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried. “ (Gilbert K. Chesterton)
Great Links:
The Bishop and the Conference – Bishop Robert F. Vasa, D.D. A pretty powerful article. One bishop talks candidly and profoundly on the Bishops Conferences and the individual shepherds
Report from the Catholic Undead – Wolfgang Grassl Great article about the state of the Catholic faith in Europe and a comparison/contrast to that of America.
In Persona ET – The Curt Jester Fun article about the possibility of intelligent life on other planets. References to Lewis’ Space Trilogy which I LOVE. Some good fun and intelligent musings from the Curt Jester.
Great Book:
The Screwtape Letters – C.S. Lewis: Only Lewis can pull of books like this. What is your first visceral reaction to the thought of a book that is nothing but the correspondence from an upper level demon to a lower level demon in the field instructing him on the proper temptation of his human charge? As strange as this may sound at first, the book is not only delightful, written with Lewis’ usual charm and wit, but it can be life changing in that it is an exceedingly insightful examination of the inner spiritual battle every human being faces.
As a fan of his, how would I best describe Peter Kreeft? Simply, the best “teacher” I have ever encountered.
Kreeft is a professor of philosophy at Boston College, is nearing the 60 book mark, is a renowned Catholic speaker, and has a host of free articles and audio bytes on his site www.peterkreeft.com.
Kreeft speaks to a variety of philosophical and theological topics with great eloquence and order.
I have often remarked to my friends that while with most authors/speakers one might skim through their topics to find one that sounds “catchy” assuming that it may be one of their more interesting pieces, with Kreeft, some of my favorite works are those that are simply overviews of a basic topic (such as homosexuality, prayer, and why we don’t have priestesses) because he is such a great teacher!
My favorite resource are his talks (available by podcast) – be sure to listen to “Culture War”, “Priestesses”, “Moral Theology and Homosexuality”, and for the more abstract/literary/philosophically minded, “Language of Beauty” is excellent, although it needs a good 4-6 listens to really sink in : )
If, like me, you are not in school but want to continue to be enriched in the deep theology and philosophy of the Catholic faith, Peter Kreeft is an excellent teacher and www.peterkreeft.com is an excellent place to start learning!