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A Leaven In The World . . . Lent: Invitation To Contemplate Death

March 4, 2021 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on A Leaven In The World . . . Lent: Invitation To Contemplate Death

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK We contemplate the death of Christ at every Mass before receiving His risen Body and Blood in the Holy Eucharist. We know and profess this to be true. Faith can and must grow, however. Perhaps nothing spurs us to lean on the Lord through our faith as much as accepting in an ever deeper way the fact of our own death — which indeed will happen one day; we just do not know when.The season of Lent leads to the victory of Resurrection and life at Easter, but it is the death of the Lord which makes that possible. We focus upon His self-offering on the cross more during this most important penitential season than…Continue Reading

Remember Ulrich Klopfer?. . . Personal Encounters Shed Light on Abortion

March 3, 2021 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Remember Ulrich Klopfer?. . . Personal Encounters Shed Light on Abortion

By FR. SHENAN J. BOQUET (Editor’s Note: Fr. Shenan J. Boquet is president of Human Life International. He travels around the world spreading the Gospel of Life. He was ordained in 1993 and is a priest of the Houma-Thibodaux Roman Catholic Diocese in Louisiana, his home state, where Fr. Boquet served before joining HLI in August 2011.)(This commentary was first published by Human Life International at www.hli.org on February 15. All rights reserved.) + + Evil thrives amidst darkness and shadows. Thieves operate under the cover of night. Bribes are passed beneath tables. Drugs are sold from cars with tinted windows in unlit parking lots. White collar crime is committed under the cover of the opaque complexities of high finance.The…Continue Reading

The Message Of The Cross

March 1, 2021 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on The Message Of The Cross

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Third Sunday Of Lent (YR B) Readings: Exodus 20:1-171 Cor. 1:22-25John 2:13-25 In the second reading today, St. Paul reminds the Corinthians that their faith, based on the preaching of St. Paul, was in Jesus Christ crucified. The message of the crucified Lord was and is foolishness to some and a scandal to others. However, to us who have faith in Jesus, the message of the cross demonstrates the wisdom and the power of God.The natural response is to ask: Where is the wisdom of being crucified? Where is the power when the crucified One did not fight back and was defeated in the crucifixion? If we look at only the natural level, we find nothing…Continue Reading

Catholic Replies

February 26, 2021 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Editor’s Note: Are you interested in finding some good Lenten reading? Why not choose one or more of our books? The books available are Catholic Replies and Catholic Replies 2, All Generations Will Call Me Blessed, Who Do You Say That I Am?, Catholicism & Reason (Apologetics), Catholicism & Scripture (Salvation History), Catholicism & Society (Marriage and Family), Catholicism & Ethics (Medical/Moral Issues), and Catholicism & Life (Commandments and Sacraments). While they usually range in price from $10.95 to $17.95, you can purchase them at a special Lenten price of $5 each, plus $10 shipping for up to five books and $15 for more than five books.All orders must be paid by check. You can learn more about these books…Continue Reading

A Leaven In The World… The Interior Priorities Of Lent

February 25, 2021 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on A Leaven In The World… The Interior Priorities Of Lent

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK A man called recently to request a Baptism for a newborn. I couldn’t recognize his name, beating my brain to recall him as I did. I certainly did not remember him and his family attending Sunday Mass, even before COVID. To my chagrin, I explained to him that we aren’t like addicts, attending Mass for six months in order to get a child baptized, but unsure what we are going to do about our faith afterward.More people email rather than call in their orders for sacraments. “How do I sign up for the baptismal class?” they ask. The “baptismal class” in my parish is Sunday Mass. Until death.Yes, many bishops have suspended the obligation to…Continue Reading

Fat Tuesday And Corrie Ten Boom

February 24, 2021 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Fat Tuesday And Corrie Ten Boom

By FR. JAMES ALTMAN Dear family, as you know, the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday has come to be known as Fat Tuesday, a day when not-very-faithful people overindulge because — somehow that is supposed to do what? That is supposed to somehow help them prepare for Lent? Somehow the wretched excesses of Mardi gras are somehow supposed to prepare us for Lent? Somehow four days or more of drunkenness and debauchery are supposed to prepare us for Lent? What shall we do in the face of such a contradiction to our Catholic goal of striving to live a holy life all 365 days of the year, and especially during the Lenten season?We should restore to our traditions what Holy Mother…Continue Reading

We Will All Be Tested

February 22, 2021 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on We Will All Be Tested

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Second Sunday Of Lent (YR B) Readings: Gen. 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18Romans 8:31b-34Mark 9:2-10 In the first reading today, we hear the story of Abraham being tested by God in a way that would be the horror of any parent: Abraham is asked to sacrifice his son. We must consider three points. First, every person is going to be tested. We are all called to love God above all else; indeed, to love Him with our whole heart. The Lord will test us so we will know if something or someone is more important to us than Him.This sounds, on the surface, to be very selfish. It is not. Recall that God gains nothing from our…Continue Reading

Catholic Replies

February 19, 2021 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Editor’s Note: Are you interested in finding some good Lenten reading? Why not choose one or more of our books? The books available are Catholic Replies and Catholic Replies 2, All Generations Will Call Me Blessed, Who Do You Say That I Am?, Catholicism & Reason (Apologetics), Catholicism & Scripture (Salvation History), Catholicism & Society (Marriage and Family), Catholicism & Ethics (Medical/Moral Issues), and Catholicism & Life (Commandments and Sacraments).While they usually range in price from $10.95 to $17.95, you can purchase them at a special Lenten price of $5 each, plus $10 shipping for up to five books and $15 for more than five books. All orders must be paid by check. You can learn more about these books…Continue Reading

Making History In The Archdiocese Of Washington

February 18, 2021 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Making History In The Archdiocese Of Washington

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK For the first time since the 1960s, one parish in the Archdiocese of Washington is again offering Sunday and weekday Mass and all seven sacraments in the Traditional Rite. It all began over thirty years ago with the 1988 decree Ecclesia Dei of Pope John Paul II in which he wrote “respect must everywhere be shown for the feelings of all those who are attached to the Latin liturgical tradition by a wide and generous application of the directives issued….by the Apostolic See for the use of the Roman Missal according to the typical edition of 1962.”A small group of faithful from various locations in southern Maryland responded to this invitation by approaching James Cardinal…Continue Reading

On Our Lenten Devotional Life

February 17, 2021 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on On Our Lenten Devotional Life

By FR. JAMES ALTMAN Dear family, the past Sunday is known in the Traditional Calendar as Sexagesima Sunday, as we are beginning to prepare for Lent as we draw close to Ash Wednesday — and the profound devotion of having the Sign of the Cross traced in ashes on our foreheads.For the record, the day-to-day life of a real Catholic necessarily includes devotions. If we want to know why we have such failure in the practice of our faith, amongst clergy and laity alike, look no further than the postconciliar attacks on the devotions we had practiced for millennia. For decades, and even as recently as when I was in the seminary, seminarians were persecuted, and even kicked out, for…Continue Reading