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The Gifts Of The Holy Spirit

November 12, 2016 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off

By DON FIER Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801-1890) once said: “I am created to do something or to be something for which no one else is created. . . . God has created me to do Him some definite service. . . . I have my mission.” Confirmation, which “completes the grace of Baptism by a special outpouring of the gifts of the Holy Spirit,” is a powerful sacramental means provided by Christ for that very purpose: It prepares and equips the baptized “for active participation in the worship and apostolic life of the Church” (Catechism of the Catholic Church [CCC], Glossary). The special gifts and graces it confers serve as powerful aids in enlightening one’s intellect to discern…Continue Reading

Catholic Replies

November 11, 2016 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off

Q. What is the difference between proselytizing and evangelizing? — M.J.O., New Jersey. A. According to Fr. John A. Hardon’s Modern Catholic Dictionary, proselytizing originally meant “to convert someone from one religion to another, either by bringing the person to full acceptance of the new faith and ritual or at least sympathy with it. The more common meaning, however, is to induce people to change their religious affiliation by using unfair and even unscrupulous means.” Evangelizing, according to Pope Paul VI, “means to bring the Good News into all the strata of humanity, and through its influence transforming humanity from within and making it new. ‘Now I am making the whole of creation new’ (Rev. 21:5). But there is no…Continue Reading

Behold Your King

November 10, 2016 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER The Solemnity Of Christ The King (YR C) Readings: 2 Samuel 5:1-3 Col. 1:12-20 Luke 23:35-43 Most people, when they think about our Lord Jesus Christ as King of the Universe, have an image of our Lord enthroned in glory at the right hand of the Father. However, the Gospels present a very different view. We can recall from St. John’s Gospel that Pilate pointed to Jesus, covered in wounds and blood and crowned with thorns, and boldly (and correctly) stated: “Ecce Rex Vester,” “Behold your King.” In each of the Gospels we are told of the titulus or the plaque that was placed above the head of our Lord with the charge for which He…Continue Reading

Pope John Paul II Declares… Church’s Faithful Must Believe Ordination Of Women Isn’t Possible

November 9, 2016 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off

By PAUL LIKOUDIS (Editor’s Note: In view of Pope Francis’ affirmation on his flight home from Sweden that women cannot be and will not be ordained priests, we reprint here an article by our late news editor Paul Likoudis about the release of John Paul II’s Ordinatio Sacerdotalis. That apostolic letter declared that the priesthood would be reserved to men. (Likoudis’ article appeared in The Wanderer dated June 9, 1994. Following the article are excerpts from John Paul’s 1994 apostolic letter from www.vatican.va, copyright Libreria Editrice Vaticana. (Francis referenced John Paul II’s apostolic letter in his inflight press conference. + + + In an apostolic letter to the world’s Catholic bishops, Pope John Paul II firmly and sternly declared that…Continue Reading

A Leaven In The World… On Devotion To The Holy Souls

November 7, 2016 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK “Vita mutatur, non tollitur” — life is changed, not ended, we pray in the preface for the Requiem Mass for each of the departed, for all of them together on All Souls’ Day and throughout the month of November. As our parish goes together in spirit with the priest to the holy altar for the Masses of All Souls Day we recall the faithful departed of every age and place on Earth. How great is this mission of Holy Church, to offer the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ her Lord, the most effective and most powerful succor for the aid of suffering souls still awaiting union with God? The resurrected Body of the Lord in…Continue Reading

What Is Faith?… The Most Holy Trinity

November 6, 2016 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off

By RAYMOND DE SOUZA, KM Part 10 The first thing to clarify in studying the Most Holy Trinity is that we are dealing with a mystery, not a contradiction. The doctrine of the Trinity is a mystery, because it contains two truths which our reason cannot reconcile. The first truth is that there is one God, and the second truth is that there are Three Divine Persons in the one and the same God. These truths, taken separately, we can understand, but not when taken together. We can understand that there is one God, and that each Divine Person is God, but not that each is one and the self-same God. So, the Trinity is a mystery, not a contradiction.…Continue Reading

The Effects Of Confirmation

November 5, 2016 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off

By DON FIER The essential rite of the Sacrament of Confirmation in the Western Church, as we saw last week, consists in “anointing the forehead of the baptized with sacred chrism . . . , together with the laying on of the minister’s hand and the words: ‘Be sealed with the Gift of the Holy Spirit’” (Catechism of the Catholic Church [CCC], n. 1320). The oil of chrism, a mixture of olive oil and balsam, is consecrated by the diocesan bishop each year on Holy Thursday. To underscore the intimate connection of Confirmation with the whole of Christian initiation, it is usually conferred during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass at which Holy Communion is received and is preceded by…Continue Reading

Catholic Replies

November 4, 2016 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off

Q. At Mass, when the priest elevates the Host during the Consecration, do we behold the crucified Christ, the glorious, risen Christ, or the Christ of the Last Supper? — B.M., New York. A. The glorious, risen Christ. In his book The Eucharist, Fr. Giles Dimock, OP, said that in the third part of the Summa Theologiae, Question 76, St. Thomas Aquinas “sees the whole Christ in the species of bread and wine, but not in a place as if here and not there, that is, in heaven. Rather, he is present ‘as in the manner of a substance,’ so that when the host is consecrated he comes to be in this bread and wine on this altar, but not…Continue Reading

A Light Shining In Darkness

November 3, 2016 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Thirty-Second Sunday In Ordinary Time (YR C) Readings: Mal. 3:19-20a 2 Thess. 3:7-12 Luke 21:5-19 As we come toward the end of another Church year, we are provided with readings that correspond to what will happen at the end of the world. A quick perusal of the Internet yields a rich harvest of websites dedicated to telling us that we are living in the last days. They quote verse after verse from the Scriptures to back up their claims. It is fascinating to see how what is stated in the Bible seems to be taking place right before our very eyes. No one can doubt what these people are presenting, but their interpretation is not quite…Continue Reading

New Document On Cremation… Ad Resurgendum Cum Christo

November 2, 2016 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off

VATICAN CITY (News.Va) — The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on October 25 published a new instruction on the burial of the dead and on the conservation of the ashes in cases of cremation. The instruction reiterates the long held view that the Church is not opposed to the practice of cremation, though it continues to recommend that the bodies of the deceased be buried in cemeteries or other sacred places. However, the new document insists that ashes should not be kept in private houses and that the scattering of ashes on land or at sea is not permitted. Please see below the full text: + + + 1) To rise with Christ, we must die with Christ:…Continue Reading

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