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An Apologetics Course . . . Does The Spiritual Soul Exist?

June 14, 2015 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on An Apologetics Course . . . Does The Spiritual Soul Exist?

By RAYMOND DE SOUZA Part 6 Atheists, agnostics, and intellectually superficial people doubt the existence of the human soul. But not only them. Many churchgoing folks sometimes doubt the fact that the human being is a composite of body and soul. We can experience the reality of the body through our senses, of course, but the soul? Can the existence of the soul be proved by pure reason? This is our topic in this article and in the next. The first thing to do is to define the word soul, to make sure we are talking about the same thing. Everyone knows the difference between a living being and a lifeless one. You see in the garden a boy playing…Continue Reading

The Four Marks Of The Church — Unity

June 13, 2015 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on The Four Marks Of The Church — Unity

By DON FIER There are three images of the Church that the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) pays particular attention to in its catechesis on article 9 of the Creed: People of God, Body of Christ, and Temple of the Holy Spirit. As we’ve seen over the past few weeks, “one enters into the People of God by faith and Baptism” (CCC, n. 804) and is thus incorporated into the Church and becomes a member of the Mystical Body of Christ. As members of the Church we form the very body of Christ, who is her Head (cf. Col. 1:10). The human body is animated by its soul, its life-giving principle, and so it is with the Church: “The…Continue Reading

Catholic Replies

June 12, 2015 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Q. I keep hearing about this new game, “Charlie Charlie,” that involves summoning a Mexican demon. Do you know anything about it? — F.A., Massachusetts. A. The origin of the Charlie Charlie Challenge is unclear, but it has become very popular on social media. Reminiscent of a Ouija Board, the players draw two intersecting lines on a piece of paper, write the words “yes” and “no” on the opposite squares, place two pencils, one on top of the other, in the form of a cross, and then ask, “Charlie, Charlie, can we play?” Or “Charlie, Charlie, are you there?” Players keep asking yes or no questions to see if the top pencil moves and gives them an answer. Sometimes the…Continue Reading

The Lord Of All Creation

June 11, 2015 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on The Lord Of All Creation

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Twelfth Sunday In Ordinary Time (YR B) Readings: Job 38:1, 8-11 2 Cor. 5:14-17 Mark 4:35-41 We live in a world where there is a conflict between faith and science. We need to be clear: This conflict is not caused by the Church nor by those with faith. Rather, it is caused by those without faith who try to make faithful souls look like fools. In other words, the suggestion is that if you have faith you must also be unthinking. As we have considered previously, although the “big bang theory” was developed by a Catholic priest in order to prove that God created the world, it has been turned and used, instead, to “prove” that…Continue Reading

Restoring Ireland To Christ

June 10, 2015 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Restoring Ireland To Christ

By DOM MARK DANIEL KIRBY (Editor’s Note: The prior of a Benedictine community in Ireland — Silverstream Priory in County Meath — has sent out a reflection on his country and the Catholic faith. Dom Mark Daniel Priory offered this reflection on Sunday, May 31, the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity, the week following Ireland’s vote approving same-sex marriage. (All rights reserved.) + + + “In the Name of the Most Holy Trinity, from Whom is all authority and to Whom, as our final end, all actions both of men and States must be referred. . . .” Thus begins the Constitution of Ireland. It is fitting that we recall these words today, on this feast of the Most…Continue Reading

A Leaven In The World… The Good, The True, And The Beautiful In Sacred Liturgy, Places, And People

June 8, 2015 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on A Leaven In The World… The Good, The True, And The Beautiful In Sacred Liturgy, Places, And People

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK I am writing from New York City where I am privileged to be attending the Sacra Liturgia 2015 Conference. I took out my Breviarium to pray on the subway, traveling en route from my overnight accommodations to the downtown meeting venue on the first morning after sitting down next to a visibly drunken man. I realized myself blessed to be dependent, not on a destructive use of this world’s goods, but rather on the beauty of God’s Word through this liturgy of the Church. “Beauty poured forth” upon my lips as I mouthed the words of the Psalms, praying thus also for my suffering neighbor. A young man walking out of the train at his…Continue Reading

An Apologetics Course . . . Proof Of The Existence Of God From Causality

June 7, 2015 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on An Apologetics Course . . . Proof Of The Existence Of God From Causality

By RAYMOND DE SOUZA Part 5 When we talk about simple logic, it is a good thing to begin with realities that everyone knows to be true. For instance: Everybody knows that for a man or an animal or even a thing to do anything, it must exist in the first place. For you to read, you must exist before reading. For a bee to make one ounce of honey, it must exist in the first place. For the rain to fall on your roof, it must exist as well. Why is it so? Simply because non-existing beings do not do anything. Naturally. Equally evident, or certainly more evident, is the fact that nothing can create itself. If we see…Continue Reading

The Church — Temple Of The Holy Spirit

June 6, 2015 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on The Church — Temple Of The Holy Spirit

By DON FIER The image of the Church which we have been examining for the past two weeks, the “Body of Christ,” is a beautiful expression of the mysterious and deep union that exists between our Lord and all those who are joined to His Church. So intimately are we united that we share His very life, as branches on a vine. Pope Pius XII, in his 1943 encyclical Mystici Corporis Christi (MCC), sums up the wonder of this abiding union with the following words: “If we would define and describe this true Church of Jesus Christ — which is the One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman Church — we shall find nothing more noble, more sublime, or more divine…Continue Reading

Catholic Replies

June 5, 2015 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Editor’s Note: Commenting on the recent vote in Ireland, where more than 60 percent of those voting came out in favor of same-sex “marriage,” canon lawyer Dr. Edward Peters said that the outcome of the constitutional referendum “is a disaster.” He went on to say: “‘Same-sex marriage’ has usually been imposed by activist judges; in Ireland, it won by popular vote. ‘Same-sex marriage’ is often insinuated into the legal landscape by blurring distinctions between it and ‘same-sex unions’; in Ireland marriage itself was expressly on the line. ‘Same-sex marriage’ in most places set in only after decades of relentless secular media promotion; in Ireland, it seems to have come about almost overnight. “But as the Church now tries to figure…Continue Reading

In God We Trust

June 4, 2015 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on In God We Trust

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Eleventh Sunday In Ordinary Time (YR B) Readings: Exodus 17:22-24 2 Cor. 5:6-10 Mark 4:26-34 In the Gospel reading today our Lord tells the story of the farmer who planted his seeds, slept and rose night and day; while the seed sprouts and grows of its own accord, the farmer knows not how. Jesus says that this is how it is with the Kingdom of God. The problem for us today is that this no longer makes sense to us because we think that we know how it all works. Many of the advances in science and technology have brought great benefits to our lives and to the world. At the same time, many “advances” have…Continue Reading