Monday 6th May 2024

Home » Our Catholic Faith » Recent Articles:

A Leaven In The World… Where The Clergy’s Moral Failings Began

August 5, 2020 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on A Leaven In The World… Where The Clergy’s Moral Failings Began

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK “For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and men should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.“But you have turned aside from the way; you have caused many to stumble by your instruction; you have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of hosts, and so I make you despised and abased before all the people, inasmuch as you have not kept my ways but have shown partiality in your instruction” (Mal. 2:7ff)The Church exists to preach Christ and Truth: These two things always go together; it is impossible to have the one without the other. Truth involves both what we believe and how we…Continue Reading

Elijah Hears The Voice Of The Lord

August 4, 2020 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Elijah Hears The Voice Of The Lord

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Nineteenth Sunday In Ordinary Time (YR A) Readings: 1 Kings 19:9a, 11-13aRomans 9:1-5Matt. 14:22-33 In the first reading today, we are given insight into the life of prayer. Elijah goes to Mount Horeb, which is also Mount Sinai, and there he experiences a number of powerful and even terrifying events: wind, earthquake, and fire. The Lord had told Elijah that He would be passing by, so Elijah had to wait for Him.It was on this same mountain that the people of Israel experienced the power of God after coming out of Egypt. God revealed Himself to them in some of the same signs revealed to Elijah, but in Elijah’s time, God was no longer to be…Continue Reading

Bishop Strickland . . . On Sunday, The Lord’s Day, And Our Day

August 3, 2020 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Bishop Strickland . . . On Sunday, The Lord’s Day, And Our Day

By MOST REV. JOSEPH STRICKLAND In an inspiring apostolic letter entitled The Lord’s Day (Dies Domini), issued on Pentecost Sunday 1998, Pope St. John Paul II gave a masterful summary of the Christian understanding of Sunday, and underscored our obligation to honor the Lord’s Day. The letter began with these words:“The Lord’s Day — as Sunday was called from apostolic times — has always been accorded special attention in the history of the Church because of its close connection with the very core of the Christian mystery. In fact, in the weekly reckoning of time, Sunday recalls the day of Christ’s Resurrection. It is Easter which returns week by week, celebrating Christ’s victory over sin and death, the fulfilment in…Continue Reading

Catholic Replies

July 31, 2020 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Editor’s Note: Commenting in his parish bulletin about the “cancel culture” of recent days, Fr. George Rutler of the Church of St. Michael in New York City mentioned the efforts to censor such patriotic songs as America the Beautiful. He said that “there are also demands to eliminate our National Anthem because the author owned slaves. In fact, Francis Scott Key freed his slaves and pleaded before the Supreme Court for the liberation of 300 African slaves captured off the ship Antelope along the Florida coast. He also worked with John Quincy Adams in the Amistad case to free 53 slaves.”Fr. Rutler said that Key’s anthem was based on verses he composed in 1805 to celebrate the victory over the…Continue Reading

A Leaven In The World… They Fought Back And Won

July 29, 2020 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on A Leaven In The World… They Fought Back And Won

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK The news hit the skids this past week about my parishioners Sid and Susanna Marcus who fought back against Big COVID19 and won.I don’t know for sure, being a layman when it comes to medical issues, but doctors who are a lot smarter than I am, such as Vernon Coleman, seem to think the stats on COVID may be falsified and that scare tactics may be the real purpose of lockdowns.Also, why are face masks becoming compulsory in places like D.C. while deaths from complications including COVID continue to plummet? It has been reported that some COVID infection numbers were artificially inflated due to double reporting of “new” testing positives.You can see Dr. Coleman’s brilliant…Continue Reading

Nothing Can Separate Us From The Lord

July 28, 2020 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Nothing Can Separate Us From The Lord

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Eighteenth Sunday In Ordinary Time (YR A) Readings: Isaiah 55:1-3Romans 8:35, 37-39Matt. 14:13-21 In the second reading today, St. Paul asks the question: “What will separate us from the love of Christ?” He goes on to give a number of possible conditions that could separate us from Christ: anguish, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, or the sword. He rejects all these as being possible means of separating ourselves from our Lord.These are all earthly realities, but St. Paul also addresses the heavenly realities and the present and future situations we could encounter. He states that none of these, nor any other creature, can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.There are…Continue Reading

Bishop Strickland . . . Recovering The Body In The Teaching Of John Paul II

July 27, 2020 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Bishop Strickland . . . Recovering The Body In The Teaching Of John Paul II

By MOST REV. JOSEPH STRICKLAND Part 2 In our first column on Pope St. John Paul II’s series of Wednesday catechetical teachings which are popularly referred to as the “Theology of the Body,” we noted that this treasure given to us by the late St. John Paul II represented a decided shift in theological anthropology. That is the area of theology which reflects upon the nature of the human person as created and re-created in Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word.That shift can be characterized as a movement from finding a place for the human body in Christian theology to building a “theology of the body.” The former represented an effort to defend the role of the body, while the latter…Continue Reading

Catholic Replies

July 24, 2020 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Q. Catholic friends of mine are supporters of Black Lives Matter. I agree that we are to practice racial justice, but is backing this organization the best way to do that? — T.L.H., via e-mail.A. When you look at the actions and web site of Black Lives Matter (BLM), the answer is a resounding no. If they were truly interested in preserving black lives, they would be standing in front of Planned Parenthood abortion chambers, protesting the killing of 20 million black babies by abortion since 1973. They would be denouncing the founder of Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger, a white supremacist and racist who said that “birth control must lead ultimately to a cleaner race” and that “we want to…Continue Reading

Pray For Wisdom

July 21, 2020 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Pray For Wisdom

BY FR. ROBERT ALTIER Readings: 1 Kings 3:5, 7-12Romans 8:28-30Matt. 13:44-52 In the first reading, God offers Solomon an opportunity to ask for anything. Before saying anything else, it might be good for each of us to ask ourselves how we would respond to the Lord if He offered us the chance to request anything in the world.As the Lord points out, Solomon could have asked for a long life, riches, or the life of his enemies. Instead, Solomon asked for wisdom, for an understanding heart to serve well as King of Israel.Most of us are not called to be kings and queens in the worldly sense (although we share in the Kingship of Jesus), so we may not require…Continue Reading

Bishop Strickland . . . Recovering The Body In The Teaching Of John Paul II

July 20, 2020 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Bishop Strickland . . . Recovering The Body In The Teaching Of John Paul II

By MOST REV. JOSEPH STRICKLAND In what is popularly referred to as the “theology of the body,” a great catechetical treasure given to us by the late St. John Paul II, a decided shift occurred in theological anthropology. That shift can be characterized as a movement from finding a place for the human body in Christian theology to building a theology of the body.The former represents an effort to defend the role of the body, while the latter represents the embrace of its created goodness, its redeemed significance, and its fundamental role in Christianity.This was more than a shift in emphasis; it offers a fresh hermeneutic with extraordinary promise. The term “theology of the body” was to Pope John Paul…Continue Reading