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Featured Term (selected at random:IMMURATION A shutting up, an enclosing. The symbolic closing of the door of a cloistered cell, voluntarily done, by a religious who attends the religious services through an opening in the chapel wall. In some cases, rare nowadays, food, light, and air are received through a window of the hermitage that is built adjoining the chapel proper. It also refers to a method of burial by which bodies are enclosed in chambers and vaults of solid masonry, for example where the native soil is impracticable for burial. Mummified bodies recovered from such places were falsely exhibited...

The Real Presence and Perpetual AdorationFr. John A. Hardon, S.J.Errors regarding the Real Presence crept into the Church starting in Europe about 30 years ago. By now it has had a devastating effect all over the world. The work of the Evil Spirit has been phenomenally successful during this period. Re-conversion by natural means is not just inadequate, but absolutely impossible. The more convinced we are that human beings cannot solve the problem, the more we will wake up to the truth that God became man to help us cope with, and like St. Michael the Archangel, conquer this...

Perpetual Adoration, True Peace in the WorldFr. John A. Hardon, S.J.We begin by making a simple statement. The true peace about which we are speaking is peace of heart.There is no need to explain why we should talk about peace of heart. If there is any single recommendation, and even mandate, that His followers received from Christ, it was to be at peace.Before the birth of Christ, Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, was filled with the Holy Spirit to prophesy the Benedictus, which he concluded with the promise to us that “the rising Sun will visit us,...

Featured Term (selected at random:ZEITGEIST Spirit of the times. Used especially to explain why many people are so skeptical of the supernatural and so demanding that Christian faith and morals conform to the modern mentality. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Sister Jane Dominic Laurel The faithful across America are growing increasingly disturbed after a faction of students and parents of a Catholic High School in Charlotte, North Carolina initiated an online petition condemning a popular speaker for enunciating the Church’s position on homosexuality, divorce and single parenting during a recent assembly.According to the Catholic News Herald, the incident occurred on March 21 when Sister Jane Dominic Laurel, a Dominican nun based in Nashville, Tennessee addressed a student assembly at the school.Her talk, entitled “Masculinity and Femininity: Difference and Gift,” is based on the teachings of Blessed John Paul II’s Theology...

What if Protestantism were true? What if the Reformers really were heroes, the Bible the sole rule of faith, and Christ's Church just an invisible collection of loosely united believers? As an Evangelical, Devin Rose used to believe all of it. Then one day the nagging questions began. He noticed things about Protestant belief and practice that didn't add up. He began following the logic of Protestant claims to places he never expected it to go—leading to conclusions no Christians would ever admit to holding. In The Protestant's Dilemma, Rose examines over thirty of those conclusions, showing with solid evidence,...

“[The Church] does not, in the conventional phrase, believe what the Bible says, for the simple reason that the Bible does not say anything. You cannot put a book in the witness-box and ask it what it really means.” – G. K. ChestertonSola Scriptura is the Protestant doctrine that the Bible contains all knowledge necessary for salvation and holiness. Under it, only doctrines that are found directly within the Bible or are drawn indirectly from it by simple reasoning are allowed. (See material vs. formal sufficiency & perspicuity.) 2 Timothy 3:16-17 is the primary passage used to defend this...

Our Supernatural Knowledge of Godby Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.Remember the master theme that we are looking at now is our knowledge of God. We have already seen something of what the Scripture tells us about our natural rational knowledge of God. Why natural? Because, we can acquire knowledge of God by the use of our natural native reason. Through reflection of the works of nature beginning with the sun, moon and stars, the mountains and the seas and ending with the beauty of a small child or the budding of the trees in spring. In the present conference...

Featured Term (selected at random:FIORETTI The Little Flowers of St. Francis, a classic collection of stories and traditions about St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) and his early companions. Written in the Italian of Tuscany about 1322, it was probably translated from earlier Latin sources including the significant Acts of the Blessed Francis and His Companions. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission. 

Why are we commanded to roast the Passover sacrifice over fire and not cook it in any other way? G-d loves a barbecue?! This class explores the simple, literal explanations and the profound mystical teachings behind this commandment. So, if you have 52 minutes of clean-up and dishes to do, download or stream and enjoy. (IMHO it's the best way to do chores.)

Here is some cheery news. It is cheery in that the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith is doing its job diligently and that justice has been done and that the Faith has been defended. It is sad news, however, that any Catholic priest would be so wicked as to do such a thing. We are pleased that the proper thing has been done, and sad about the sin committed which required such intervention. From Fishwrap (aka National Schismatic Reporter), in mourning, with my emphases and comments:

How to Be a Loyal Catholic Today?By Being Loyal to the Bishop of Romeby Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.  Not too many years ago this would have been a strange title for a lecture, “How to Be a Loyal Catholic Today.” The reason is obvious. Catholics were Catholics. ....But much has happened in the last thirty or so years. Nowadays there are so many people who call themselves Catholic but really are not. There are books published and periodicals; there are conferences given, and symposiums held; there are religious programs and celebrations sponsored, and all professedly Catholic. But so...

Hollywood Movie 'Noah' starring Russell Crowe and Anthony Hopkins premiere in the theaters on March 28. The movie has largely received negative reviews from Christian audiences because of the liberty that director Darren Aronofsky took to veer from the Biblical text. Just before the debut of the Hollywood movie, Ray Comfort, President of the Living Waters Publications, released a biblical version of the Noah movie on Youtube to warn about God's judgement of the last days. Comfort said he wants to provide another option for the Christian viewers. The 30-minute documentary entitled Noah-- And the Last Days was released on...

As Catholic Come Home states on a commercial, people can always "ask God to edit their life story and create the ideal ending.” This online platform launched a new website full of resources to help people discover how Confession can improve their spiritual lives. It's called GoodConfession.com, and its promotional video compares sin to a "heavy burden” one gets rid of thanks to Confession. GoodConfession offers users a guide to identify what temper they have, as well as different models to examine their conscience, depending on whether they are married, single or teenagers. One of the most interesting parts...

I'm the "little guy" who wrote a blog post critiquing an early draft of the Noah script because of my own research into the subject matter. Well, when things went south in the studio screenings of the movie with religious audiences, the blood hound media scoured the internet for negative quotes, found my post, and it went viral. I thus became Satan for Paramount and its elitist director of dark unsympathetic sick and twisted heroes, Darren Aronofsky. I finally saw the movie. And now I know why Paramount and its hired Christian marketers would not let me into an early...

Editor’s note: A shorter review of Noah appeared on Friday. The movie review below is a much more detailed examination of the new Hollywood film. On Thursday evening, a team of researchers from Answers in Genesis viewed the new Noah film. Based on reviews from trusted friends of the ministry who had seen the movie, including a staff member, we were hesitant to spend any money on watching this unbiblical picture. But AiG had already received hundreds of inquiries about our position on the film even before it was released, so we believed it was necessary for AiG’s research team...

The pre-release advertising promoting the movie Noah made a point of stating that while the director took artistic license in the production it was still faithful to the biblical story. Early theater previews were carefully edited to appeal to people of faith, but this is the least biblical “biblical film” of all time! However, to be charitable, the bare outline of the Flood story is present, but after that artistic license has taken the film so far afield of anything resembling the Bible that it is offensive to people of faith. To say that the biblical story was watered down...

The Code of Canon LawJohn Paul IIAPOSTOLIC CONSTITUTIONFOR THE PROMULGATION OF THENEW CODE OF CANON LAWSacrae Disciplinae Leges …The code, as the principal legislative document of the Church, founded on the juridical-legislative heritage of Revelation and Tradition, is to be regarded as an indispensable instrument to ensure order both in individual and social life, and also in the Church's activity itself. Therefore, besides containing the fundamental elements of the hierarchical and organic structure of the Church as willed by her divine Founder, or as based upon apostolic, or in any case most ancient, tradition and besides the fundamental principles...

Featured Term (selected at random:WORDS OF INSTITUTION The words of Christ at the Last Supper, recorded by the sunoptic Gospels (Matthew 26:26-29; Mark 14:22-25; Luke 22:19-21); and St. Paul (I Corinthians 11:23-29). Their essential features are: 1. Christ separately consecrated bread and wine; 2. over the bread he said "This is my body" and over the wine "This is the chalice of my blood"; 3. The elements of bread and wine were thus changed into the living Christ; 4. he empowered the Apostles and their succesors to perform the same consecrating action; 5. he bade his followers to partake of...

The fight against temptation is a key Lenten theme and, of course, one that extends to each day of our life if we are going to be serious followers of the Lord.There is something rather mysterious about temptation. We are often strangely drawn to things that harm us, and even knowing this, we still feel the attraction. Deep within, we hear the warnings of conscience, but still we move toward sin and to many things that we know are both wrong and dangerous. How strange we are!Theologians have used the word “concupiscence” to describe our inordinate attractions or desires, and...