Home » Our Catholic Faith » Recent Articles:

The Sacraments Instituted By Christ… The Holy Eucharist — God With Us!

January 28, 2018 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off

By RAYMOND DE SOUZA, KM Part 13 Perhaps what makes me feel really sorry for Protestants is the tragic reality that they believe in Jesus Christ, God Incarnate, but do not have Him in their midst in the marvelous Sacrament of His Love for us: The Holy Eucharist. They claim to believe in the Bible, and yet do not believe in the clearest teaching of all, as we see in St. John’s Gospel chapter 6. It is the only time in the whole New Testament in which our Lord Jesus Christ repeats over and over again the very same teaching: His Real Presence in the Sacrament He instituted at the Last Supper. Since the very first century of Christian history,…Continue Reading

Preparation For The Sacrament Of Marriage

January 27, 2018 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off

By DON FIER When questioned by the Pharisees regarding the permanence of marriage and the possibility of divorce under the New Covenant, the response of our Lord Jesus Christ was unequivocal: “They [husband and wife] are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder” (Matt. 19:6). Therefore, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) teaches, “the marriage bond has been established by God himself in such a way that a marriage concluded and consummated between baptized persons can never be dissolved” (CCC, n. 1640). As we saw last week, only the Church’s judgment that an essential element required to enter into marriage validly was lacking at the very time of…Continue Reading

Catholic Replies

January 26, 2018 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off

Q. Which works of mercy are more important, the corporal or spiritual? I ask this because I seldom hear the spiritual works mentioned. — M.B., via e-mail. A. They are equally important, although you wouldn’t know it from the lack of attention given to the spiritual works. In our modern culture, we can understand why the main focus is on the corporal works. After all, who could object to feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, sheltering the homeless, visiting the sick and imprisoned, and burying the dead? Even unbelievers support those charitable works, which originate in Isaiah 58:6-7 and Matt. 25:31-46. But it’s a different story with the spiritual works, which originate in the practice…Continue Reading

Find Fulfillment In Charity

January 25, 2018 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Fifth Sunday In Ordinary Time (YR B) Readings: Job 7:1-4, 6-7 1 Cor. 9:16-19, 22-13 Mark 1:29-39 In the first reading today, Job, in the midst of his suffering, calls man’s life on earth a drudgery and his days those of hirelings. When one is feeling crushed under the weight of various troubles, it feels hopeless, which, again, we find in Job. He was in such darkness that Job was convinced he would never see happiness again. Job’s disposition is one most of us can relate to, or have been able to relate to, because of our own misery. Suffering can take any number of forms, so there is no way for us to compare one…Continue Reading

Materials For Sacred Vessels… Bishops’ Conferences Have Some Leeway

January 24, 2018 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off

By FR. EDWARD McNAMARA (Editor’s Note: ZENIT News Agency published this liturgy question and answer column on January 9. All rights reserved. (Fr. Edward McNamara is a professor of liturgy and dean of theology at the Regina Apostolorum University.) + + + Q. According to the General Instruction of the Roman Missal, n. 328, the sacred vessels should be composed of noble metals. N. 329, however, grants the power to the episcopal conferences to allow the use of other materials it historically or culturally considers noble, such as certain hardwoods. How does this regulation affect religious congregations of pontifical right who span multiple dioceses and episcopal conferences? Would the effect of the local episcopal conference and diocese’s decree differ for…Continue Reading

A Leaven In The World… We Fight Distractions To Grow In Holiness

January 22, 2018 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK Life in this world is a gift from God: Don’t let it become a distraction from the one He offers us forever in Heaven. We have more information, more images, more choices in our possession than ever before. Each of us has only so much concentration. If we don’t learn to discern and to make choices, to be engaged in the rate of our consumption, we will as a result have less capacity to focus on what is essential. We live out our faith against a background of raw and crude public discourse and rude behavior that we would deplore in our children, our spouses, or ourselves. Unchaste music and entertainment multiply and family-friendly choices…Continue Reading

The Sacraments Instituted By Christ… Confirmation: From The Standpoint Of Tradition

January 21, 2018 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off

By RAYMOND DE SOUZA, KM Part 12 We have studied the Sacrament of Confirmation from the point of view of Sacred Scripture. Now it is time to investigate it from the point of view of Tradition — that, is, the oral teachings from the apostles that were handed down through the early centuries of Christian history. Non-Catholics of all sorts deny the validity of the apostolic Tradition, and doing so becomes their own undoing, since not everything our Lord taught the apostles was consigned to writing. In fact, St. John the Evangelist, at the end of his Gospel, candidly stated: “But there are also many other things which Jesus did; which, if they were written every one, the world itself,…Continue Reading

Declaration Of Matrimonial Nullity

January 20, 2018 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off

By DON FIER Last week, we saw that the Church teaches that certain conditions must be fulfilled for valid reception of the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony. As summarized by Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ, “to receive the Sacrament of Matrimony, a man and woman must both be baptized. They must be free to marry and to express their mutual consent. This means they are under no constraint, nor impeded by any natural or ecclesiastical law. The exchange of consent brings their marriage into being. Natural intercourse after marriage consummates their union and makes it indissoluble” (The Faith, p. 138; cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church [CCC], nn. 1625-1628). Thus, a valid act of marrying requires that both parties have sufficient…Continue Reading

Catholic Replies

January 19, 2018 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off

Q. Jesus is the king of the universe, so why did He choose to be born in a lowly stable instead of in a palace, or at least in an ordinary house? — R.S.. via email. A. If Jesus came into the world as a powerful king, or perhaps as a military warrior, or as a wealthy member of the community, people would have been afraid of Him, as they were afraid of King Herod, or of Roman soldiers, or of the Pharisees who looked down on them (cf. the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector in Luke 18:9-14). But who could be afraid of a tiny, helpless baby? In his “Blessing Before a Christmas Stable” in the…Continue Reading

Love And Obey The Lord

January 18, 2018 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Fourth Sunday In Ordinary Time (YR B) Readings: Deut. 18:15-20 1 Cor. 7:32-35 Mark 1:21-28 In the first reading today God tells Moses that He will raise up a prophet like Moses for the people of Israel. We know there were many prophets in Israel; some have writings contained in the Scriptures, some are mentioned by name, others were members of a school of prophets. Among all these men and women who were prophets, none of them claimed to be “the Prophet” described in the reading today. In the sixth and seventh chapters of St. John’s Gospel we hear people proclaiming Jesus to be “the Prophet” when they saw His works or heard His preaching. Interestingly,…Continue Reading

Home » Our Catholic Faith » Recent Articles:

The Wanderer Printing Company Copyright 2020 Continental Data Services (2020) - All Rights Reserved