Wednesday 31st May 2023

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Pondering A Forgotten Virtue: Vengeance

May 31, 2023 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Pondering A Forgotten Virtue: Vengeance

By MSGR. CHARLES POPE (Editor’s Note: Msgr. Pope posted this commentary May 22 on his website, and it is reprinted here with permission.) + + Most of us think that vengeance is merely a vice. And, given improper intentions, or excess or misguided application, it can indeed be a sin and a vice. However, as we read in Scripture, “Vengeance is mine, says the Lord, I will repay” (Romans 12:19). Or again, as St. Thomas Aquinas notes, the Scriptures assure: “Will not God avenge His elect who cry to Him day and night?” (Luke 18:7).But if vengeance is only a vice and an evil, then how can God attribute vengeance to Himself. God does nothing evil. Hence in vengeance there…Continue Reading

Minnesota Legislature Repeals . . . Protection For Born-Alive Infants, Support For Pregnant Women

May 30, 2023 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Minnesota Legislature Repeals . . . Protection For Born-Alive Infants, Support For Pregnant Women

ST. PAUL — The Minnesota legislature on May 22 approved an Omnibus health bill that repeals a bipartisan measure protecting newborns and a bipartisan program supporting pregnant women who want to carry their babies to term. It also rescinds a number of longstanding laws surrounding abortion. As of this writing, Gov. Tim Walz was expected to sign the wide-ranging bill, which the House and Senate passed along narrow party lines, into law.“First Gov. Walz and DFL majorities enacted abortion-up-to-birth, a policy at odds with the vast majority of the world,” said MCCL Co-Executive Director Cathy Blaeser.“Now, somehow, they have gone even further. They have revoked a law that requires lifesaving care for newborns. And they have wiped out the Positive…Continue Reading

A Mystery To Ponder For All Eternity

May 29, 2023 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on A Mystery To Ponder For All Eternity

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Solemnity Of The Most Holy Trinity (YR A) Readings: Exodus 34:4b-6, 8-92 Cor. 13:11-13John 3:16-18 In the readings today, we hear about several attributes of God: grace, mercy, kind, faithful, slow to anger, fellowship, love, and peace. It is also important to note that whenever God is spoken of, it is clear that there is only one God. In the first reading He reveals His Holy Name, which is singular, and then refers to Himself as “a merciful and gracious God.”In the second reading St. Paul speaks of the Trinity, but when he speaks of God it is always in the singular. The same is true in the Gospel where we hear about God sending His…Continue Reading

Catholic Replies

May 26, 2023 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Editor’s Note: This series on the Bible is from the book Catholicism & Scripture. Please feel free to use the series for high schoolers or adults. We will continue to welcome your questions for the column as well. See postal and email addresses at the bottom of this column. Special Course On Catholicism And Scripture (Chapter 20) After three years of public life, the time had arrived for Jesus to suffer excruciating abuse, torture, and death, all within a period of less than twenty-four hours. His Passion began around midnight, shortly after the Last Supper had ended, as He led the Apostles outside the city of Jerusalem to a place known as the Garden of Gethsemane. On the way, He…Continue Reading

A Leaven In The World… On Your Wedding Day

May 25, 2023 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on A Leaven In The World… On Your Wedding Day

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK On this splendid day, for which you have waited with joyful anticipation, you are surrounded by many of those you love, and who love you: family and friends. We share your joy to see this moment, when your love for one another will begin a new and deeper reality: the ultimate sharing. The uniting of your bodies and souls.Love seeks union, to be with the one who is loved. You indeed love each other very much. It is part of loving to want to give more and more. You want to be together, for all of life, with all that entails. Love gives all. This is indeed a beautiful gift.But that of itself does not…Continue Reading

Lessons Of Love — A Homily For The Sixth Sunday Of Easter

May 24, 2023 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Lessons Of Love — A Homily For The Sixth Sunday Of Easter

By MSGR. CHARLES POPE (Editor’s Note: Msgr. Pope posted this May 13 commentary on his website, and it is reprinted here with permission.) + + In the Gospel for today’s Mass, Jesus gives us three lessons on love meant to prepare us for the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. They also go a long way in describing the normal Christian life.Too many Christians see the Faith more as a set of rules to keep than as a love that transforms — if we accept it. Let’s take a look at the revolutionary life of love and grace that the Lord is offering us in three stages: the power of love, the person of love, and the proof of…Continue Reading

California To Pay $300K . . . For Trying To Force Religious Doctors To End Patients’ Lives

May 23, 2023 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on California To Pay $300K . . . For Trying To Force Religious Doctors To End Patients’ Lives

LOS ANGELES — In a victory for religious medical professionals, the state of California will no longer force doctors to participate in physician-assisted suicide against their religious convictions and professional ethics. To settle a lawsuit brought by Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing a doctor and the Christian Medical & Dental Associations, California has also agreed to pay $300,000 toward the doctors’ attorneys’ fees and costs.As part of the settlement, California state officials agreed to not enforce “any criminal or civil punishment, including professional discipline or licensing sanction for a California-licensed physician’s refusal or failure to” “document a request, refer, or assist a patient in any way with ending his life.“Our clients seek to live out their faith in their medical…Continue Reading

How Is The Holy Spirit Acting In Me?

May 22, 2023 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on How Is The Holy Spirit Acting In Me?

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Solemnity Of Pentecost (YR A) Readings: Acts 2:1-111 Cor. 12:3b-7, 12-13John 20:19-23 In the second reading, St. Paul tells us that no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit. We need to make a distinction here. First of all, anyone could read the above sentence, even out loud, whether the person has the Holy Spirit or not. However, no one can say with conviction that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.What this means requires another distinction. The first point is similar to what Jesus said to St. Peter when St. Peter proclaimed Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus told St. Peter that flesh and blood had…Continue Reading

Catholic Replies

May 19, 2023 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Q. When Jesus met Mary Magdalene shortly after He rose from the dead, He told her not to touch Him because He has not yet ascended to the Father. Later on, however, He tells Thomas to put his fingers into the nail wounds. This is confusing to me. — S.S., via e-mail.A. Recall that Jesus’ interaction with Thomas was seven days after His meeting with Magdalene. Presumably, He ascended to the Father after His encounter with Mary. The event that we call the Ascension forty days after Easter marks the end of His earthly appearances and His promise to send the Holy Spirit, who will enable the Apostles to be “my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to…Continue Reading

Pilgrimage And The Month Of Our Lady

May 18, 2023 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Pilgrimage And The Month Of Our Lady

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK Our life of faith is a pilgrimage from Earth to Heaven. From the moment of our Baptism, with our first steps, we begin that most important journey of each human life. That we remember we have here no lasting city is urged upon us frequently by Our Lord, who taught that His Kingdom is “not of this world.” So, we must each, if we would have part with Him forever in His Kingdom, begin now to live with the daily practice of detachment.In our Church, the place of faith, processions and pilgrimages of various kinds symbolize and help us to reflect on the cosmic nature of our destiny with God after death and final judgment.…Continue Reading