Thomas L. McDonald has been a writer and editor for the past 25 years, covering technology, history, archaeology, games, and religion. He has degrees in English, Film, and Theology with a concentration in Church History. He’s been a certified catechist for twelve years, and taught Church History for eight. His other writing can be found at Weird Catholic.
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Thirty years after her death, the body of St. Bernadette was found in a remarkable state of preservation.
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Can we prove that any of the Holy Nails are genuine?
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History Channel is running an original documentary called The Last Pope, which is two solid hours of hot garbage. Amidst endless padding relieved only by commercials, the documentary attempts to address the alleged prophecies of St. Malachy, and how they predict that Francis will be the last pope before the end of the world.
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How objects and actions can be blessed and draw us closer to God.
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Psalm 88 is a cry of despair that draws those who suffer closer to Christ.
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Zechariah points to the fountain of redemption opened from the side of Christ.
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What keeps us in this fractious, frustrating, glorious, impossible Church?
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A pilgrimage to the Holy Land brings us closer to God's story.
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On a pilgrimage to Jordan, Thomas L. McDonald gets his first glimpse of a puzzling treasure of religious history.
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Seeking out the laments in times of trial may help us give voice to our own pain.
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What a medieval vision can tell us about purgatory, then and now.
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An ancient cemetery brings us face to face with the Philistines.
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“The first natural tie of human society is man and wife.” St. Augustine
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Scripture, history, and the early Church Fathers help explain the crucifixion
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A surprising portrait of Arthur emerges from the lives of saints
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Can we recapture some of the wonder involved in our devotions to the saints?
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Was there an exchange of letters between Jesus and King Abgar?
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Tradition provides solid ground at Christmas, but it's the life of faith that provides the meaning.
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Taking the notion that the “last shall be first” literally, an unusual medieval custom saw a bishop and a child exchange places.
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A new edition of his Lives of the Fathers and Miracles of Julian and Martin offers a profound look at early medieval Catholicism
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How two saints used a ghost story to explore the nature of the soul.
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Dynamic Duo Give Rousing Speeches on the Family
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Father Pavone: ‘The Family Cannot Be Fully Alive Unless All Its Members Are Protected’