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Our Savior And Redeemer… How Did Christ Understand His Sacrifice?

June 11, 2017 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Our Savior And Redeemer… How Did Christ Understand His Sacrifice?

By RAYMOND DE SOUZA, KM Part 11 This is a very interesting point of Catholic doctrine to investigate: to probe into Jesus’ mind to try to understand how He viewed His sacrifice. Let us follow Him to the Garden of Gethsemane. We contemplate Him on His knees, praying to His Heavenly Father. Then He turns to the apostles and utters that groan of anguish: “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death” (Mark 14:34). We have no idea of the depth and magnitude of that sorrow. Of course, He could have used His divine powers to eliminate it, but He did not allow His Divinity to spare His human Heart a single pang. In simple terms, He suffered as though…Continue Reading

Reconciliation With God And The Church

June 10, 2017 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Reconciliation With God And The Church

By DON FIER As we examined the various forms that penance can take in the Christian life last week, we saw that its authentic expression must always be grounded on interior conversion of heart. The Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church refers to this inner transformation as interior penance and defines it as “the movement of a ‘contrite heart’ (Psalm 51:17), drawn by divine grace, to respond the merciful love of God” (n. 300). It involves not only sorrow, but abhorrence of past sins, a firm purpose of amendment, and trust in God’s help and mercy. We also saw last week that the Church, based on Sacred Scripture and the Church fathers, identifies three basic forms of penance:…Continue Reading

Catholic Replies

June 9, 2017 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Q. In St. Matthew’s account of the Ascension of Jesus into Heaven, he says that when the disciples saw Jesus and worshiped Him, some of them “doubted” (Matt. 28:17). I thought only Thomas doubted that Jesus had risen, but that he was convinced otherwise at the second appearance of our Lord on the Sunday after Easter. So what is Matthew talking about? — P.H., New Jersey. A. Although all of the disciples saw Jesus after His Resurrection, perhaps the faith of some of them was not as strong as you might think. We know that ten of them saw Jesus on Easter and eleven of them on the following Sunday, but only seven were present at the Sea of Tiberias…Continue Reading

God Is Love

June 8, 2017 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on God Is Love

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER The Solemnity Of The Body And Blood Of Christ (YR A) Readings: Deut. 8:2-3, 14b-16a 1 Cor. 10:16-17 John 6:51-58 The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the Blood of Christ? And the bread that we break, is it not a participation in the Body of Christ? With these words St. Paul forces us to look deeper than what the senses are able to perceive. How can a cup of wine that is blessed cause us to participate in the Blood of Jesus? How can a piece of bread that is broken cause us to participate in the Body of our Lord? In the first reading, we hear how God…Continue Reading

Cardinal Mueller… “Dubia” Cardinals Raise “Legitimate Questions”

June 7, 2017 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Cardinal Mueller… “Dubia” Cardinals Raise “Legitimate Questions”

By CLAIRE CHRETIEN (Wanderer Editor’s Note: A full transcript of the interview can be read on Arroyo’s Facebook page, according to LifeSiteNews, which published the report below on May 31. Watch The World Over from May 25, which aired this interview, at YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhPGrOocZCU) + + + (LifeSiteNews) — Gerhard Cardinal Mueller, who as the prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) is the Vatican’s official doctrine chief, has commented on bishops’ conferences coming up with different interpretations of Amoris Laetitia, the possibility of female deacons, and pro-abortion population controllers’ participation in a recent Vatican conference. Mueller gave a wide-ranging interview to EWTN’s Raymond Arroyo on his show The World Over. It first aired May 25. The…Continue Reading

A Leaven In The World… The Mission For The Family Begins With The Child

June 5, 2017 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on A Leaven In The World… The Mission For The Family Begins With The Child

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK In the course of a recent visit to New York City on the occasion of the annual “Fleet Week,” I enjoyed the privilege of meeting Peter Smith, representative of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children to the United Nations. An active duty Navy chaplain friend, Fr. Charles Johnson, was in port on his ship the USS Kearsarge for the annual Navy and Marine Corps extravaganza in the city and I had come to town to join him for some time off on liberty. I enjoyed the hospitality of Fr. Gerry Murray where he serves as pastor at the Church of the Holy Family in the UN neighborhood of the city. I thank him…Continue Reading

Our Savior And Redeemer… Why Is Jesus Called “Savior”?

June 4, 2017 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Our Savior And Redeemer… Why Is Jesus Called “Savior”?

By RAYMOND DE SOUZA, KM Part 10 The first problem with the Protestant concept of being “saved” while still alive, merely because one “accepts Jesus in one’s heart as one’s personal Lord and Savior,” as the wishful thinking goes, is that it is totally unbiblical, unhistorical, and unreasonable. It is unbiblical because nowhere in the whole of both Testaments will you find one single verse saying this. It is unhistorical because from Jesus’ time until Luther’s (approximately 1,500 years), no Christian ever believed this. It is unreasonable because it gives freedom to sin under the illusion of being already “saved.” How did Jesus save us, then? He did not give us Heaven for free, just like that, as if we…Continue Reading

Interior Penance And Forms Of Expression

June 3, 2017 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Interior Penance And Forms Of Expression

By DON FIER In His great mercy, Christ instituted the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation as a remedy for those who, having received the new life of grace (friendship with God) through the saving waters of Baptism, become estranged from their Creator through sin. The Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church summarizes the underlying reason for the crucial need of this post-baptismal sacrament of healing in man’s struggle for conversion, holiness, and attainment of everlasting life: “The new life of grace received in Baptism does not abolish the weakness of human nature nor the inclination to sin” (n. 297). Our propensity to surrender to the unrelenting tug of concupiscence is such that even “a righteous man falls seven…Continue Reading

Catholic Replies

June 2, 2017 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Editor’s Note: As promised in May, here is a summary of the second appearance of Our Blessed Lady to the three children in Fatima 100 years ago. For more details, see Fr. Andrew Apostoli’s book Fatima for Today. June 13, 1917 Fifty people had accompanied the three visionaries to the Cova da Iria on the 13th of June. They joined the children in praying the rosary, but did not see our Lady when she suddenly appeared above the holm oak tree. “What do you want of me?” Lucia asked, and the Virgin said to return there on July 13, to pray the rosary every day, and to learn to read and write. Lucia not only learned to read and write,…Continue Reading

The Trinity Is The Central Mystery

June 1, 2017 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on The Trinity Is The Central Mystery

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Solemnity Of The Most Holy Trinity (YR A) Readings: Exodus 34:4b-6, 8-9 2 Cor. 13:11-13 John 3:16-18 Today we celebrate the mystery that is central to what it means to be Christian: the Most Holy Trinity. One might reply that to be Christian is to believe in Jesus. This is true, but what do we believe about Jesus? We believe that from all eternity Jesus is God. Now, either there is only one God who became man, or there are more gods than one, or there is more than one Person in God. Let’s begin with the first possibility. In the first reading today we hear about God’s self-revelation to Moses. In both God’s revelation of…Continue Reading