When I was younger, I was naturally drawn to Saint Augustine. It made sense. He was a brilliant theologian, a Doctor of the Church, and one of the most influential thinkers in Christian history.
His words still speak across the centuries.
“Because God has made us for Himself, our hearts are restless until they rest in Him.”
Augustine lived in the fourth century, but his struggles remain surprisingly modern. His battles with lust and promiscuity relate to people today who struggle with pornography or treat sex as something casual. His restless search for truth mirrors our own attempts to find lasting happiness in possessions, success, pleasure, or control.
But the more I have studied the Catholic faith, and especially the more I have experienced parenthood, the more another saint in Augustine’s story has captured my attention.
Editor’s note: Article originally published on August 22, 2019. This article is sponsored by Holyart.com.
Our world is an ugly place. Disease, cancer, war, hunger, greed, murder, abuse, and countless other appalling things have existed throughout human history. Because of the original sin of Adam and Eve, humanity fell out of communion with God. Thankfully, God had a plan. A redemptive plan of salvation. Through the Suffering, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, God provided a pathway for us to return to Him. Two thousand years later, not much has changed with humanity. Human nature is always the same. Self-centered. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to guide the Catholic Church as a harbor and teacher of truth.
Baptized Christians are called to a life of grace. This is best lived out by participation in the Sacraments. Life on earth is temporary. Our true home is Heaven. St. Therese of Lisieux said it best, “The world’s thy ship and not thy home.” Nothing is wrong with admiring the beauty this world has to offer. It only becomes an issue when the good of the created world is preferred to the good of God.
Sponsored: This article is made possible by Image & Gift Ministries LLC, supporting quality and engaging Catholic content.
In a world where identity has become increasingly fragmented and fluid, what if the most profound answers about who we truly are have been waiting for us since the beginning of creation? The modern man has an identity crisis and the solution is Christian anthropology. This might sound like advanced terminology, leaving you wondering: what does this actually mean?
In simplest terms, Christian anthropology is understanding human persons as God created them. Ultimately what is at stake is human identity. As our culture moves farther away from the true understanding of the nature and purpose of the human person, the need for education in Christian anthropology is more necessary than ever before in our experience.
The Christian understanding of the human person was once taken for granted in our culture as the standard by which all understood themselves and others. Today this is not the case. We see evidence of identity confusion all around us or even within ourselves. Just do a Google search of “define identity” and one can see the confusion that surrounds the idea.
Editor’s Note: Originally published April 18th, 2017.
Love is an open door.
Christianity across the world celebrates the Resurrection of Jesus Christ this past Sunday. Easter is a celebration of a miraculous—and seemingly impossible—event. The feast of Jesus’ Resurrection holds a special place in my heart. I wish to share the basic biblical proof of the Resurrection, examples from some saints, and my own personal experience.
Note: If you still have questions related to a more cerebral and logical argument for the Resurrection of Jesus I highly recommend Carl Olson’s: Did Jesus Really Rise from the Dead?
Gospel evidence
Since there a lot of evidence to refer to and I prefer to keep today’s post as concise as possible I will only focus on the two strongest pieces of evidence I found to be convincing for me in showing validity in Jesus’ Resurrection. First, the witness of the women being the initial people to notice the empty tomb is strong evidence. The reason for this is due to in 1st century Palestine life women did not enjoy the benefits of voting, membership in the workforce, or even respect to be witnesses in events like today.
The Gospel writers uniformly state that women were the first witnesses to the empty tomb and the first to proclaim Jesus as risen. This does not make sense unless it was true. Why would the gospel writers embarrass the apostles by placing women in a place of honor as the first evangelizers of Jesus’ Resurrection, unless that was the truth?
Saint Mary Magdalene is known as the Apostle to the Apostles.
Secondly, the Gospel of Matthew already shows alternative explanations already surfacing to explain the disappearance of Jesus’ body when the tomb was opened. According to Matthew, the priests and elders charged the Roman soldiers to create a story to explain why the tomb was empty. They [priests and elders] state, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him while we were asleep’. If any word of this gets to the procurator, we will straighten it out with him and keep you out of trouble.” (Matthew 28:13-14). This never made sense to me. If the apostles were fraudulent, why the Matthew plainly write about the theory of the stolen body of Jesus? Such a theory only makes sense as a lie developed by the priests and elders.
Saintly Sources
Because of the vast array of saints to attest to the truth of the Resurrection, I will only focus on two for conciseness’ sake—St. Peter and St. Paul. The thing that I really love about St. Peter is his fervor to follow the gospel after Jesus’ Resurrection. In addition to being the 1st pope of the Catholic Church, Peter testified to the truth of the Gospel as a martyr via crucifixion.
St. Paul represents arguably the greatest conversion in the history of Christianity. Paul went from being a murderer of Christians to the Church’s great evangelizer and writer of almost 2/3 of the New Testament. These two men show us that they encountered someone who transformed them. Peter and Paul’s conversions are an effect of the power of Jesus’ Resurrection!
My Testimony
While my own testimony does not hold the same weight at Scripture and Tradition, I still am convinced that certain things in my life transpired due to a power outside of my control and full understanding. During my darkest days a few years ago I learned of the power of God. He rose me up from the loss of a job and our miscarriages. God continues to demonstrate the glory of His Resurrected Son in seemingly ordinary things too. For example, I asked my cousin to pray for my wife for an important interview. My cousin told me, “Of course, and incidentally she [my wife] was the person my cousin and his fiancée scheduled to pray for, in a special way, anyways.” This is not the first time this seeming coincidence happened to my cousin.
Through Scripture, Tradition [the saints], and my personal experience with daily and extraordinary events I have come to more deeply realize the Resurrection of Jesus as an historical fact. I pray that you come to enjoy this truth in Scripture, Tradition, and your own life’s experiences!
Below is a letter I dedicated to our Lord Jesus Christ in celebration of his birth, December 25, 2020 Anno Domini.
Dear Baby Jesus,
In a stable, 2000 years ago, a seemingly ordinary infant was born. Through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, shepherds and kings from afar learned about His incredible presence. God uses the most common of circumstances to work the greatest of all miracles–the Incarnation. God so loved the world He sent you–His only Son– to bridge the great gulf, the separation caused by sin.
Wrapped in swaddling clothes, laid in a manger, you my king took the form of mankind. I have heard the Nativity story dozens of times. This Advent I feared I would take your origin story for granted. Instead, I am grateful for the opportunity to gaze on the Nativity scene through new eyes–not merely of a follower, but also as a father.
My children are a reminder of your goodness, truth, and beauty. Seeing the twinkle in their eyes when they gaze at the Nativity Scene at home or church is priceless. The smiles on my kids faces as they color “presents” pictures for my wife and I remind me the true reason for the season!
People are born everyday on this earth, but only once a year do we remember the greatest birth of all.
Jesus my servant king, Emmanuel, Prince of Peace, God-hero, I adore you and celebrate with my family and friends the anniversary of your birth. I pray that my heart is enlarged to make room within the inn of my soul for you, my family, friends, and people I meet daily!
Praised be to God in the Highest and Alleluia for our Savior’s arrival.
With great love and gratitude,
Your adopted son,
Matthew
For us men and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary,
Editor’s Note: Matthew Chicoine interviewed D.P. Curtin, founder of The Scriptorium Project , via email in October 2025. Some of the questions/answers have been rearranged, edited, and paraphrased to provide the best reader experience without losing any integrity of the answers given.
The Scriptorium Project seeks to make rare texts from Christian antiquity accessible for the first time in English. What inspired you to begin this work, and why is it important for the Church today?
In short: a really bad orientation group in college. My first day at Villanova involved an overly perky student orientation leader. After one too many fun facts and ice-breakers, I asked to use the bathroom. I never came back. Instead, I went to the library, where by chance I discovered the catalogue of the Jesuit Father Jacques Migne. That would prove to be providential. For the unfamiliar, Fr. Migne compiled many significant works of the Greek and Latin church into large books called “Patrologias” during the 19th century. They were massive works, but they obviously struggle with being relevant now as the use of Greek and Latin has fallen out of favor.
When I discovered them at Villanova, they were in bad shape. Many of the works of the Scriptorium Project are drawn from Migne’s collected texts. In terms of their importance to the modern church, you might say that the Scriptorium Project is a primary source movement. Rather than relying on commentary or later works about saints and church councils, these are the original texts themselves, laid bare in English so that everyone has access to them.
Last October, I missed celebrating the Feast of Saint Luke. It wasn’t intentional; life just got busy. Between teaching, family life, and parish commitments, October 18th quietly slipped past. But ever since then, I’ve felt an unmistakable pull to know this Gospel writer more deeply, not just as the “beloved physician,” but as the evangelist of mercy, faith, and ordered reason.
As someone with a background in history, I’ve always admired Luke’s approach to truth. His Gospel begins not with poetry or mystery, but with method: an introduction that reads like a historian’s preface. “Since many have undertaken to compile a narrative… I too have decided, after investigating everything accurately anew, to write it down in an orderly sequence for you, most excellent Theophilus…” (Luke 1:1–3). He’s transparent about his sources and his purpose so that we may “realize the certainty” of our faith.
There’s something deeply comforting in that. Luke reminds us that Christianity isn’t a myth or an emotional movement; it’s a faith rooted in reality, built on eyewitnesses and examined testimony. Saint John Paul II beautifully captured this when he wrote that Luke “leads us to knowledge of the discreet yet penetrating light that radiates from the Word.” Luke gives us not just the facts of salvation history but the warmth of faith that makes those facts alive.
