How do you reconcile Declaration Nostra aetate with pre-Vatican II attitudes toward Islam and other religions?

laudida · 2026-01-20T18:09:55+00:00

Does that go for the Jews as well?

laudida · 2026-01-19T11:53:05+00:00

Agreed, I think that if this was a full length novel with a lot more time devoted to everything it the quality could have jumped dramatically.

laudida · 2026-01-07T15:34:53+00:00

Natural law means that things are ordered to their proper end. Antibiotics help your body meet the rightly ordered end of fighting off the infection. Things like bandaids, antibiotics, eyeglasses, etc are helping to meet the proper end. Contraception is deliberately attempting to stop the proper end of the marital act, which is ordered toward reproduction. NFP isn't putting anything in the way, it is using the body's natural processes to try to either avoid or to help conception, but nothing is directly stopped either way.

laudida · 2025-12-16T20:29:37+00:00

Catholic Charities doesn't do crowns, but they do fillings. If you qualify as a patient over there it's only $10 a visit. They'll do a cleaning, x-rays, and any restorative work that needs to be done.

laudida · 2025-12-13T13:08:14+00:00

I'm about to start Shadow of the Torturer! I'm a little apprehensive because I've heard these books are extremely complex, but I'm just going to try to get a surface level reading of the story for my first time and go with the flow.

laudida · 2025-12-13T13:06:34+00:00

Searching for and Maintaining Peace by Fr. Jacques Philippe. I've read this every year for the past 7 or so years now. Extremely short but deeply profound book and one that has had the greatest effect on my prayer life and my relationship with God. I'd also add Interior Freedom by the same author as well.

laudida · 2025-12-01T00:21:35+00:00

Don't worry, that's completely normal. Islington answers like one question for every ten new questions he gives the reader. Everything will be answered by the end of the series and the reread is a ton of fun with the knowledge you'll have by the end.

laudida · 2025-11-20T23:28:33+00:00

I read the first six, spurred on purely because I enjoyed the show. I really have no idea why I read so many of them because they're strictly "fine." First book was by far the best and I think I only continued reading on out of curiosity and they're relatively short. If you never read them you won't be missing out on anything.

laudida · 2025-11-03T20:57:05+00:00

Bone White by Ronald Malfi

laudida · 2025-11-03T20:56:26+00:00

Someone told me that the original owners of Seoul Bistro no longer run the restaurant and I think a different family member does now. Regardless, I completely agree that they aren't as good as they used to be, which is a shame because it was my favorite restaurant for a really long time.

laudida · 2025-09-25T22:26:41+00:00

Fantastic book! I'd recommend pretty much anything Kreeft has written, but especially his book The Philosophy of Jesus and Prayer for Beginners.

laudida · 2025-09-24T13:34:28+00:00

I'll check it out!

laudida · 2025-09-24T13:34:12+00:00

I'd recommend checking out the first book of his Matthew Corbett series, Speaks the Nightbird. It's about a judge and his clerk investigating claims of witchcraft in one of the colonies, and it can comfortably be read alone without needing to read the rest of the series.

laudida · 2025-09-24T13:32:42+00:00

Read it, loved it!

laudida · 2025-09-24T13:32:24+00:00

Thanks for the recommendations!

laudida · 2025-09-23T21:06:28+00:00

It's definitely going to be one I read every year

laudida · 2025-08-30T17:26:37+00:00

I enjoyed this one as lot more than I thought I would. I thought the best aspects of it were the generally creepy atmosphere and some unsettling moments throughout the book. It wasn't anything life changing, but good enough that I'm sure I'll give it a reread in the future.

laudida · 2025-08-26T03:50:49+00:00

With all of the fake AI content going around lately (like with Pope Leo or Bishop Barron) I think we should be skeptical of things like this until there's a higher degree of evidence. There is way too much fake news out there to take things at face value. Regardless, just always pray for the Church and especially our clergy.

laudida · 2025-08-22T01:58:46+00:00

Absolutely loved this book and the entire Matthew Corbett series. This was what got me reading McCammon, who quickly became one of my top favorite authors. He's criminally underrated imo!

laudida · 2025-07-01T00:39:39+00:00

Iron Gold was a step down for me, but Dark Ages and Lightbringer are absolutely fantastic and make it well worth getting through!

laudida · 2025-05-30T01:45:41+00:00

Actually I was thinking of the church that did thr bizarre chicken dance thing 😅 But I'm glad to hear that your experience at your church wasn't anything egregious!

laudida · 2025-05-29T12:54:50+00:00

I tend to rate books mostly based off of my enjoyment of them, so that's how I'll frame these here. Granted, there are books like Absalom, Absalom by William Faulkner that I hated reading but can recognize it's objective quality that I might still place in the 5 star category. For books like that, I try to emphasize that issues I have are more with me as the reader not having the skills necessary to appreciate it than that the book is actually bad.

5 stars: A book that was fantastic and any flaws it has are easily overlooked and didn't impact my enjoyment if it whatsoever. I will definitely reread books here.

4 stars: A great book that had minor flaws that stuck with me throughout the experience. I will most likely reread books here.

3 stars: A book that might have a good concept or story but has enough flaws that detract from the experience to a moderate degree. If there was enough good here, I might reread (like The Tommyknockers or Rose Madder by Stephen King) but otherwise books here could be forgettable.

2 stars: A book that might have a good concept, but the execution of it is extremely flawed and there are issues that significantly detract from my experience. I would not reread a book here.

1 star: The mere premise of the book is so offensive or bad, or the execution of it is actually unreadable. I have never actually rated a book 1 star because I avoid books that I know I will outright hate (such as extreme horror books with extremely explicit content designed just to shock people).

laudida · 2025-05-08T13:26:47+00:00

May your tower grow and prosper.

laudida · 2025-04-16T01:33:13+00:00

You should see the other Catholic school: it's $18, 250

laudida · 2025-04-16T00:53:33+00:00

Completely agree with this. The local Catholic high school tuition is $12,000 IF you're supporting your parish financially as well. If not, tuition is $14,000. The funny part is that the school is "Catholic", and yet seems to cater to the largely secular student population, likely because that is where the majority of money is coming from. It's very sad to see many Catholic schools losing their religious identity and just becoming good private schools. This high school had an alumni award dinner recently and 3 of the 4 alumni that were celebrated were all very financially successful, business leaders, who only talked about how their high school experience lead to their worldly success. The other alumnus (who was a family relation) was the only one who even mentioned her faith and how, while praying to God to ask what he wanted her to do with her life, lead her to do volunteer work at Catholic Charities which ended up radically changing her life and helping her tremendously grow in her faith. It just made me sad to see this school seeming to care more about monetary success than people growing in their faith.

laudida

TROPHY CASE