Paying with Plastic

When I returned home from a shopping trip, my husband asked how I had paid for everything. "Plastic," I replied. My 10-year-old daughter piped up, "Mom, ...

Poisonous Fruit

In our TV ads, it is as though the ecstasy of the spirit experienced by a St. Theresa or a St. Francis can be reduced to the gratification coming from ...

Money Leads to Degradation

Money degrades all the gods of man and converts them into commodities.

The Evil of Idleness

From a sermon on the poor:

"Anyone who would not work should not eat" (2 Thessalonians 3:10). But the laws of Saint Paul are not merely for the ...

The Strength of John Calvin

The strength of that heretic [Calvin] consisted in this, that money never had the slightest charm for him. If I had such servants my dominion would extend ...

Going to the Highest Bidder

He that serves God for money will serve the Devil for better wages.

The Danger of Wealth

I continually find it necessary to guard against that natural love of wealth and grandeur which prompts us always, when we come to apply our general doctrine ...

The Evils of Being Rich

"Whom do I injure," [the rich person] says, "when I retain and conserve my own?" Which things, tell me, are yours? Whence have you brought them into being? ...

The Possessor Becomes the Possessed

The poor man seeks money and has it not; a man asks for bread, and your horse champs gold under his teeth. And precious ornaments delight you, although ...

The Danger of Private Property

Those who wish to make room for the Lord must find pleasure not in private, but in common property. Redouble your charity. For, on account of the things ...