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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....

Living Simply— Yet Focused "Look at the birds of the air . . . . Consider the lilies of the field . . ." —Matthew 6:26, 28 Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin�— they simply are! Think of the sea, the air, the sun, the stars, and the moon— all of these simply are as well— yet what a ministry and service they render on our behalf! So often we impair God’s designed influence, which He desires to exhibit through us, because of our own conscious efforts to be consistent and...

Secret Petitions Today's Scripture “Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He will give you the desires and secret petitions of your heart.” (Psalm 37:4, AMP) Today's Word from Joel and Victoria In the Psalms, it talks about the secret petitions of our heart. These are the hidden dreams that you haven’t told anybody about. One way you know they’re from God is that they’re so big you cannot accomplish them on your own. God does this on purpose so that it will take faith. Faith is what pleases God. Faith is what allows Him to do the impossible....

His Ascension and Our Access "It came to pass, while He blessed them, that He was parted from them and carried up into heaven" —Luke 24:51 We have no experiences in our lives that correspond to the events in our Lord’s life after the transfiguration. From that moment forward His life was altogether substitutionary. Up to the time of the transfiguration, He had exhibited the normal, perfect life of a man. But from the transfiguration forward— Gethsemane, the Cross, the resurrection— everything is unfamiliar to us. His Cross is the door by which every member of the human race...

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,...

A Priest for Forty HoursBy Thomas Peters This incredible story came to me first via family.St. Joseph Parish in Maumee, Ohio posted this note to their Facebook page on Wednesday (it has already been viewed and shared thousands of times since then): As many of you know, our seminarian Deacon Scott Carroll has been battling cancer for some time. Although Scott looked forward to joining his classmates for ordination on June 22, 2013, it became clear this week that an earlier ordination might be prudent.On Wednesday morning, Bishop Blair ordained Fr. Scott to the Order of Presbyter. The ordination...

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...

Ask Big Today's Scripture …you do not have because you do not ask. James 4:2, NKJV. Today's Word from Joel and Victoria I wonder today how many people have been disappointed simply because they didn’t pray and ask God for the big things in their hearts. You might say, “Well, Joel, God is God. If He wants to bless me, He will bless me.” But no, it says in James 4:2, “You have not because you ask not.” If you’re not asking big, you are shortchanging yourself. You will never reach the fullness of your potential if you only...

The Habit of Recognizing God’s Provision ". . . you may be partakers of the divine nature . . ." —2 Peter 1:4 We are made “partakers of the divine nature,� receiving and sharing God’s own nature through His promises. Then we have to work that divine nature into our human nature by developing godly habits. The first habit to develop is the habit of recognizing God’s provision for us. We say, however, “Oh, I can’t afford it.� One of the worst lies is wrapped up in that statement. We talk as if our heavenly Father has cut us...

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)....

Dare to Ask Today's Scripture “Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.” (Ephesians 3:20, NLT) Today's Word from Joel and Victoria When was the last time you asked God to do something impossible, something out of the ordinary? I believe that one reason we don’t see God do great things is because we only ask Him for small things. Most people pray over their food, pray for protection, or pray for wisdom. That’s all good, but don’t limit what God...

The Habit of Rising to the Occasion ". . . that you may know what is the hope of His calling . . ." —Ephesians 1:18 Remember that you have been saved so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in your body (see 2 Corinthians 4:10). Direct the total energy of your powers so that you may achieve everything your election as a child of God provides; rise every time to whatever occasion may come your way.You did not do anything to achieve your salvation, but you must do something to exhibit it. You must “work out...

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...

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...

He’ll Make Up for Lost Time Today's Scripture “I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten...” (Joel 2:25, NIV) Today's Word from Joel and Victoria Friend, God knows how to make up for years you’ve lost in your life. No, you can’t relive your childhood, but God can make the rest of your life so rewarding, so fulfilling that you don’t even miss what didn’t happen in the past. You may feel like you wasted years in a relationship that didn’t work out. But God can bring somebody into your life so great, so fun, so...

The Habit of Enjoying Adversity ". . . that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body" —2 Corinthians 4:10 We have to develop godly habits to express what God’s grace has done in us. It is not just a question of being saved from hell, but of being saved so that “the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.� And it is adversity that makes us exhibit His life in our mortal flesh. Is my life exhibiting the essence of the sweetness of the Son of God, or just the basic irritation...

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...

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...

Hope in the Lord Today's Scripture “So Moses told the people of Israel what the LORD had said, but they refused to listen anymore. They had become too discouraged by the brutality of their slavery.” (Exodus 6:9, NLT) Today's Word from Joel and Victoria When you hear that “God wants to bring you out better,” does something come alive in your spirit? Something that says, “Yes, this is for me. I have not seen my best days. God has greater things in my future”? Maybe you want to believe, but like the Israelites, you’ve been burdened down by adversity,...

The Habit of Keeping a Clear Conscience ". . . strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and men" —Acts 24:16 God’s commands to us are actually given to the life of His Son in us. Consequently, to our human nature in which God’s Son has been formed (see Galatians 4:19), His commands are difficult. But they become divinely easy once we obey.Conscience is that ability within me that attaches itself to the highest standard I know, and then continually reminds me of what that standard demands that I do. It is the eye of the soul...

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...

Read aloud this desperate and heartfelt prayer with me; As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God? When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that...

The Habit of Having No Habits "If these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful . . ." —2 Peter 1:8 When we first begin to form a habit, we are fully aware of it. There are times when we are aware of becoming virtuous and godly, but this awareness should only be a stage we quickly pass through as we grow spiritually. If we stop at this stage, we will develop a sense of spiritual pride. The right thing to do with godly habits is to immerse them in the life of the...

And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face...

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...

“Love One Another” ". . . add to your . . . brotherly kindness love" —2 Peter 1:5, 7 Love is an indefinite thing to most of us; we don’t know what we mean when we talk about love. Love is the loftiest preference of one person for another, and spiritually Jesus demands that this sovereign preference be for Himself (see Luke 14:26). Initially, when “the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit� (Romans 5:5), it is easy to put Jesus first. But then we must practice the things mentioned in 2...

I’ve read with interest Francis (Frank) Beckwith’s book, Return to Rome, because like him, I was baptized and raised Roman Catholic, attending parochial schools through my primary grades and a preparatory school run by a Benedictine monastery throughout my high school years. And, like Dr. Beckwith, in my teens I turned away from the Roman Catholic Church and Christianity altogether but was converted in my early twenties and began attending a Protestant Evangelical church. And for the past thirty seven years I have been a committed Evangelical Protestant. I was also quite interested in reading Dr. Beckwith’s book because he...

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...

Brethren, Peace and Good to all in Jesus Christ. Many of you are already familiar with the different approaches to biblical interpretation. There are many because the Word of God is such a versatile collection of writings that no single approach is sufficient to fathom its riches.   Higher criticism and the Bible student Among the approaches developed in the 17th century that survives to this day is that of “higher criticism.” This approach is really a toolkit of techniques that requires seeing Holy Scripture and its constituent books as primarily literary works made by human beings. Theology and...

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.

Last week I maintained that the patriarch Abraham is in certain key ways a paradigmatic figure for today’s Israel. A paradigm, though, would be expected to show some consistency in his conduct. In at least one important regard, Abraham seems to engage in behaviors that radically contradict each other. When God prepares to leave Abraham’s tent encampment for Sodom, having heard that “sin is very grievous” there and in Gomorrah, Abraham rightly infers that—should the rumors turn out to be true—God intends to do away with these dens of depravity. Yet, at that point, Abraham seems to show incredible...

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.

Pope Francis told 800 superiors of women’s orders from around the world that the Catholic Church needs religious women and that religious women need to be in harmony with the faith and teachings of the Church. “What would the Church be without you?” the Pope told the women today. “It would be missing maternity, affection, tenderness and a mother’s intuition.” Religious superiors, Pope Francis said, need to ensure their members are educated in the doctrine of the Church, “in love for the Church and in an ecclesial spirit.” Quoting Pope Paul VI, he said: “It’s an absurd dichotomy to think...

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...

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...

...Bruce R. McConkie was a boy growing up in Monticello, Utah... ...the son grew to be a member of the Quorum of the Twelve from 1972 until his death in 1985, well respected and remembered for his written and spoken discourses in which he taught the doctrines of the gospel with clarity and power. The above...was recounted by Elder McConkie’s son Joseph Fielding McConkie on April 11 in an address in the Assembly Hall on Temple Square in Salt Lake City for the monthly Men and Women of Faith Lecture Series sponsored by the Church History Library. His topic was...

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.

The universe is about 13.82 billion years old. Although it is well within the error range of earlier estimates, this new number means that the universe is slightly older than cosmologists previously thought. The new age comes as a result of data just released from the European Space Agency’s Planck space telescope, which for the past 15 months has been taking the most precise images of the oldest light in the universe, the “cosmic microwave background radiation.” This microwave-wavelength light is the remnant of the universe’s earliest days, and is a key piece of evidence for the event we now...

One of my favorite quotes from Pope Benedict XVI deals with Judas’ betrayal of Jesus. Benedict states:“Judas is neither a master of evil nor the figure of a demoniacal power of darkness but rather a sycophant who bows down before the anonymous power of changing moods and current fashion. But it is precisely this anonymous power that crucified Jesus, for it was anonymous voices that cried, ‘Away with him! Crucify him!’”Think that one over. It’s profound.Judas was a mere sycophant to what Pope Benedict dubbed “the anonymous power.” What was this power? It was the power of “changing moods and...

[1] The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by the hand of Malachias. [2] I have loved you, saith the Lord: and you have said: Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau brother to Jacob, saith the Lord, and I have loved Jacob, [3] But have hated Esau? and I have made his mountains a wilderness, and given his inheritance to the dragons of the desert. [4] But if Edom shall say: We are destroyed, but we will return and build up what hath been destroyed: thus saith the Lord of hosts: They shall build up,...

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...

>What a story: An elderly homeless man who has relied on the kindness of strangers to survive recently paid it forward.Ed Denst, 77, donated $250, all in $1 bills, to the Catholic charity the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul Council of Los Angeles.“I was shocked,” board president Claire Padama told CBS LA. “I think that’s more meaningful than those people who have a lot.”Padama has known Denst, an ex-Marine, for nearly 20 years, CBS LA reported. He goes to Our Mother of Good Counsel Church every day to receive a meal, something that is made possible by the Saint...

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...