TheBuddyBlog.Com

Category: Faith

  • Listening to a Well-Formed Conscience

    My last post, Ignoring One’s Conscience, highlighted Rudolf Höss, the Camp Commandant of Auschwitz, who chose to ignore his conscience in favor of the Nazi worldview.   As a reminder, I also shared how a well-formed conscience is imperative if one uses it to guide their moral decision-making. All of us, at times, face moments […]

  • Ignoring One’s Conscience

    “Let your conscience be your guide” is a well-known expression that almost sounds biblical.  But it isn’t. Allowing your conscience to guide your moral decision-making depends on how well-formed it is. You can have a clear conscience or a guilty one.  Your conscience can be enlightened or corrupt.   The key to a well-formed conscience […]

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    The First Time Abortion Became Real For Me

    Sad to say, but one of the hot-button issues in politics today is abortion. There are those who are passionately for it, and just as many who are passionately against it.  One aspect of this issue wherein you would hope to find consensus is around abortion survivors — those babies who survive a mid-to-late term […]

  • The Season of Song

    Tis the season — for lyrics to linger long within our earthly souls. Have you had such a moment? Why do our spirits soar at the climax of O Holy Night?  Why do we feel compelled to stand during Handel’s Messiah? There are certain songs and hymns that move us profoundly. The 5th-century theologian, Diadochos […]

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    Lessons on Marriage from the Devil

    Can we learn anything from Satan other than the consequences of excessive pride? I think so. Consider these fundamentals: So, knowing that Satan hates humanity and marriage, are there insights we can learn about marriage by studying what the Devil despises? In a recent article at Aleteia.org, titled Exorcist says there are 3 ways Satan likes […]

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    Defining Success

    Rummaging through the attic this week, I found some old high school trophies. Half a century ago, these treasured testaments sat proudly on a shelf displaying my teenage achievements.  “MVP,” “Most Likely to…,” “Best All-Around..”  Well, you get the idea.  Yet, today, these long-forgotten, bygone memories are rusting and collecting dust in a box that […]

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    Success Sickness

    Growing old is, what can I say, an adventure? Arthritis is like a non-stop robocall that keeps ringing at all times of the day or night. Then there are those senior moments when I forget why I walked upstairs.  Now entering my eighth decade of life, I have to live with the fact I am […]

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    The Case for Gentleness

    When I hear the word gentle or gentleness, the first thing that comes to mind are the words we used to encourage our eight-year-old son holding his newborn sister for the first time. “Be gentle.” Or the words we encourage a child petting a dog — “Be gentle.” The problem with gentleness is that it […]

  • The Stenographer

    The widow had to wonder as all who grieve do — Why? Why now?  Gertrude had only been married seven years before her husband died unexpectedly after surgery for appendicitis. Their daughter had only recently turned four years of age. No doubt, she asked herself, and her God, “What do I do now?” She had […]

  • Celebrating Freedom
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    Celebrating Freedom

    I approach this July 4th with what can be best described as mixed emotions. Most certainly, I want to celebrate the birth of our great Republic.  Oh, how youthful memories flow of those 4ths of  July spent at baseball tournaments or family reunions at my grandmother’s.  As a young adult, many an Independence Day meant a trek to my […]