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A Leaven In The World… Sex Outside Of True Marriage Is A Lie

July 18, 2016 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on A Leaven In The World… Sex Outside Of True Marriage Is A Lie

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK Every one of us searches for comfort in this world, one example being that we all experience weariness and a need for sleep. No one has yet denied the experience of pleasure upon arising from bed after a good period of needed rest. All of our physical needs are like this: Our pleasure indicates that we have received something we were made to need. We did not make ourselves and so our bodily experiences and responses give us a key to unpacking the will of the One who made us. One of the first comforts that each of us experiences is being nursed by our mothers. But then we move on and grow and as…Continue Reading

The Marvel Of The Catholic Church… The Pope And Napoleon

July 17, 2016 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on The Marvel Of The Catholic Church… The Pope And Napoleon

By RAYMOND DE SOUZA, KM Part 9 This is a historical example that is worth investigating in more detail to illustrate God’s hand in protecting the Catholic Church: The proud Corsican who became the emperor of France addressed the Pope in these insolent terms: “What does the Pope mean, by the threat of excommunicating me? Does he think the world has gone back a thousand years? Does he suppose the weapons will fall from the hands of my soldiers?” The Protestant historian, Sir Archibald Alison, in his History of Europe, chapter 60, recounts that “within two years of these remarkable words being written, the Pope did excommunicate him (Napoleon), in return for the confiscation of his whole dominions, and in…Continue Reading

Where Is The Liturgy Celebrated?

July 16, 2016 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Where Is The Liturgy Celebrated?

By DON FIER The Liturgy of the Hours, as we saw last week, is the Church’s response to the Lord’s command to pray without ceasing. Just as St. Paul exhorted the Thessalonians, so too are the faithful encouraged to “rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thess. 5:16-18). “Composed mainly of psalms, other biblical texts, and readings from the Fathers and spiritual masters,” explains the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “the Liturgy of the Hours…is the public and common prayer of the Church, the prayer of Christ with his body, the Church” (n. 243). Prior to the Second Vatican Council, the Liturgy…Continue Reading

Catholic Replies

July 15, 2016 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Q. How should I answer a non-Catholic friend who says that Catholics are cannibals since they believe the Eucharist is Christ’s actual Body and Blood. I know this is a common accusation. Thank you. — B.K., Washington State. A. One of the best refutations of this allegation came to us a few years ago from Fr. T.M. of Oregon. Here are his comments: “Is it cannibalism, then, to receive the Body and Blood of Christ in Holy Communion? That was certainly not what our Lord had in mind. Cannibalism can be defined as the eating of a dead human body by other humans. If Jesus’ followers had taken His Body down from the cross and eaten it, that would have been cannibalism.…Continue Reading

Keep Praying And Trust

July 14, 2016 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Keep Praying And Trust

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Seventeenth Sunday In Ordinary Time (YR C) Readings: Gen. 18:20-32 Col. 2:12-14 Luke 11:1-13 In the Gospel readings today our Lord tells us that we are to ask and we will receive, seek and we will find, knock and the door will be opened. On too many occasions to count I have heard people quote this passage to me to state that God did not keep His promise. After all, they asked, sought, and knocked, but their prayer was not answered as they had hoped. I need to point out that in most of these instances the people were asking for very reasonable things and not seeking millions of dollars by winning the lottery. Depending upon…Continue Reading

Pope John Paul II . . . Message For An Earlier World Youth Day In Poland

July 13, 2016 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Pope John Paul II . . . Message For An Earlier World Youth Day In Poland

(Editor’s Note: World Youth Day 2016 is set for July 25-31 in Krakow, Poland, home diocese of the late Pope John Paul II. Pope John Paul, now a saint, in 1990 prepared the following message for an earlier World Youth Day in Poland, that one held in 1991 at Czestochowa, site of the miraculous icon of the Black Madonna. (In this message, John Paul stressed the importance of the true meaning of freedom for youth. (The text of this message comes from Libreria Editrice Vaticana. All rights reserved.) + + + “You have received a spirit of sonship” (Romans 8:15). + + + Dear young people! 1. The World Youth Days mark important stages in the life of the Church,…Continue Reading

A Leaven In The World . . . Turning Together Toward The Lord

July 11, 2016 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on A Leaven In The World . . . Turning Together Toward The Lord

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK The closed circle of therapeutic navel-gazing hangs on like an overused joke in a few places yet, one of them being the Church. The priest and people facing each other during the entire liturgy is a vestige of the illegitimate seizure by and subjection of 2,000-year-old liturgical development to the rash agenda of primitivist vandals in the post-Vatican period. The only thing this unscholarly lot left undone was to demand the liturgy be celebrated in Aramaic. More and more young people are making a buzz about ad orientem worship, in a renewed push to recover the sacred and cast off the tired and broken stereotypes of the 1960s. One of the places where this buzz…Continue Reading

The Marvel Of The Catholic Church . . . The Church’s Stability And Endurance

July 10, 2016 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on The Marvel Of The Catholic Church . . . The Church’s Stability And Endurance

By RAYMOND DE SOUZA Part 8 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen” (Matt. 28:19-20). Jesus’ command to preach the Gospel to every nation would have been humanly impossible to put into practice without the subsequent promise to be with His Church until the end of time. And it was no empty promise. The heresies that erupted in the Church and claimed to be the true “Church” missed the important point that Jesus founded one Church, and only one,…Continue Reading

The Liturgy Of The Hours

July 9, 2016 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on The Liturgy Of The Hours

By DON FIER The liturgical year of the Church, during which she “unfolds the whole mystery of Christ from his Incarnation and Nativity through his Ascension, to Pentecost and the expectation of the blessed hope of the coming of the Lord” (Catechism of the Catholic Church [CCC], n. 1194), has the Paschal Triduum as its “source of light, the new age of the Resurrection [which] fills the whole liturgical year with its brilliance” (CCC, n. 1168). During the course of an annual cycle consisting of five seasons (Advent, the Christmas season, Lent, the Easter season, and Ordinary Time), we recall and celebrate all the great events of the earthly life of Jesus. As expressed by Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ,…Continue Reading

Catholic Replies

July 8, 2016 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Q. I have often wondered why in John 20:6-7 he writes about the burial cloths plural. When Simon Peter arrived at the tomb, he found the cloth that covered Jesus’ head rolled up separately from the other cloth. Have the experts ever explained why the Shroud of Turin is one big cloth? This conflicts with what John wrote. Please spread some light on this. — D.H., Iowa. A. Actually, there is no conflict. John says that there were two cloths in the tomb — the large burial cloth that we know as the Shroud of Turin and a small cloth that had covered our Lord’s head and was found rolled up to one side. This latter cloth, which is known as the Sudarium…Continue Reading