Tuesday 18th January 2022

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The Spirit Of The Lord Is Upon You

January 17, 2022 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on The Spirit Of The Lord Is Upon You

FR. ROBERT ALTIER Third Sunday In Ordinary Time (YR C) Readings: Neh. 8:2-4a, 5-6, 8-101 Cor. 12:12-30Luke 1:1-4; 4:14-21 In the second reading today, St. Paul states: “You are Christ’s body, and individually parts of it.” This truth is of great importance to all of us, but we need to look at the Gospel reading to see what God teaches us about this truth on an even deeper level. In the Gospel, Jesus reads from the scroll of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah. What is important for our considerations is the line that says: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed me. . . .”If you are a member of Christ, as St. Paul…Continue Reading

Catholic Replies

January 14, 2022 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Q. Are archaeologists still looking for the original pieces of Christ’s Cross? – J.B., Pennsylvania.A. No, the true Cross was found by St. Helena in Jerusalem in the fourth century, and pieces of this holy relic can now be found in many churches and shrines throughout the world. Helena was sent to Jerusalem by her son, the Roman Emperor Constantine, who had made Christianity legal in the Roman Empire in 313 and was baptized shortly before his death in 337.According to reports, Helena found three crosses at an excavation site, but it was not until all three had been touched to the body of a dying woman that the true Cross was identified as the one that restored her to…Continue Reading

Practicing Catholics: The Moral Connection

January 13, 2022 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Practicing Catholics: The Moral Connection

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK A Catholic acquaintance recounts having been asked, while being interviewed in preparation for hiring by a particular agency concerned with national security, “Have you slept with your friend’s girlfriend or wife?” His impulse was to answer, “No, I’m Catholic,” but only yes or no answers were allowed.That reminded me of an occasion in the Army or Navy when I was filling out benefits paperwork with the help of a woman who asked, “Do you have any dependents?,” which means children, for purposes of financial support. And I responded, “No. I’m not married.” She came right back with, “Good for you.”Before I realized what was happening I had confessed publicly what it means to be a…Continue Reading

From The Christmas Cycle… An Overlooked But Powerful Reading

January 12, 2022 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on From The Christmas Cycle… An Overlooked But Powerful Reading

By MSGR. CHARLES POPE (Editor’s Note: Msgr. Pope posted this commentary on January 4, 2022 and it is reprinted here with permission. His website is msgrpope.com.) + + There is a Scripture reading proclaimed at the Christmas Liturgy that usually gets overlooked. And yet it should elicit considerable reflection since it is proclaimed at the Christmas Midnight Mass, one of the Church’s most prominent Liturgies. It is from the Letter to Titus in the second chapter. I would like to reproduce it in full and then give some commentary following.“The grace of God has appeared, saving all and training us to reject Godless ways and worldly desires and to live temperately, justly, and devoutly in this age, as we await…Continue Reading

Our Lord Gave Himself Entirely

January 10, 2022 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Our Lord Gave Himself Entirely

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Second Sunday In Ordinary Time (YR C) Readings: Isaiah 62:1-51 Cor. 12:4-11John 2:1-11 In calling Israel into a covenant relationship with Himself, God took His Chosen People into a relationship that is akin to a marriage. This marital relationship is mentioned many times in the Old Testament. Often it is because Israel was like an unfaithful wife who broke the marriage covenant. However, in the first reading today God tells Israel through the Prophet Isaiah that: “As a young man marries a virgin, your Builder shall marry you; and as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride, so shall your God rejoice in you.”While the majority of references to the marital relationship between God and Israel are…Continue Reading

Bishop Schneider’s Critique Of Church Teaching On COVID-19 Vaccines

January 8, 2022 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Bishop Schneider’s Critique Of Church Teaching On COVID-19 Vaccines

By FR. BRIAN HARRISON, OS On October 26, 2021, the Most Reverend Athanasius Schneider posted on his personal “Gloria Dei” website an article headed, “There’s a ‘basic error’ in Vatican documents on ‘material cooperation’ with abortion-tainted vaccines.”As most Wanderer readers will be aware, Bishop Schneider is justly renowned for his courageous and outspoken defense of Catholic tradition against widespread contemporary errors emanating even from very high levels of church authority. However, I believe His Excellency occasionally misses the mark and goes too far. I find it very unfortunate that in this case he has thought it necessary to dissent publicly from two statements of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) formally approved by Popes Benedict XVI and…Continue Reading

Catholic Replies

January 7, 2022 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Editor’s Note: This series on Apologetics is based on the book Catholicism & Reason. Please feel free to use the series for high schoolers or adults. We will continue to welcome your questions for the column as well. You can send them either to the postal mailing address or to the email address below, and we will interrupt this series to answer them. Special Course On Catholicism And Reason (Chapter 8) On the day after Jesus died on the cross, His enemies got permission from Pontius Pilate to place guards at the tomb of Christ because they recalled Jesus’ prediction that He would rise from the dead in three days. Jesus had predicted His Resurrection six times, but apparently only…Continue Reading

The Vatican II Mandate 

January 6, 2022 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on The Vatican II Mandate 

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK We are living through a tragic chapter of life in the Church, in which legitimate Catholic freedom is being violated for specious and even perhaps malign motives.A cascade of documents has been launched in the wake of July’s Traditiones custodes (TC), the first move to limit the free and generous use of the traditional Mass. That motu proprio by Francis aims to toss Pope Benedict’s honest emancipation of the source and summit of sacred tradition, which can never be abrogated, into the dustbin of Church history.Summorum Pontificum was a reasoned, theologically sound and wise intervention on the part of Benedict to acknowledge a wound in the life of the Church. It was necessary for unity…Continue Reading

A Homily For The Feast Of The Holy Family

January 5, 2022 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on A Homily For The Feast Of The Holy Family

By MSGR. CHARLES POPE (Editors Note: Msgr. Pope posted this commentary on December 26 and it is published here with permission. His website is msgrpope.com.) + + Here in the middle of the Christmas Octave, the Church bids us to celebrate the feast of the Holy Family. On the old calendar, the feast of the Holy Family falls on the Sunday after Epiphany, which makes some sense. It is a bit odd to read, a mere five days after celebrating Jesus’ birth, a Gospel in which He is 12 years old. And then, next week, we have the Feast of Epiphany in which Jesus is an infant again.Nevertheless, here we are. Perhaps, it is a good time to reflect on…Continue Reading

Our Call To Love And Union With God

January 3, 2022 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Our Call To Love And Union With God

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER The Baptism Of The Lord (YR C) Readings: Isaiah 42:1-4, 6-7Ti 2:11-14; 3:4-7Luke 3:15-16, 21-22 In the second reading St. Paul tells us the grace of God has appeared. This is actually a Christmas reading, similar to St. John saying the Word was made flesh. Since God is infinite, purely spiritual, and beyond our comprehension, there is no practical way to express what it means that the second Person of the Most Holy Trinity took on our human nature and lived our human life. For this reason, the Apostles used these rather poetic terms to describe the Incarnation of our Lord.St. Paul differentiates this first coming of our Lord with His second coming by saying that…Continue Reading