Friday 29th March 2024

Home » Our Catholic Faith » Recent Articles:

Our Savior And Redeemer… The Royal Courtiers Of The Kingdom: The Saints

May 7, 2017 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Our Savior And Redeemer… The Royal Courtiers Of The Kingdom: The Saints

By RAYMOND DE SOUZA, KM Part 6 Every decent king has a court, and courts have courtiers. The saintly kings of the past, like St. Louis of France, St. Ferdinand of Castile, and St. Edward of England, had their courtiers, nobles who worked with them and for them as well. Our royally divine King also has His court, as David had before him: a court of saints and angels in the Kingdom that is not of this world. Don’t we often refer to Heaven as the Heavenly Court? To God alone, and only to Him, we pay the worship of adoration, because His excellence is infinite and is all His own. He is our Supreme King, and we are His…Continue Reading

The Eucharist — Pledge Of Future Glory

May 6, 2017 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on The Eucharist — Pledge Of Future Glory

By DON FIER The first and most fundamental of the manifold effects of the Eucharist received worthily in Holy Communion, as we saw last week, is a deepening of our loving, mystical union with Jesus Christ. As portrayed by Sacred Scripture, the model for this union is that of the Son with the Father: “As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me” (John 6:57). From this unity also flows a more profound and intimate union with all members of the faithful, all those who comprise the Mystical Body of Christ. Another fruit of Holy Communion we observed last week is the preservation and growth of…Continue Reading

Catholic Replies

May 5, 2017 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Editor’s Note: Since we are marking the 100th anniversary of the Fatima apparitions this year, we thought it might be useful to summarize the six apparitions in the column nearest to the date of each one. So here are the highlights of the first apparition on May 13, 1917. For more details, see Fr. Andrew Apostoli’s book Fatima for Today. + + + It was a Sunday in the Portuguese village of Fatima when the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared for the first time to three shepherd children — Lucia dos Santos, 10, and her two cousins, Francisco Marto, 9, and Jacinta Marto, 7. The children were tending sheep in the Cova da Iria when a flash of lightning led them…Continue Reading

Temples Of The Holy Spirit

May 4, 2017 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Temples Of The Holy Spirit

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Sunday Sermon for May 14, 2017 Fifth Sunday Of Easter (YR A) Readings: Acts 6:1-7 1 Peter 2:4-9 John 14:1-12 In the first reading today we hear about the apostles’ discernment regarding service to the community. It seems that at the beginning of the Church, the converts looked up to and trusted the apostles. When there were not as many people to serve, the apostles could do almost everything that was needed to support the life of the community. There came a time, however, when they recognized that they were being stretched too thin. They followed the lead of the Holy Spirit, who gave them the grace to understand that there were ministries that were specific…Continue Reading

Robert Cardinal Sarah… God Has Worked Marvels In The Church In Africa

May 3, 2017 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Robert Cardinal Sarah… God Has Worked Marvels In The Church In Africa

By JURGEN LIMINSKI (Editor’s Note: Robert Cardinal Sarah, the prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, in a recent interview with Aid to the Church in Need, said: “Africa has always considered and seen the Church as a family, the family of God.” (Also, His Eminence spoke about the contribution of the Church in Africa to the Universal Church, about Islam in Africa and the world, about relations between the Church and politics, and about the challenges facing the Church in Africa. (The cardinal, quoting Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, insisted that “the Church needs unity of faith, unity of doctrine, unity of moral teaching. It needs the primacy of the Pope.” (His Eminence is…Continue Reading

A Leaven In The World… Witness Is Always Love For God And Others

May 1, 2017 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on A Leaven In The World… Witness Is Always Love For God And Others

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK As is true of most human beings, I am uncomfortable with certain conversations and would much rather avoid them. After being in a parish for seven years I have come to know the people quite well. I easily observe who is not with us at Mass and who may therefore be totally missing in action at our or any other Mass that day. When a parishioner absents himself from the Easter vigil because it’s too long and is also MIA on Easter morning, I know we may have a problem. When such person once again reappears at Mass I know what I need to say. Stepping out of my comfort zone, however, in order to…Continue Reading

Our Savior And Redeemer . . . Prophet And Priest

April 30, 2017 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Our Savior And Redeemer . . . Prophet And Priest

By RAYMOND DE SOUZA, KM Part 5 So, Christ is our King. Being the eternal Son of God, He is King by natural right. As our Redeemer, He is King by acquired right, for He purchased us with His own Blood: “You were bought with a price,” “ransomed . . . with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Cor. 6:20; 1 Peter 1:18-19). Therefore, as King He holds the threefold power: legislative, executive, and judicial. Through the New Testament Scriptures and the Apostolic Tradition, interpreted by His Catholic Church, He promulgates laws and demands obedience. Through the Magisterium of His Church, He executes His decrees, imposes sanctions, and judges all men. He will judge the living and the dead at…Continue Reading

The Fruits Of Holy Communion

April 29, 2017 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on The Fruits Of Holy Communion

By DON FIER “The love of Jesus Christ reaches its highest perfection and produces the richest harvest of graces,” proclaims St. Peter Julian Eymard, “in the ineffable union He contacts with the soul in Holy Communion.” So inestimable is the value of Holy Communion worthily received, the great saint of eucharistic piety goes on to affirm, that “we profit more by Communion than all the other means of sanctification” (Holy Communion [HC], p. 1). Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ, who never tired of preaching and teaching on the incalculable value of the Holy Eucharist, unreservedly concurs by stating that “every worthy reception of Holy Communion deepens the life of God in our souls: automatically, spontaneously, and infallibly” (The Blessed Sacrament…Continue Reading

Catholic Replies

April 28, 2017 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Q. I am a high school student who has been hearing from a teacher about how women like the late Betty Friedan did so much to free women from being “stay-at-home mothers” so they could fulfill themselves in the workplace. How true is this? — Z.M., Massachusetts. A. Not true at all. In his excellent new book Out of the Ashes: Rebuilding American Culture, Professor Anthony Esolen explained why in a chapter entitled “Restoring Womanhood: Building Homes, not Houses.” Among other things, he said that “when Betty Friedan, a communist ideologue posing as an ordinary American wife and mother, wrote The Feminine Mystique, she did not argue that women did not have pretty much the same opportunities that men had…Continue Reading

Entering The Lord’s Sheepfold

April 27, 2017 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Entering The Lord’s Sheepfold

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Fourth Sunday Of Easter (YR A) Readings: Acts 2:14a, 36-41 1 Peter 2:20b-25 John 10:1-10 In the Gospel reading today, we hear Jesus explaining to His disciples about the sheep gate and that anyone who enters through this gate is with the shepherd while anyone who enters into the sheepfold through another means is a thief and a robber. When His disciples did not understand what He was trying to tell them, our Lord stated explicitly that He Himself is the gate. In other words, He is the only means by which anyone can enter into the sheepfold. This idea of being the gate might strike us as being very strange, but we have to understand…Continue Reading