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Featured Term (selected at random): .subadimg { text-align:center; } .subadimg a img { border:none; }   ADDOLORATA Our Lady of Sorrows. Popular title of the Blessed Virgin, and object of special devotion among the faithful. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission

Warning: this is very obscure and somewhat turgid. Only read it if you are Biblically and historically hardcore. Dear Rev. Know-it-all, Apollos is said to have “vigorously refuted the Jews in public, establishing from the scriptures that the Messiah is Jesus.� Do you know any resource where the argument that Apollos made can be found? Thanks, Judy Eizer Dear Judy, First let’s look at the passage you quote from Acts the 18th Chapter (24-28):  Now a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures, came to Ephesus. This man had been instructed in...

Featured Term (selected at random):BATH-SHBEBA The wife of Uriah the Hittite. She was coveted by King David, who connived with his military leader, Joab, to send Uriah into such a dangerous part of the battlefield that he would be killed. His plot succeeded, and then he made Bath-Sheba his queen. A child resulted from this unholy union, but Yahweh was angered by the king's shameful conduct (II Samuel 11:14-27). The prophet Nathan appeared in David's court and delivered a stinging rebuke. David's repentance was expressed eloquently in Psalm 51, and he willingly offered penance for his crime, but the...

In this post I am trying to continue our celebration of the lost “Octave� of Pentecost. Today I want to consider three gifts of the Holy Spirit.As you may recall, there are seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit: Wisdom, Understanding, Knowledge, Counsel, Piety, Fortitude and Fear of the Lord. Most Catholics cannot define them well in any sort of articulate way. This is due to poor catechesis but also to the fact that modern English has tended to use several of these terms interchangeably, almost as synonyms, though they are distinct theologically.There are also secular usages of these terms that...

Featured Term (selected at random):ARCHBISHOP A bishop who presides over one or more dioceses. He may call the bishops to a provincial council, having the right and duty to do so, and he may act as first judge of appeal over a decision of one of his bishops. His immediate jurisdiction, however, pertains solely to his own diocese. He is often styled "metropolitan" because of the importance of his see city or ecclesiastical province. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Featured Term (selected at random):LEPER WINDOW A low window in the chancel wall of a church, found in medieval architecture. Often it was iron barred or shuttered. It was to enable lepers who had to remain outside the church to attend Mass. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Featured Term (selected at random):LOW MASS A term formerly used for a Mass celebrated without music. The priest read, instead of sang, all the prayers of the Mass. Unknown in the early Church, it was also called a private Mass. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For the last half of the twentieth century, Antony Flew (1923-2010) was the world's most famous atheist. Long before Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Sam Harris began taking swipes at religion, Flew was the preeminent spokesman for unbelief.However in 2004, he shocked the world by announcing he had come to believe in God. While never embracing Christianity—Flew only believed in the deistic, Aristotelian conception of God—he became one of the most high-profile and surprising atheist converts. In 2007, he recounted his conversion in a book titled There is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His...

Featured Term (selected at random):REVIVFICATION Belief that all the sacraments, except the Eucharist and penance, confer the grace originally available, once the obstacle preventing the grace is removed. It is assumed that a person wants to receive the sacrament but lackes the proper dispositions, mainly the state of grace for sacraments of the living and adequate contrition for sacraments of the dead. When one attains the state of grace or arrives at sufficient contrition, the grace of the sacraments is "revived" without repeating the sacramental rite. The validity of baptism, confirmation, matrimony, and orders is always certain in these circumstances....

The new ELCA gospel boils down to a natural man’s religion replacing fundamental Bible truth with politics. A vague ethic of love is preached for the betterment of society. Sin is seen as ignorance. Jesus is not savior but only an example of sacrificial living. Universal salvation is proclaimed for all. Gone are missionaries, the urgency for lost souls, honest awareness of sin and the need for conversion. Gone are theological and moral absolutes. Present is the undermining of scripture, protests, endless social statements and lobbying platforms. This enterprise is capped off with the desire to unite all mainline liberal...

The Baltimore Catechism Revised Edition (1941) Part Three: The Sacraments and Prayer Prayer Lesson 37 from the Baltimore Cathechism475. What is prayer? Prayer is the lifting up of our minds and hearts to God.Let us lift up our hearts with our hands to the Lord in the heavens. (Lamentations 3:41)476. Why do we pray? We pray: to adore God, expressing to Him our love and loyalty; to thank Him for His favors; to obtain from Him the pardon of our sins and the remission of their punishment; to ask for graces and blessings for ourselves and others. Watch and pray,...

Featured Term (selected at random):INTELLECTUAL VISION Supernatural knowledge in which the mind receives an extraordinary grasp of some revealed truth without the aid of sensible impressions. Thus St. Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556) wrote of his seeing "the humanity of Christ with the eyes of the soul." These visions take place either through ideas that are already acquired and that are then co-ordinated and interpreted by God, or through infused ideas, representing divine things, that are thus better perceived than a person would otherwise perceive them. At times the visions are obscure and their object is only dimly understood; at other times...

As we all know, in far too many cases in years past, priests were accused of sexual abuse by genuine victims—and these crimes were simply swept under the rug, by church officials who eschewed their God-given responsibility to take appropriate action. This is an established, ugly fact that is not up for debate! It’s true that there’s often more than one legitimate way for an ecclesiastical superior to deal with these problems; but doing nothing, preferring to ignore the issue in the hope that it will simply go away, never has been or will be an option, ever. Note that...

Michelangelo was asked the question how he could make a beautiful sculpture like his “Moses� out of a large block of marble. He famously answered that he simply began and chipped away everything that wasn’t Moses.And this is a paradigm for us, into senses.Clearly for us, the Lord must chip away everything in us which is not Jesus. Yes, everything that is not of the Lord must go. St. Paul said, “I live, no not I, Christ lives in me! (Gal 2:20). And thus, the Lord chips away at all in us that is not of him that we may...

Featured Term (selected at random):FAMILY ROSARY International movement promoting recitation of the Rosary by the members of a family at home. Encouraged by the popes, the practice was singled out for special recommendation by Pope Paul VI in his Apostolic Exhortation in 1974 on devotion to the Blessed Virgin. "There is no doubt," he declared, "that after the celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours, the high point which family prayer can reach, the Rosary, should be considered as one of the best and most efficacious prayers in common that the Christian family is invited to recite" (Marialis Cultus, 54)....

May 15, 2013 Wednesday of the Seventh Week of Easter   Reading 1 Acts 20:28-38 At Miletus, Paul spoke to the presbyters of the Church of Ephesus:“Keep watch over yourselves and over the whole flockof which the Holy Spirit has appointed you overseers,in which you tend the Church of Godthat he acquired with his own Blood.I know that after my departure savage wolves will come among you,and they will not spare the flock.And from your own group, men will come forward perverting the truthto draw the disciples away after them.So be vigilant and remember that for three years, night...

I was flying from Los Angeles to Miami when I found myself sitting next to two women. Sarah was sitting closest to me. She was 29, inappropriately dressed, with a ring through her nose, and she wasn’t the friendliest person I have sat next to on a plane. After we took off I couldn’t help but notice that her friend kept kissing her on the cheek, holding her hand, and rubbing her shoulder. They were gay, and that little revelation lifted my planned witnessing encounter up a big notch on the awkward-meter. I really didn’t want an angry gay couple...

Pope Francis sends a kiss to someone in the crowd at the May 8, 2013 general audience in St. Peter's Square. Credit: Stephen Driscoll/CNA. Vatican City, May 14, 2013 / 08:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Christians who buy into Satan’s temptation to live selfishly get swindled, while those who live life as a “gift� to others are immersed in love and the Church community, Pope Francis said. “And, we must say, with Satan the payback is rotten. He always rips us off, always!� the Pope emphasized as he contrasted the kind of selfish living that the devil promotes with the...

Featured Term (selected at random):MYSTICI CORPORIS CHRISTI Encyclical of Pope Pius XII, published in 1943, on the Church as the Mystical Body of Christ. The Church is a body because she is a visible, living, and growing organism, animated by the Spirit of God. She is a mystical body because her essential nature is a mystery, and all her teachings, laws, and rites are sacramental sources of grace. And she is the mystical body of Christ because he founded the Church. He remains her invisible Head and through him all blessings are communicated to her members, and through them to...

Featured Term (selected at random):ANDREW A fisherman and follower of John the Baptist. He was in John's company when he saw Jesus for the first time and stayed with him for the rest of the day. Convinced that Jesus was the Messiah, he took his brother, Simon Peter, to meet him the next day. This was the occasion on which Jesus told Andrew's brother that from being called Simon his name would be changed to Cephas, meaning the Rock (John 1:35-42). The two brothers were the first apostles chosen by Jesus; they accepted his summons to become fishers of men and...

One for the Brick by Brick file.I had a note from a friend in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, where the great Bishop Robert Finn presides.At St. Andrew the Apostle on the north side of KC, Fr. Vince Rogers has installed a new brand new Communion rail!My friend wrote: He has installed altar rails in most of not all of the parishes in which he has served over the past 15-20 years.He noted in his homily this morning, “So, why do I do this everywhere I go? It started when I was a seminarian at the NAC. Mother Teresa...

I have often heard it said that our Lord did not care overmuch about sins of the flesh; for He was relentless in his attacks upon hypocrisy, pride, and avarice, but was so mild towards adulterers and fornicators that we might, extrapolating from that mildness, so far dispense Christians from the strictures of the sixth commandment as to ignore their sins, nay, even to make a virtue of them, so long as they commit them with sufficient sweetness and affection.That interpretation cannot be supported by any commonsense reading of His words.When the Pharisees, “tempting Him,” asked Him whether it was...

Full Question Until recently, I always thought Catholics worshiped on the Sabbath, and that the early Church moved the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. Is this true? Answer This is a common misunderstanding. Catholics do not worship on the Sabbath, which according to Jewish law is the last day of the week (Saturday), when God rested from all the work he had done in creation (Gen. 2:2-3). Catholics worship on the Lord’s Day, the first day of the week (Sunday, the eighth day); the day when God said "Let there be light" (Gen. 1:3); the day when Christ rose from...

EXPLAINING THE IDEA OF INFALLIBILITY Father William Saunders Time magazine made Pope John Paul II "Man of the Year." In the article, a survey was included which asked about infallibility. I think the survey questions and other statements were confused. Would you please explain the idea of infallibility?—A reader in Woodbridge Before delving into the question of infallibility, we must be certain as to how we understand truth. As Catholics, we believe in an absolute, immutable truth rooted in God. This truth has been perfectly revealed in Christ, for He is the Word who became flesh (Jn 1:14), and...

Women deacons, why not? Ever since the Second Vatican Council implemented the vision of the Council of Trent to restore the permanent diaconate, the question has lingered. Now with recent statements on the matter by Walter Cardinal Kasper at the spring assembly of the German Bishops Conference, the topic has gained new traction … not that it ever really went away.Anecdotally, some wives of men in our diocese who signed up for those first diaconate formation classes following Vatican II expected to eventually be ordained themselves. That never happened, at least in the Catholic Church. There was, however, one wife...

Featured Term (selected at random):REUBEN The oldest of Jacob's twelve sons (Genesis 29:32). The first incident recorded in Genesis involving Reuben was his immoral conduct with his father's concubine (Genesis 35:22). Even in his old age Jacob did not forgive this, for in the series of prophecies he made concerning his sons he described Reuben as "foremost in pride, foremost in strength, uncontrolled as a flood, you shall not be foremost, for you mounted your father's bed, and so defiled my couch to my hurt" (Genesis 49:3-4). But Reuben manifested redeeming qualities. When his jealous brothers proposed killing Joseph, it...

Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic By David B. CurrieThe day President John F. Kennedy was shot is one of my most vivid childhood memories. I was in sixth grade playing on the playground when the rumors started. Just before the dismissal bell at the end of the day, the principal made the announcement over the PA system: JFK had been assassinated.School was dismissed in eerie silence. Tears welled up in my eyes as I walked the half mile home that afternoon. My sorrow was almost overwhelming for a sixth-grader, not only because our President was dead, but primarily because in...

Featured Term (selected at random):MASS OF THE PRESANCTIFIED The concluding service on Good Friday. The priest returns the Host consecrated on Holy Thursday from the repository to the main altar. After the recitation of several prayers, including the Our Father, the priest consumes the Host. He then gives Communion to the faithful. All the hosts received have been consecrated before, since there really is no Mass on Good Friday. The liturgy terminates abruptly after Holy Communion. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Pope Francis. (AP)(CNSNews.com) – In his May 4 homily, Pope Francis stressed that Christians must follow Jesus and not listen to the deceptive “dialogue” of “the prince of this world,” the Devil, adding, “There can be no dialogue with the prince of this world: let this be clear!”Pope Francis made his remarks during the Saturday Mass at the Saint Martha House, which is next to St. Peter’s basilica at the Vatican. As excerpted on Vatican Radio, the Pope said that “the spirit of the world hates” and that Christ “redeemed us from the power of the world, from the...

Featured Term (selected at random):   ANALOGY OF FAITH The Catholic doctrine that every individual statement of belief must be understood in the light of the Church's whole objective body of faith. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Of all the conundrums that have come to vex and confound us, there are three that continue uniquely to rivet the attention. Each provides a key to the great and enduring realities of the Christian life. What can we know (Faith)? What ought we to do (Charity)? And, finally, in whom may we trust (Hope)? If, in the evening of our lives, answers to the first two are still not to be found, it may be too late to begin inquiries about them. But in the light of Ascension Thursday, that stupendous feast we celebrate forty days after the Lord’s...

Because, he says, unrepentant public sinners could slip in among the faithful, and he does not want to back up their hypocrisy. The case of Catholic politicians who support abortion. ROME, May 9, 2013 – There is one particular in the Masses celebrated by Pope Francis that raises questions that have so far gone unanswered. At the moment of communion, pope Jorge Mario Bergoglio does not administer it himself, but allows others to give the consecrated host to the faithful. He sits down and waits for the distribution of the sacrament to be completed. The exceptions are very few. At...

How did scholars of the Middle East and those engaged in moonlighting (non-specialists who write about the region) react to the Boston Marathon bombing on April 15, 2013? Before the smoke cleared, some were predicting that the perpetrators would be "right-wingers" who sought to "disrupt tax day," "neo-Nazis," or "lone wolves." Given that Muslims constitute 30 of 32 of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's list of most wanted terrorists, this represents either wishful thinking or willful blindness.Accordingly, after brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were identified as the perpetrators, scholars resorted to apologetics and obfuscation to explain away Islam's role: the...

The Baltimore Catechism Revised Edition (1941) Part Three: The Sacraments and Prayer The Sacramentals Lesson 36 from the Baltimore Cathechism469. What are sacramentals? Sacramentals are holy things or actions of which the Church makes use to obtain for us from God, through her intercession, spiritual and temporal favors.And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that those who believe in him may not perish, but may have life everlasting. (John 3:14-15)470. How do the sacramentals obtain favors from God? The sacramentals obtain favors from God through the prayers...

Featured Term (selected at random):SIN AGAINST FAITH The deliberate withholding of assent to what God has revealed. As commonly understood, there are five principal sins against faith: profession of a false religion, willful doubt, disbelief, or denial of an article of faith, and culpable ignorance of the doctrines of the Catholic Church. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

The Baltimore Catechism Revised Edition (1941) Part Three: The Sacraments and Prayer Matrimony Lesson 35 from the Baltimore Cathechism457. What is the sacrament of Matrimony? Matrimony is the sacrament by which a baptized man and a baptized woman bind themselves for life in a lawful marriage and receive the grace to discharge their duties.And God created man to his own image; to the image of God he created him. Male and female he created them. And God blessed them, saying "Increase and multiply, and fill the earth." (Genesis 1:27-28)458. What are the chief duties of husband and wife in...

Featured Term (selected at random):   FREEDOM OF GOD The liberty of God relative to creatures. God loves himself of necessity, but he loves and wills outside himself with freedom. This divine liberty is the freedom to act or not to act (liberty of contradiction), for example, to create the world. And it is the freedom to choose various goods or indifferent actions (liberty of specification), for example, to create this or that world. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Is it difficult to become Catholic? I don't often disclose personal thoughts on this blog, but I feel that this is something that might be helpful for folks on both sides of the Tiber: Ten Reasons why it's hard to become Catholic. I have spoken to somewhere between 50-100 Protestant ministers who have become Catholic or are contemplating entry into full communion with the Catholic Church. Most of these are Anglican or Presbyterian. A few have been Lutheran.  Over the last several years, I've gathered up the "big ten" that either cause pain or lead to a man saying...

Featured Term (selected at random):SUPERNATURAL ORDER The sum total of heavenly destiny and all the divinely established means of reaching that destiny, which surpass the mere powers and capacities of human nature. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Are you saved? Have you ever been asked this question? Has anyone ever told you that Catholics think they can work their way into Heaven? The Catholic Church does not now, nor has it ever, taught a doctrine of salvation by works - that we can “work� our way into Heaven. And, the Bible does not teach that we are saved by “faith alone.� The only place in all of Scripture where the phrase “Faith Alone� appears, is in James 2:24, where it says that we are not justified (or saved) by faith alone. However, if works have nothing to...

One is often judged, fairly or unfairly, by the company they keep. Hang with someone who is a thief and it may be assumed that you are also a thief. Affiliate with an organization and those values espoused by that organization are assumed to be yours. Fair or not, it is what it is. While our Lord and Savior hung around with those judged not acceptable by society, He came to heal their spiritual shortcomings. Jesus healed the sick, both physically and spiritually. So, when Jesus sat down with prostitutes and tax collectors, He did so to heal their hearts...

It took me fifty years to find my way home (to the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church), though only twenty-three to get pointed in the right general direction. This is my tenth year “inside,� corresponding thus to my sixtieth biological. My question for today: What takes people so long?One begins, naturally, by answering for oneself. But I can’t coherently answer. Starting just after my Christian conversion, then moving forward patiently through memory, I recall many occasions when the idea of being received into the Catholic Church occurred to me. Several of these were somewhat dramatic.But the drama was for...

The Baltimore Catechism Revised Edition (1941) Part Three: The Sacraments and Prayer Extreme Unction and Holy Orders Lesson 34 from the Baltimore Cathechism443. What is Extreme Unction? Extreme Unction is the sacrament which, through the anointing with blessed oil by the priest, and through his prayer, gives health and strength to the soul and sometimes to the body when we are in danger of death from sickness, accident, or old age.Is any one among you sick? Let him bring in the presbyters of the Church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the...

Featured Term (selected at random):CLAIRVOYANCE Seeing or knowing events occurring at a distance without the use of sensibly perceptible means of communication. As with telepathy, the available evidence indicates that this is a rare but natural phenomenon. Its exercise and evaluation should therefore be based on the same principles as other human actions. Clairvoyance is one of the familiar physical phenomena of mysticism. But the Church's custom is to be very circumspect about admitting anything more than natural psychic powers and cautious in warning the faithful about the possibility of demonic intervention. (Etym. French clairvoyant, clear seeing.) All items in...

As a professional Catholic speaker I have the opportunity to visit dozens of parishes every year. In addition to giving general parish talks, I am sometimes asked if I would be willing to speak to the children in the parish school. I always welcome the opportunity, especially when speaking to the lower grades. Having five young children of my own, I am quite comfortable around them.Whenever I have the occasion to speak with the children, I always ask for a show of hands if they have ever been asked by a grownup the following question:“What do you want to...

. 2013-05-03 "RENDER UNTO CAESAR ..." =============================== The "strategic goal" of the pro-gay-marriage-farce movement is "NOT" about homosexual marriage or child adoption. All of that is a political smokescreen for the Low-Information-Voters ... which by the way ... including MILLIONS of Twenty-Somethings (like my four adult children) who know NOTHING of history and DESTRUCTION of a nation. The real goal of the pro-gay-marriage-farce movement is to create a Perfect Storm to REMOVE the Churches' IRS 501 C-3 tax-exempt status. This SATANIC PERFECT STORM is designed to force genuine Christian Churches into FINANCIAL POVERTY by having their (idolatrous) IRS 501 C-3...

The Baltimore Catechism Revised Edition (1941) Part Three: The Sacraments and Prayer   Temporal Punishment and Indulgences Lesson 33 from the Baltimore Cathechism435. What is an indulgence? An indulgence is the remission granted by the Church of the temporal punishment due to sins already forgiven.Receive the Holy Ghost; whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained. (John 20:22-23)436. How many kinds of indulgences are there? There are two kinds of indulgences, plenary and partial. 437. What is a plenary indulgence? A plenary indulgence is the remission of all the...

Featured Term (selected at random):DE NIHILO NIHIL From nothing, nothing. A phrase in philosophy that states the principle of cause and effect. Every effect must have a cause, since without a cause no finite being would exist. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Vatican may prohibit female alter (sic) service By Michaels, Amanda Published: Tuesday, October 14, 2003Updated: Wednesday, September 12, 2012 11:09   Only nine years after the Vatican gave women permission to serve beside their male counterparts at the altar, a new proposal threatens to force them back into the crowd. On Sept. 23, the Italian Catholic monthly, "Jesus," released advanced text of an article featuring excerpts from a draft document, or directive, written by the Vatican congregations for Divine Worship and the Sacraments and for the Doctrine of the Faith. Distributed on June 5, the document was an expansion on the papal...

The Baltimore Catechism Revised Edition (1941) Part Three: The Sacraments and Prayer How to Make a Good Confession Lesson 32 from the Baltimore Cathechism426. Before entering the confessional, how should we prepare ourselves for a good confession? Before entering the confessional, we should prepare ourselves for a good confession by taking sufficient time not only to examine our conscience but, especially, to excite in our hearts sincere sorrow for our sins and a firm purpose not to commit them again. 427. How should we begin our confession? We should begin our confession in this manner: Entering the confessional, we kneel,...