Morality

Joys of Successful Aging, by Evangelical George Sweeting, Moody Bible Institute
Aging

Joys of Successful Aging, by Evangelical George Sweeting, Moody Bible Institute

12/13/2025 Bruce Strom 1

George Sweeting writes: “Age adds maturity and richness to life. Age smooths the rough edges of life and adds gentleness and compassion. They say: ‘The older the violin, the sweeter the music.’ Some speak of seniors as ancient, faded, frail, shriveled, senile, withered, wrinkled, and worthless!” I prefer to say seniors are “experienced, dependable, mature, patient, seasoned, steady, wise, tested, survivor, and veteran!” […]

Opposing Suicide: According to the Bible, Catholic Catechism, and St Augustine’s City of God
Command 6 Do Not Murder

Opposing Suicide: Biblical Exhortations, Catholic Catechism, and St Augustine’s City of God

12/12/2025 Bruce Strom 2

CCC 2281. “Suicide contradicts the natural inclination of the human being to preserve and perpetuate his life. It is gravely contrary to the just love of self. It likewise offends love of neighbor because it unjustly breaks the ties of solidarity with family, nation, and other human societies to which we continue to have obligations. Suicide is contrary to love for the living God.” […]

The Decalogue in the Torah and the Book of Legends, Do Not Steal
Command 7 Do Not Steal

The Decalogue in the Torah and the Book of Legends, Do Not Steal

11/06/2025 Bruce Strom 0

The rabbis in the Book of Legends, which are moral excerpts from the Talmud, teach that there are four kinds of men:
The average man, like those in Sodom, who says, “Mine is mine, and your is yours.”
The ignorant man who says, “Mine is yours, and yours is mine.”
The pious man who says, “Mine is yours, and yours is yours.”
The wicked man who says, “Yours is mine, and mine is mine.” […]

St George the Dragon Slayer, From the Golden Legend and Butler’s Lives of the Saints
Lives of Saints

St George the Dragon Slayer, From the Golden Legend and Butler’s Lives of the Saints

05/23/2025 Bruce Strom 0

Dacian then sought to trick St George with persuasion, and our saint played along. St George was led into a pagan temple where the people expected he would sacrifice to the gods. “But instead of sacrificing, St George knelt and prayed for the Lord to destroy the temple and all its idols, and destroy it so completely that, for the glory of God and the conversion of the people, absolutely nothing was to be left. At once fire fell from heaven and burnt the temple, its idols and priests, to a cinder, and the earth gaped open and swallowed up the remains.” […]

Book Reviews: Golden Legend, Butler’s, OCA, and Pope Benedict XVI’s Lives of Saints
Book Reviews and Miscellaneous

Book Reviews: Golden Legend, Butler’s, OCA, and Pope Benedict XVI’s Lives of Saints

05/23/2025 Bruce Strom 2

The compiler of the Golden Legend was the Dominican friar Jacobus de Voragine. The Dominicans historically have been concerned about historical accuracy to guard the faith against heresy. He lists as his three primary sources the lives from Ecclesiastical History by Eusebius, bishop and advisor to Emperor Constantine; the Tripartite History by Cassiodorus; and the Scholastic History by Peter Comestor. In addition, he refers to more than 120 other sources. He was also influenced by earlier collections of lives of the saints by two other Dominican scholars. When his sources were apocryphal and not trustworthy, he points this out. When possible, he tries to reconcile dates and details, but is more concerned with the spiritual lessons than historical accuracy. […]

Pope Leo XIV, First American Pope, Successor to Pope Francis and Social Justice of Pop Leo XIII
Modern Catholic Popes

Pope Leo XIV, First American Pope, Successor to Pope Francis and Social Justice of Pope Leo XIII

05/13/2025 Bruce Strom 7

Pope Leo XIV notes: “What is striking about these two attitudes is their relevance today. They embody notions that we could easily find on the lips of many men and women in our own time, even if, while essentially identical, they are expressed in different language.”
“Even today, there are many settings in which the Christian faith is considered absurd, meant for the weak and unintelligent. Settings where other securities are preferred, like technology, money, success, power, or pleasure.” […]

Pope Francis Autobiography SMALL
Modern Catholic Popes

Pope Francis’ Autobiography: Be Compassionate to the Poor and Marginalized

05/08/2025 Bruce Strom 1

Pope Francis concludes his autobiography: “To learn to live, we must all learn to love. Let us not forget this! This is the most important lesson we can learn, to love, since love conquers all. By loving we can pull down barriers, we can win battles, we can defeat indifference and hate, we can melt and transform hearts.” “A disinterested love can change the world and the course of history. How many things would have gone differently if love and prayer had motivated us, rather than the thirst for power. Remember, the world need prayer more and more!” […]

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas- Does This Children’s Book Whitewash the Horrors of the Holocaust
AntiSemitism

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas: Does This Children’s Book Whitewash the Horrors of the Holocaust?

05/06/2025 Bruce Strom 0

My deeper objection to this book is the thought that the young son of the commandant could be so naïve that he would not realize that making a friend of a Jewish boy would be seen as repugnant. The reality was that anti-Semitism was a core belief of the Nazi state, and this was an important virtue that the Nazi engrained in the lessons taught to impressionable youngsters both in the Nazi Youth clubs and in the public school system. Furthermore, children were taught that the Nazi virtues prohibited them from associating with Jews. […]

Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man: Church Fathers, Reformers, and Commentators
Bible Stories and Parables

Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man: Church Fathers, Reformers, and Commentators

04/16/2025 Bruce Strom 0

James Boice teaches us: “It is true that the rich man’s riches worked to his hurt, for he lived for those and nothing else. It is hard for the rich to enter heaven, as Jesus said elsewhere in Luke. It is also true that Lazarus’ poverty worked to his spiritual good, for lacking earthly joys and comfort he turned his eyes to heaven and sought divine consolation.”
James Boice remarks on the contrasts in the parable. Spiritually, “the rich man was actually poor, and the poor man was actually rich. This contrast continues after their death: the poor rich man grew poorer, and the rich poor man grew richer.” “The final contrast is between the hopelessness of the rich man’s condition after death and the hopefulness of his condition before. After death there is no possibility of change, but in this life there is.” […]

St John Climacus, Ladder of Divine Ascent Steps 16&17 Avarice and NonPossessiveness
Ladder of Divine Ascent

St John Climacus, Ladder of Divine Ascent, On Avarice and Non-Possessiveness, Steps 16 & 17

04/11/2025 Bruce Strom 0

Avarice is the worst kind of drought and famine, for it is drought and famine in the midst of plenty. A Jewish story tells of a man taken on a tour of Hell, where he sees a huge banquet hall, with long tables lined with souls, each one ogling their plate heaped with roast beef, sausage, breads, fruits and pies. This sumptuous meal tormented each one, all were starving, for they had no elbows to feed themselves. Then he was shown the banquet hall in Heaven, same type of banquet hall, same meats, breads, fruits and pies, but here the mood was joyous. Like those souls in Hell, they had no elbows, but they were joyous because they were feeding each other. […]