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Featured Term selected at random:SANCTIFYING GRACE  The supernatural state of being infused by God, which permanently inheres in the soul. It is a vital principle of the supernatural life, as the rational soul is the vital principle of a human being's natural life. It is not a substance but a real quality that becomes part of the soul substance. Although commonly associated with the possession of the virtue of charity, sanctifuing grace is yet distinct from this virtue. Charity, rather, belongs to the will, whereas sanctifying grace belongs to the whole soul, mind, will, and affections. It is called...

Two Gifts of Deeper Prayer: Silence and Spaciousness By: Msgr. Charles PopeOne of the great spiritual battles and journeys is to get beyond, and outside our self. St. Augustine described one of the chief effects of sin was that man was curvatus in se (turned in on himself, i.e. turned inward). Forgetful of God we loose our way. Called to look outward and upward, to behold the Lord and his glory, instead we focus inward and downward, on things that are passing, noisy, troubling, and far less noble. No longer seeing our Father’s face and experiencing joyful confidence, we...

He slipped His fingers in the man’s ears. Spitting, He touched the man’s tongue. Then He looked up to heaven and groaned.“Ephphatha!” Jesus said.So goes the account of the healing of the deaf man near the Sea of Galilee, as told in Mark.The word is one of a handful of words in Aramaic—believed to be the vernacular language of Jesus—that survived into the Greek New Testament. We don’t have to find an Aramaic dictionary to discover the meaning of this word. Mark readily supplies a definition: Be opened! Immediately, then, we are told that the man’s ears were “opened”...

Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, has announced, on the heels of the recent beatification of Pope Paul VI, an exciting new candidate for beatification on the increasingly crowded Expressway to the Ever-Widening Gate of Heaven. It seems that Cardinal Walter Kasper, President Emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, has now introduced the cause of Annibale Bugnini, the architect of the highly-touted liturgical reform of Vatican II, to the Congregation. Kasper reportedly gave his permission to open an investigation into Abp. Bugnini’s virtues in response to repeated and urgent requests from...

The following is an edited transcript of the audio. Are Christians under the 10 commandments? No. The Bible says we're not under the law. I love Romans 7:4-6. By way of analogy, it says that you are married to the law. And you better stay married because if you leave this husband and go marry another you are going to be called an adulterer. But if your husband dies, then you can go and remarry. And then Paul draws the analogy out—a little complex the way he does it—saying that you died to the law. You aren't married anymore, you...

God’s Perfect Mercy – A Meditation for Divine Mercy Sunday By: Msgr. Charles PopeWe live in times in which mercy, like so many other things, has become a detached concept in people’s minds, separated from the things that really help us to understand it. For indeed, mercy makes sense and is necessary because we are sinners in desperate shape. Yet many today think it unkind and unmerciful to speak of sin as sin. Many think that mercy is a declaration that God doesn’t really care about sin, or that sin is not a relevant concept.On the contrary, mercy means that sin...

To utterly despair of oneself is infinitely more difficult for a man than to invent some kind of good works.generated self-salvation project. Human beings irresistibly gravitate toward a works or karma-based system because it gives man the false hope that his redemption is within his own reach. But a salvation that is all of grace, a gift earned by Someone else, is so utterly offensive to human nature, so humbling to our pride, that only a supernatural work of grace will bring a person to yield to it. Contrary to popular and cultural concepts of God, the Bible declares that...

We Cannot Love God if We Do Not Love His Word from R.C. Sproul Mar 27, 2015 Category: Articles Emil Brunner, the twentieth-century Swiss theologian and one of the fathers of neoorthodox theology, wrote a little book titled Truth as Encounter. His thesis was that when we study the things of God, we are not studying truth in the abstract. We want to understand theology not merely so that we can make an A on a theology exam. We want to understand the doctrine of God so that we can understand God, so that we can meet the living God...

As a Christian, he never ceased to stand by those who suffered, even when it cost him his life. The too-brief life of the German pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer has been the subject of much film and literary interest in recent years, and Eric Metaxas’s insightful biography of this heroic figure helps us understand why. Bonhoeffer’s life vividly demonstrated the natural and indeed inevitable tensions between the individual and the modern state, and it pointed toward a response based firmly in Christian thought. There are two powerful presences throughout the book: Bonhoeffer himself and Adolf Hitler, as the two...

A Jesuit university is hosting an “LGBTQIA college summit” this weekend that will not only affirm the sexual identities of queer students, but encourage them to consider ditching monogamy altogether. The agenda for Loyola University-Chicago’s “Qmunity!” doesn’t spell out exactly what each workshop will delve into – and organizers remain tight-lipped – but the titles give some clues. Beyond workshops that link queer identity to other activism, such as feminism and “racial and economic justice,” students will hear about “bisexual/pansexual” and “poly/non-monogamous” identities. Those two workshops, as are most of the other workshops, are led or co-led by Loyola students....

Two Belgian politicians admit for the first time openly that Cardinal Godfried Danneels tried to convince King Baudouin to sign the law on abortion in 1990. Former politicians Philippe Moureau (PS, Parti Socialiste) and Mark Eyskens (CVP, Flemish Christian Democrats) said this in a documentary for the Flemish Broadcasting Corporation VTM on April 6, 2015 (http://nieuws.vtm.be/binnenland/135916-25-jaar-abortuswet-boudewijn-onder-druk, at 2:05). According to VTM, cardinal Danneels did not want to comment. In 1990, the 14 members of the Belgian Government - a coalition led by CVP-Prime Minister Wilfried Martens, signed one of the most liberal abortion bills in the world. King Baudouin, a...

Featured Term selected at random:VALIDITY Having not only legal force but actually producing the effect intended. Applied to the sacraments, it refers to the conditions of matter, form, and circumstances required for valid administration. In ecclesiastical law it means that certain prescriptions must be fulfilled for the law or contractual agreement to bind or take effect. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

When Did the Resurrection Go from Rumor to an Official Declaration of the Church? By: Msgr. Charles PopeIn the early hours of the first Easter Sunday, the news began to circulate that Jesus was alive and had been seen. These reports were at first disbelieved or at least doubted by the Apostles. They dismissed various reports from both women and men. But suddenly that evening there was a change, a declaration by the Apostles that the Lord “has truly risen!”  What effected this change? We will see in a moment. But first, note the early reports of the resurrection and how they...

Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage, speaks at the March for Marriage near the Capitol in Washington, D.C., last June. CNS photo Same-sex marriage currently is legal in 36 states — or 37, depending on the outcome of a dispute between state and federal courts in Alabama. But in only 11 of those states was it legalized by referendums or legislation. In the others, it was imposed by courts.It is generally expected, though not certain, that the Supreme Court soon will follow this pattern and impose same-sex marriage nationwide. The court on April 28 will devote two...

Featured Term selected at random:CANONS REGULAR Priests who are bound by religious vows and who live in community under a distinctive rule. Originating in the eleventh century, in connection with the reform movement of Pope Gregory VII, they have mainly adopted the Rule of St. Augustine. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

A Meditation on the Sins of the Intellect By: Msgr. Charles PopeWhen I was in the seminary, my Moral Theology Professor, Fr. Robert Zylla (R.I.P.), encouraged us to meditate on the sins of the intellect during the third sorrowful mystery (The Crowning with Thorns). In his years of teaching he had surely witnessed the intellectual pride that could beset theologians and seminary students who figured they knew a few things. And added to this human tendency to intellectual pride was the rather prideful sense of the 20th century that we had somehow “come of age.” Dissent from church teaching was rampant and...

I love the Divine Mercy Message and Devotion 24-7-365. My Family and I have promoted the Divine Mercy Message and Devotion in Mumbai, India vigorously for more than 25 years. We have spread the Divine Mercy Message and Devotion to Cities in Central India and in North India like Lucknow, Indore, and Patna to mention a few. In 1994 and in 1995, we got in touch with Divine Mercy Information Centre, Hong Kong which was run by a Chinese Catholic Evangelist by the name of Mr John Bosco Wong. He was a Third Order Carmelite. Mr John Bosco Wong sent...

Featured Term selected at random:PENITENTIAL ACT The invitation by the priest at Mass, after the opening salutation, to have the congregation acknowledge their sinfulness. This is followed by the Appeal for Mercy, the Kyrie, unless the pleas for forgiveness was already included in the penitential act. Normally each invocation is sung (or said) twice, but there may be further repetitions and also brief text insertions (tropes) if the circumstances warrant such additions. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Equal in Dignity and Responsibility: Ministering to Those With Same-Sex Attraction By: Msgr. Charles PopeA conference is being planned in August to ponder an authentic pastoral response in ministering to those with same-sex attraction. Dr. Janet Smith is the organizer; Courage International and the Archdiocese of Detroit are the sponsors. It looks to be a  fine gathering of solid speakers. Though I am clearly a “back-bencher” among the fine speakers being lined up, I was asked to submit a paper for possible inclusion in the book that will likely be published by Ignatius Press just prior to the conference.As a...

"The Pope and the transsexual", is how the media similarly described the Holy Thursday liturgy of Pope Francis in the Roman prison Regina Coeli. On the first day of the Triduum Paschale, the Pope again followed his practice of having deserted the liturgically provided cathedral church of Rome and went to the "margins". This year the Pope visited the Roman prison Regina Coeli. He washed the feet of male and female prisoners and celebrated in the "Lord's Supper" in the prison hall. Vatican Television rendered images all over the world Among the prisoners, whose feet the Pope washed, there was...