Joseph M Tuttle

“From thy boat I called thee,
Two natures do I see,
Peter the saint; Simon the sinner.
Ah, but which shall be the winner?
Simon, son of John, do you love Me?”
Master, Thou shalt not go to the Cross,
I could not bear such a loss!
“Get thou, Satan, behind Me!
From My Father’s will I shall not flee,
My flesh must needs hang like dross.”
But mine are the keys!
I have the highest of authorities!
I can loose and bind,
A fisher of men with souls to find.
“Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than...

In a previous essay I dealt with the stages in St. Peter’s fall from grace. In this essay, I would like to examine his return to grace – for any treatment of the life of St. Peter would be incomplete without it. Again, Fulton Sheen will be our guide. He lists four steps in returning to the Faith:

First, Disillusionment.
Second, Response to grace.
Third, Amendment.
Fourth, Sorrow.[1]

In this essay, I will examine the relationship between the Liturgy and divinization (sometimes referred to as deification, participation, theosis, and divine sonship - what St. Peter calls “partaking” or “sharing” in the Divine Nature in 2 Peter 1:4). I will focus primarily on the writings of Joseph Ratzinger regarding divinization and the Liturgy, especially in his work The Spirit of the Liturgy.

As Jesus was being interrogated by the High Priest, His disciples had been scattered. Only two remained to follow Him. The first was St. John the Evangelist. The other was St. Peter. When they arrived at the High Priest’s house, St. John entered, while Peter waited outside by a fire. When pressured about his identity and status as a follower of Christ, he denied Him and fulfilled what the Savior had said earlier at the Last Supper: “Jesus said to him, ‘Amen, I say to you, this very night befo...

Brendan riding the back of a whale,
Over the Atlantic sea set sail,
Voyaged to the British Isles,
Over many long miles,
Our Lord Jesus Christ to hail!

Wherefore in memory of them we ought to honor any relics of theirs in a fitting manner: principally their bodies, which were temples, and organs of the Holy Ghost dwelling and operating in them, and are destined to be likened to the body of Christ by the glory of the Resurrection. Hence God Himself fittingly honors such relics by working miracles at their presence. (Summa Theologica, Tertia Pars, q. 25, a. 6)
In December, I had the wonderful opportunity of venerating the relic of St. Thomas A...

God is the supreme Storyteller and every time we create a story, we participate in the larger Story He created. On occasion even non-Christian authors can tap into that reality whenever they communicate a narrative that points to what is true, good, and beautiful.
This book presents a variety of essays on ...

The declaration of Candidacy is a major step forward in a man's journey to the priesthood. For many, this is the time when they will begin to wear clerical attire. It also means that they are now an official candidate for ordination and can be ordained any time after that, though they will, in normal circumstances, complete their seminary formation and then be ordained. (Canons 1008-1054 speak more in depth about this.) This declaration is not something superficial but something deeply spirit...

Our Blessed Lord warned His disciples about those who would cause scandal in His Church: “And he said to his disciples: It is impossible that scandals should not come: but woe to him through whom they come. It were better for him, that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should scandalize one of these little ones.” (Luke 17:1-2)[1] The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines scandal in more detail: “Scandal is an attitude or behavior which leads ano...

One of my favorite trips over the summer was to a rather obscure chapel on the campus of Marquette University in Wisconsin. I had been told there was a chapel there that St. Joan of Arc had visited. My curiosity was piqued given that Joan lived in France and the chapel was in the US.

I had the wonderful opportunity to spend Holy Week this year in Seville, Spain. While there, I made a day trip to Granada, specifically, the Alhambra – the last Muslim fortress taken by Queen Isabella in 1492. It was here that she met with Christopher Columbus and agreed to fund his voyage to the Indies – and we all know how that ended. I discovered that an American author, Washington Irving, had spent a good deal of time there and wrote a book called Tales of the Alhambra, which I purchased and read.

Every time I see that the Holy Father is going to canonize people, I usually check to see if their names are Italian. Most of them seem to be. The Italians should be proud that they have such a long list of venerable saints. Very rarely is an American ever thrown into the mix. Just because someone is not canonized, however, doesn’t mean they didn’t live a holy life. Nor does it mean we can’t learn anything from them.

In his wonderful book on the Holy Spirit, The Sanctifier, Archbishop Luis Martinez notes that there are two sanctifiers of souls. 1) the Holy Spirit, Who is the essence of Holiness and 2) Mary, His spouse, who is the Mediatrix of all the graces He wishes to bestow upon us. The purpose of sanctification is ultimately to transformed into Jesus Christ, in a particular way.
The Apostle's creed reads “I believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only...