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Not Crowded, but Close – A Brief Reflection and Clarification on the Communion of Saints in Heaven By: Msgr. Charles PopeMany of you know that I write the weekly “Question and Answer” column for the Our Sunday Visitor newspaper. Every now and again I get a question that stands out as unique, one that I had not thought of before. And such is the case with the question below. I had never thought of Heaven as potentially being crowded or considered it a drawback. But the question led me to reflect on the deeper experience of what we call the Communion of...

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...

Meet the SAINTS ! The saints of the Holy Catholic Church lived exemplary lives, giving up the temporary pleasures of earth for the eternal joy of Heaven. Their lives were marked by a sincere wish to imitate the life of Christ.  St. Paul says in Hebrews 13:7 to imitate them.  It is important to understand what "the communion of saints" means to us as Catholics. Most Protestants don't know anything about what it means, but as Catholics, it is a very important component of our faith.  A lot of people think that they are dead and gone, but that...

Praying to Saints In his book, Answers to Catholic Claims, A Discussion of Biblical Authority, Protestant Apologist James White claims praying to saints is contrary to Scripture:The Bible strongly condemns communication with the dead. It does not matter if those who died were good or bad, saintly or evil, there is to be no communication between the living and the dead. The only communication with spirit beings that originates with man that is allowed in Scripture is that of prayer to God and He alone.Biblical texts like Deut. 18:10-11 and Isaiah 19:3—each of which condemns necromancy—are employed to say “communication...

Does Praying to Saints Equal Worshipping the Saints? For many of our Protestant friends, the idea of ”praying to saints” is tantamount to adoring them as God. In his book, Answers to Catholic Claims – A Discussion of Biblical Authority, James White writes:Prayer, it is asserted [in Scripture], is an act of worship, and we are to worship God alone.”If this is true then Catholics are committing the sin of idolatry every time they pray to a saint. But is this true?The Catholic ResponseWhen Catholics say they are “praying” to God and “praying” to saints they are talking about qualitatively different things...

How Can Mary Hear Thousands Simultaneously? In his 1999 book, Evangelical Answers – A Critique of Current Roman Catholic Apologists, Eric Svendsen claims the Catholic Church makes Mary into not just a god, but the God:Suppose someone in the United States were to pray to Mary at a certain time during the day. Suppose further that, at exactly that same moment, someone in Europe begins also to pray to Mary… suppose at that same moment hundreds of thousands of devoted Catholics all over the world begin praying the rosary… In order for Mary to hear all those prayers at once...

Mary 668. Why do Catholics believe that Mary prays for them and helps them? Because they believe that she is their spiritual Mother, and that she has not lost her interest in those for whom her Son died, merely because she is in heaven. It is the Christian law, according to St. James, that we should pray for one another. The Saints in heaven pray for us who are on earth and still endeavoring to work out our salvation. And Mary is the greatest of the Saints. It is but an application in practice of our belief in the Communion...

Every Sunday, millions of Christians around the world recite the Creed, professing their belief in the “communion of saints.” Few realize the importance of this phrase, which is sandwiched between other deep mysteries of the faith. The Catholic understanding is denounced by many Protestants as “unbiblical.” It’s a bitter irony that the very doctrine of Christian unity has itself become a barrier to unity. The controversy revolves around the question, “Is it biblical to ask the saints in heaven to pray (intercede) for us?” Catholics say yes. Since Christians are united with each other through Christ, and are commanded to...

Merit Abridged by Annalex FOREWORD This is an abridgement of long and detailed Catholic Encyclopedia article on Merit where I condense the necessary definitions and distinctions in a more concise manner, omitting discussion that seemed to me too arcane. I follow the same subtitle structure as the original and invite the reader to study the original sections for deeper understanding. Much of this abridgement is directly copied from the original, but for the ease of reading I do not use quotation marks. None in this is my own thoughts; my only input was in shortening and paraphrasing. MERIT Merit (meritum)...

An indulgence is an action of the Church which spreads her treasure of merits to the suffering members of the family of God. Indulgences: Spreading the wealth By Dermott J. Mullan I. Introduction Indulgences have to do with how God handles evil and good. To God, sin is always horrible, but humans do not always think so. The Church’s teaching on indulgences is meant to impress on us some of God’s horror of sin. The Church says sin is never an isolated event: rather, each sin has after-effects, not only in the person who sins but also in other parts...

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Litany of the Irish SaintsTo impore their Protection in all our wants, but particularly for the existing necessities of the Church of Ireland Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, have mercy on us. Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, hear us. Christ, graciously hear us. God, the Father of Heaven, have mercy on us. God the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy on us. God the Holy ghost, Sanctifier of the Elect, have mercy on us. Holy Trinity, one only God, have mercy on us. Holy Mary, Queen of Ireland, pray for us! Holy Angels, Guardians of Ireland, pray...