Apologetics

Apologetics is the Church’s perennial task of making evident the reasonableness of the faith. This task belongs to the very identity of the Church not only because of her mission to proclaim the Good News to the ends of the earth—a mission that includes presenting reasons for the faith—but, even more fundamentally, because of the obligation simply to make manifest the truth of faith and thereby show forth the glory of God.

“[T]he martyr becomes truly a living image of the trinitarian truth revealed in and through the love of the Cross.”

"We can put the decisive question thus: Is there something to be gained precisely from receiving a truth from another that one could in principle simply see for oneself?"

“One could say that the child—both in his action, and his reception by the world—is the continual reminder and symbol that creation is a gift.”

“[A]ll of created reality is an embodiment of God’s love, thus all of created reality should be seen as a sacrament —that is, as an instrument of God’s grace.”

"The strength in which the Vicar of Christ must come to resemble his Lord is the strength of love that is ready for martyrdom."

"[W]hat reason could I give . . . for having denied the faith which saves those who cherish it, on account of human glory which has no substance?"

“With his eye turned firmly outward and upward—to the world and to God—Patmore’s writing reveals a keen perception of the infinite disclosed in every single finite creature.”

"I only report the cry which certain 'babes in Christ' have uttered: 'Taste and see that the Lord is sweet.'"