The Red Vineyard , Van Gogh [ Web Gallery of Art ] Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA) Readings (Jerusalem ...
Enjoy this sample of Christian and Catholic humour, created by religious people who have learned to laugh at themselves.
Have we lost our moral compass? Am I the only one who thinks our society has fallen prey to: Placing other idols ahead of God? Thinki...
The "most disturbing image" gag in Wiley Miller's Non Sequitur comic depends on a fairly common misunderstanding of Catholic...
Rosemary McDunn, author of the Catholic favorite, The Green Coat: A Tale from the Dust Bowl Years has been named Teacher of the Year by ...
There has been much talk in recent years within ministry about the notion of radical hospitality. Not merely seeking to embrace those we know, it is an openness albeit a willingness to authenticall…
The things that raise my spirits are small and often considered insignificant. It was my children who taught me how to live in the present moment with joy. I couldn’t help but learn how to live as…
Bell V. Dodd’s autobiography so colourful and so vivid, that reading it, skepticism tugged at the peripheries of my consciousness. The book ...
Today is February 11, the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. There are 69 approved miracles of physical healing that occurred at Lourdes, Franc...
I don't live in a monastery. No one rings a bell that, in essence, gives me permission to drop everything and take half an hour for ...
We are one week into Lent. How is it going for you so far? Have you broken your fast promises? Are you doing great at avoiding chocolate ...
DO YOU GO TO CONFESSION REGULARLY? WHAT SINS DO YOU CONFESS? DO YOU TELL THE WHOLE TRUTH? OR DO YOU NOT CONFESS SOME SINS? THIS I...
A picture's worth a thousand words, so when I went off to lunch with super-popular author Jen Fulwiler and 7 other lovely ladies I was d...
During the Olympic competition this summer, champions and the emblematic figures of the sport emerge. They are the new gods of human...
THE HOLY TRINITY AN EXPLANATION HERE
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We celebrate this day every year, for several reasons: Mary...
En la visita del Papa Francisco a México, la Iglesia volvió a situarse en el centro de la atención de los medios de comunicación y de...
Saint Margaret of Antioch The story behind this saint is mostly legendary but it was so interesting I had to share it. I hope you enjoy...
We've been learning quite a bit about humanity's family history recently: thanks partly to our increasingly-detailed knowledge of DN...
Today we celebrate the Feast Day of Saint Matthew, Apostle to Christ and Gospel Writer of the Gospel According to Matthew. He directed hi...
Until we stop railing against our powerlessness, we will never be happy. Only the truth sets us free. Only living in the present moment will we find the peace and joy we crave. Yet even once we rea…
Every year Lent comes around and we give something up. But why? To lose weight? To test our will power? What’s the real reason that we fast? There are several good ways to answer this question. I’d like to examine Jesus’ responses to the devil during his own fast. Each of his three answers to Satan’s three temptations reveals to us something of the purpose of fasting. Juan de Flandes, Temptation of Christ (Franciscan Devil??) “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” “It is written, ‘Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word which comes forth from the mouth of God.” We fast to remind us of our need for God. When we are hungry, we experience our weakness. Deprived of a little food, we start to feel faint and tired, or perhaps grumpy. We start to discover that we’re not all we thought we were. We remember that we are frail creatures dependent on God for everything, even our next breath. The point of fasting is to bring us from our hunger for food and to a hunger for God’s Word. We experience our need for food, but the Lord reminds us that, as much as we need food, we need the Word of the Father even more. We live not by bread alone, but by every word which comes forth from the mouth of God. Of course, there is only one Word which comes from the mouth of the Father, and that is Jesus, the Word Made Flesh, whom we receive in the Eucharist. May we long for this Bread of Angels more than we long for earthly food! + Br. Ignatius Pio Mariae, CFR Comayagua, Honduras ------------------------------- We need your help! Donate here.
Meeting God in the Upper Room : Three Moments to Change Your Life (Servant, 2017) is a compelling, well-written narrative which engage...
Why do many faithful, American Catholics label Pope Francis a modernist heretic? Every time Pope Francis speaks, the papers are filled...
Today we celebrate All Souls Day. Yes, I said “celebrate.” This day is set aside for us to remember and celebrate God’s mercy. This day i...
I was sixteen when I learned that trees had individual leaves; at least, ones visible from more than a few feet away. I literally gasped...
Scripture dictates a few rules about speaking. On Sinai, God gave two commandments regarding words: We are not to take the name of God in ...
Real prayer Portraits – Cesar Augusto Is not a mental exercise, a game. Honest prayer Opens our core, our heart to the Almighty,...
It seems that in the United States this measure has had opposite effects to what was sought, and the irony is that the central factor of...
First Steps (after Millet) , Van Gogh [ Web Gallery of Art ] For Readings and Reflections for the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Ye...
Have you ever reached the end of a book to find yourself feeling a little sad that it was finished; as if you were saying goodbye to good ...
WHAT IS THE POINT OF IT ALL? PLEASE CLICK HERE
THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED TO ME ... CLICK HERE
Bombs. Wars. Beheadings of children. Airplanes flying sorties into “enemy” territory. Deaths on the battlefields. Refugees. Explosio...
Jesus’ exhortation in Sunday’s Gospel “ask the Master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest” usually is interpreted to mean...
Coinrule is a Platform to Send Automated Trades to Compete with Professional Algo Traders and Hedge Funds Today.
We are free to even laugh and even enjoy religious humour because people who are secure in their faith understand their Father in heaven chuckles along with them. ( Melanie’s Theology 101)
Earlier this year, someone asked me if I realized that Catholics are cannibals. I responded with something like 'yes, but it wasn't our idea.' I'm pretty sure that the person wasn't trying to be offensive. I run into odd notions about Catholic beliefs fairly often. I suspect they're often rooted in America's endemic anti-catholicism. (January 6, 2013; February 29, 2012) Besides: the person was quite right in this case. Here's part of today's Gospel reading: "Whoever eats 19 my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. "For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink." (John 6:54-55) After two millennia, that part of the Gospel may not seem as shocking as it did when my Lord told folks in Capernaum's synagogue. Not, at least, until we start thinking about it. "Take and Eat" Some of the more fastidious versions of Christianity sidestep my Lord's indelicate comments, like the ones in John 6:55 and Matthew 26:26-28. Folks who heard Jesus that day in Capernaum's synagogue understood what my Lord meant. Quite a few went back to their old way of life after their leader said 'eat me.' (John 6:60-66) I can see why, since the what Jesus said was more like "...whoever gnaws my flesh...." Translations from one language to another can be tricky, since words with nearly the same 'dictionary' meaning can be associated with very different feelings. More about this bit from John: "Eats: the verb used in these verses is not the classical Greek verb used of human eating, but that of animal eating: 'munch,' 'gnaw.' This may be part of John's emphasis on the reality of the flesh and blood of Jesus (cf ⇒ John 6:55), but the same verb eventually became the ordinary verb in Greek meaning 'eat.' " (footnote 19) "The Words of Eternal Life" Jesus said, 'I am God,' and made the claim stick. (John 8:58; John 14:9-11; Luke 24) Since I believe that, it's like Peter said: my options are limited. "Jesus then said to the Twelve, 'Do you also want to leave?' "Simon Peter answered him, 'Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. "We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.' " (John 6:67-69) I didn't become a Catholic just because I read those verses, and that's another topic. Discussing who Jesus is and why this is a big day for Catholics doesn't demand words like hypostatic union and transubstantiation, but I'm a recovering English teacher and an adult convert to Catholicism. Feel free to skip to the next heading (Baldachins, Halos, and Diversity in Unity): or check out World Cup trivia. Hypostatic Union, Transubstantiation, and All That Since I'm a Catholic, I acknowledge that Jesus is human and divine. The Son of God is one person: "eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in Being with the Father...," as it says in the Nicene Creed. I don't understand how that works, not in detail. But we've got a word for it: hypostatic union. "HYPOSTATIC UNION: The union of the divine and human natures in the one divine Person (Greek: hypostasis) of the Son of God, Jesus Christ (252, 468). "The Chalcedonian Definition agreed with Theodore that there were two natures in the Incarnation. However, the Council of Chalcedon also insisted that hypostasis be used as it was in the Trinitarian definition: to indicate the person and not the nature as with Apollinarius." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, Glossary) Some folks who accept the idea that Jesus is divine have had trouble believing that Jesus is really human. Occasionally someone decides that my Lord couldn't, or shouldn't, have been both human and divine. Their names for the workarounds vary, but these alternatives to reality fall into one of three groups: or four, depending on how you split them up. (May 4, 2014) What we're celebrating today involves transubstantiation. It's why that person asked me if I knew that Catholics are cannibals. "TRANSUBSTANTIATION: The scholastic term used to designate the unique change of the Eucharistic bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. 'Transubstantiation' indicates that through the consecration of the bread and the wine there occurs the change of the entire substance of the bread into the substance of the Body of Christ, and of the entire substance of the wine into the Blood of Christ—even though the appearances or 'species' of bread and wine remain (1376)." (Catechism, Glossary) "Substance," and "appearances" or "species," in this case are philosophical terms. What they mean is that the unleavened bread doesn't look or taste any different; and the wine is still wine, as far as my physical senses can tell. But under, or behind, or beyond, what my senses tell me: my Lord is there: actually present; not a symbol; really, unequivocally, there. Eucharistic miracles happen, when we're able to perceive the change with our senses: but these events are very few and far between. The highest-profile one I can remember offhand is the Miracle of Lanciano, about 1,300 years back. What happened in Lanciano, Italy, isn't the sort of 'I saw the face of [whoever] in a jar of peanut butter' thing. The Church methodically checks out claims of miraculous happenings, and that's yet another topic. (December 8, 2010) Baldachins, Halos, and Diversity in Unity Where was I? Who Jesus is, The Body and Blood of Christ, and why today is special. Right. Weather permitting,we'll do a Corpus Christi procession from Our Lady of Angels to St. Paul's. I'm hoping that we can have the procession: maybe between thunderstorms. This will be the last one we'll have with Father Statz. He revived the tradition here, this is his last month in Sauk Centre, and that's yet again another topic. Although Corpus Christi is a city on the Texas Coast, that's not what we're celebrating today. "Corpus Christi" is Latin for Body of Christ. In a sense, every Mass is a celebration of Corpus Christi, but we set aside one each year as a special event. (Catechism, 1322-1405) The current (2003) English translation of the Roman Missal calls today "the solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ." That'll probably upset some folks, and that's — what else? — another topic. Pope Francis celebrated Corpus Christi Thursday, Rome time. He celebrated Mass in front of the main entrance to the Basilica of St John Lateran in Rome. Folks in Rome did the traditional Corpus Christi procession to the Basilica of St Mary Major, but the Pope wasn't with them. I think he had good reasons: "While thousands of people lined the streets holding candles and praying as the Holy Eucharist was carried by the Vicar General for the diocese of Rome and the procession was led by the bishops of Rome, Pope Francis made his way in a closed-in car to Mary Major for Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament and his solemn blessing. "Pope Francis decided not to take part in the procession on foot between the two basilicas partly due to his upcoming commitments over the next few days but more importantly he preferred to avoid the attention he would receive in an open car which he thought could distract the faithful's attention from the Blessed Sacrament, exposed and taken in procession." ("Pope Celebrates Corpus Christi," Catholic Communications, Sydney Archdiocese (June 20, 2014)) Keeping the focus on the Blessed Sacrament, my Lord under the appearance of unleavened bread, is why folks from Poland to Minnesota and beyond have the Consecrated Host under a sort of traveling tent. It's called a baldachin, and has been a symbol of authority in Europe and cultures with European roots for a thousand years, more or less. (From Silar, Magdalena Bryll Cefeida, Joyce Chan, Eigenes Werk, via Wikipedia, used w/o permission.) A thousand years from now, we may have another widely-recognized symbol of authority: but we'll still have the same reason for using it. A sort of bonus to being Catholic is that we're accumulating a growing collection of symbolic expressions of faith. For example, the pelican became a symbol for the Eucharist about eight centuries back; ichthys (fish) and two letters of the Greek alphabet go much further back, and of course there's the Cross. Most if not all Christian symbols have been used by folks who weren't Christians: like the halo, which has roots in ancient Greece and Egypt, and probably Buddhist iconography. Then there are Christmas trees, which showed up in 15th or 16th century Germany. Many Nigerian Christians have celebrated Christmas with Jollof rice/Benachin and Tuwon Shinkafa. The point is that for two millennia and counting, we've been practicing diversity in unity. And that's still more topics. (December 9, 2012; April 18, 2012) Related posts: Yesterday, today - - - "Jesus: Two Millennia of Truth and Alternatives" (May 4, 2014) "Believing Impossible Things: Not Required" (March 30, 2014) "Jesus, God, and What St. Augustine Said" (December 26, 2012) "The Man Who Wouldn't Stay Dead" (March 11, 2012) "Miracles, Mass, Bread and Wine" (June 7, 2010) - - - and forever "Looking Forward to Heaven" (August 25, 2013) "Fasting, Penance: and Infinite Depths of Joy" (June 3, 2012) "Marching Through Time" (April 1, 2012) "An Eternal Life I can Live With" (August 27, 2011) "Last Judgment: Attendance Mandatory" (May 21, 2011)
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Striving for the heights of holiness in the trenches of everyday life.
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My Conversion Story I am a convert. As a Protestant kid who went to Sunday School from 3-years-old to my teenage years, I grew up on the stories of Jesus, singing songs about His love and memorizin…
