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Is The Rosary A Prayer Of “Vain Repetitions”?

July 20, 2014 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Is The Rosary A Prayer Of “Vain Repetitions”?

By RAYMOND DE SOUZA, KM Part 3 The visit I received from two Jehovah’s Witnesses (JWs, for short) gave me the opportunity to demonstrate that repetitive prayer — especially the rosary — is entirely in line with Sacred Scripture. When they walked into my living room and did not miss the sight of my rosary on the mantelpiece, I knew only too well that they were itching to say something about it. And, as sure as death and taxes, one of them asked me if I was aware that prayer of repetition was “condemned by Jesus in the Bible.” In this article I’d like to provide more information I trust will be useful to Wanderer readers to use in their…Continue Reading

The Obedience Of Faith

July 19, 2014 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on The Obedience Of Faith

By DON FIER For the past ten weeks of this series, we’ve been unpacking the teaching of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) on how God comes to meet man through His divine Revelation. As the Catechism, citing Dei Verbum (DV), so beautifully expresses it, “the invisible God, from the fullness of His love, addresses men as His friends, and moves among them, in order to invite and receive them into His own company” (CCC, n. 142; DV, n. 2). Just this one statement is a mystery of our faith that one could meditate on for a lifetime: How is it that the “King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God” (1 Tim. 1:17) could so love mankind, sinful…Continue Reading

Catholic Replies

July 18, 2014 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Q. It has been a while since it was decided to permit openly homosexual boys into the Boy Scouts, but not a word for an official position on Catholic-affiliated troops. I wonder why? In the meantime, I fear many boys will be in great danger. Why no statement from our bishops on this very critical issue? — R.B.K., Virginia. A. In May of 2013, the national council of the Boy Scouts of America voted to lift a ban on admitting openly homosexual youth as members. The bylaw change read: “No youth may be denied membership in the Boy Scouts of America on the basis of sexual orientation or preference alone.” The BSA retained (for the time being) the ban on adult…Continue Reading

The Pearl Of Great Price

July 17, 2014 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on The Pearl Of Great Price

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Seventeenth Sunday In Ordinary Time (YR A) Readings: 1 Kings 3:5, 7-12 Romans 8:28-30 Matt. 13:44-52 In the Gospel reading today our Lord speaks about the buried treasure, the pearl of great price, and the net thrown into the sea which collects a variety of things which will be gathered into buckets, separated into good and bad. It is this last parable that provides a context for the other two. By this I mean that our Lord tells us that at the end of the world the angels will separate the good from the bad and send them to their respective places for eternity. The context this provides helps us to understand the other two parables…Continue Reading

Pope’s Homily At Mass With Sexual Abuse Victims . . . Clergy Who Commit Abuse “Profane The Very Image Of God”

July 16, 2014 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Pope’s Homily At Mass With Sexual Abuse Victims . . . Clergy Who Commit Abuse “Profane The Very Image Of God”

VATICAN CITY (ZENIT) — The morning of July 7 in the Chapel of Casa Santa Marta in the Vatican, Pope Francis celebrated Holy Mass, which was attended by some victims of sexual abuse by members of the clergy, and also attended by some families and members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. During the Mass, the Holy Father gave the homily reprinted below, saying that sexual abuse is “is like a sacrilegious cult, because these boys and girls had been entrusted to the priestly charism in order to be brought to God.” ZENIT News Agency provided the text of the Holy Father’s homily. All rights reserved. +    +    + The scene where Peter sees Jesus emerge after…Continue Reading

Catholic Heroes… St. Camillus De Lellis

July 15, 2014 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Heroes… St. Camillus De Lellis

By CAROLE BRESLIN While most people in the United States associate a red cross on a white field as the symbol of the International Red Cross organization, it was actually used by a Catholic priest several hundred years before Henry Dunant helped found the Red Cross. Perhaps Dunant knew of Camillus De Lellis and the work he did to help the sick who suffered so much in the hospitals of his time, when the future saint founded the Clerks Regular, Ministers of the Sick in the late 16th century. How did a man of worldly pursuits end up as a saint? Like a few other saints, he hit rock bottom from which the only place to go is up. Camillus…Continue Reading

A Leaven In The World . . . The Holy Father Reminds Us: “Communion Is Essential”

July 14, 2014 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on A Leaven In The World . . . The Holy Father Reminds Us: “Communion Is Essential”

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK Not long ago, Pope Francis reminded us that “Communion is essential” in an address delivered to members of the Neocatechumenal Way. Communion is experienced in two senses in the Church and both are essential. These two senses of communion are interdependent and cannot exist without each other. The communion of the Body of Christ comprising the members of the Church and the Communion of the Real Presence of the Body of Christ which is the Eucharist are these two senses of “communion.” They always have an interior connection. Contemporary treatment or understanding of the value of community or the common good affects the sense of Communion made possible by the Eucharist and vice-versa. The various…Continue Reading

Is The Rosary A Prayer Of “Vain Repetitions”?

July 13, 2014 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Is The Rosary A Prayer Of “Vain Repetitions”?

By Raymond de Souza, KM Part 2 Last week I told the story of the visit of two Jehovah’s Witnesses (JW for short) to my house, and I showed to them that Jesus was in favor of repetitive prayer, because He gave us a prayer to repeat, the Our Father. I left a question unanswered. The younger JW had asked me, “So, are you saying that your rosary is inspired in the Bible?” “Actually, yes,” I answered. “The rosary is simply a way of keeping order, dividing the prayers in distinct sections. Let me give you another example, straight from the Bible. Take Psalm 119 (119, depending on the version). It is the longest psalm in the Bible, having 176…Continue Reading

The Canon Of Scripture

July 12, 2014 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on The Canon Of Scripture

By DON FIER Part 2 We ended last week’s installment by showing that the apostles and early Christians accepted the 46-book Septuagint as the authentic Old Testament right from the Church’s beginning. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) teaches, these 46 divinely inspired books constitute “an indispensable part of Sacred Scripture” (CCC, n. 121) and “bear witness to the whole divine pedagogy of God’s saving love” (CCC, n. 122). Dei Verbum (DV) explains that the canonically approved books of the Old Testament “contain a store of sublime teachings about God, sound wisdom about human life, and a wonderful treasury of prayers, and in them the mystery of our salvation is present in a hidden way. Christians should receive…Continue Reading

Catholic Replies

July 11, 2014 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Editor’s Note: For the second time in two years, we have received at the parish where we work a letter requesting to be removed from the parish rolls because a person has joined the Jehovah’s Witnesses. The first person wanted out because the Catholic Church is allegedly the “mother of harlots” referred to in the Book of Revelation (17:5). We pointed out to her that the phrase “mother of harlots” refers not to the Church but to “the great city [Rome] that has sovereignty over the kings of the earth” (17:18). This is further confirmed in verse 9, where it says that “the seven heads [of the beast] represent the seven hills upon which the woman sits.” That is a…Continue Reading