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June 13, 2015Saturday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time    Reading 1 2 Cor 5:14-21 Brothers and sisters:The love of Christ impels us,once we have come to the conviction that one died for all;therefore, all have died.He indeed died for all,so that those who live might no longer live for themselvesbut for him who for their sake died and was raised. Consequently, from now on we regard no one according to the flesh;even if we once knew Christ according to the flesh,yet now we know him so no longer.So whoever is in Christ is a new creation:the old...

After more than a century of ministry and service to West Virginia, the Capuchin friars are leaving the Mountain State this month. Vows as Capuchin friars require they live together in community as brothers, sharing a prayer life and meals. A minimum of three brothers is necessary to fulfill this supportive environment. The area has two Capuchin friars serving five Catholic parishes in Kanawha and Putnam counties. The Rev. James Kurtz serves St. Anthony on Charleston’s West Side and Our Lady of the Hills in Elkview. The Rev. Joseph Tuscan serves Holy Trinity in Nitro, Christ the King in Dunbar...

We are well into the month of June, and many of us are are celebrating warm weather and clear skies with barbecues, vacations, and time outdoors. But there is another aspect of this month that is often forgotten: Holy Church has dedicated June to the veneration of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.Sadly, devotion to the Sacred Heart has been all but abandoned in recent decades. It is deemed by many who disdain tradition to be an outmoded devotion—a relic of a distant past that they would rather forget. But devotion to the Sacred Heart is not a devotion specific to one time or place. It is...

Paying tribute to the Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy as a liturgical “Magna Carta,” Cardinal Robert Sarah called for a more faithful implementation of its text, lamented misinterpretations of its teaching on “active participation,” and suggested an appendix to the Roman Missal that might better manifest the continuity of the extraordinary and ordinary forms of the celebration of the Mass. “The liturgy is essentially the action of Christ,” the prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship wrote in the June 12 edition of L’Osservatore Romano. “If this vital principle is not received in faith, it is likely...

June 12, 2015Solemnity of Most Sacred Heart of Jesus    Reading 1 Hos 11:1, 3-4, 8c-9 Thus says the LORD:When Israel was a child I loved him,out of Egypt I called my son.Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk,who took them in my arms;I drew them with human cords,with bands of love;I fostered them like onewho raises an infant to his cheeks;Yet, though I stooped to feed my child,they did not know that I was their healer. My heart is overwhelmed,my pity is stirred.I will not give vent to my blazing anger,I will not destroy Ephraim again;For...

June 11, 2015Memorial of Saint Barnabas, Apostle    Reading 1 Acts 11:21b-26; 13:1-3 In those days a great number who believed turned to the Lord.The news about them reached the ears of the Church in Jerusalem,and they sent Barnabas to go to Antioch.When he arrived and saw the grace of God,he rejoiced and encouraged them allto remain faithful to the Lord in firmness of heart,for he was a good man, filled with the Holy Spirit and faith.And a large number of people was added to the Lord.Then he went to Tarsus to look for Saul,and when he had found...

Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.(Psalm 2:1-6) The US Supreme court has recently given a ruling, (Zivotovsky...

June 10, 2015Wednesday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time    Reading 1 2 Cor 3:4-11 Brothers and sisters:Such confidence we have through Christ toward God.Not that of ourselves we are qualified to take creditfor anything as coming from us;rather, our qualification comes from God,who has indeed qualified us as ministers of a new covenant,not of letter but of spirit;for the letter brings death, but the Spirit gives life. Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, was so gloriousthat the children of Israel could not look intently at the face of Mosesbecause of its glory...

Young people won’t necessarily find faith in formal church services says the NHS's former Chief Nurse Dame Sarah Mullally as she is named as Bishop of Crediton Declining numbers at services should not necessarily be a cause of despair for churches because people will still “encounter God” without ever taking their place in a pew, the Church of England’s newest bishop designate has insisted. Dame Sarah Mullally, the former NHS Chief Nurse for England who has been named as the next Bishop of Crediton, said clerics must recognise that young people are as likely to hear the Christian message through...

The doctrine of soteriology is a major concept and a major theme in the Bible.  The terms related to salvation are prevalent in the OT and NT.  In the OT, the Hebrew verb yasa and its derivatives appear about 353 times in the OT.  In the Niphal it bears the meaning “to be saved” or “be delivered” and in the Hiphil it means to “deliver,” “give victory,” or “save.”  The noun form of yasa is yesuah (64 times), yesa (31 times), and tesuah (19 times), which means, “help,” “deliverance,” and “salvation.”  When looking at the OT, the above verb yasa...

June 9, 2015Tuesday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time    Reading 1 2 Cor 1:18-22 Brothers and sisters:As God is faithful, our word to you is not “yes” and “no.”For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was proclaimed to you by us,Silvanus and Timothy and me,was not “yes” and “no,” but “yes” has been in him.For however many are the promises of God, their Yes is in him;therefore, the Amen from us also goes through him to God for glory.But the one who gives us security with you in Christand who anointed us is God;he has also...

Before I give details concerning justification, I would like to tell you what justification is.  Justification is a forensic event in which God declares the once-hell bound believing sinner as righteous because of the grounds of imputed righteousness of Christ.  This imputed righteousness is also not understood properly if one does not take into account the active obedience of Christ’s full obedience to “all” that God the Father willed for Him to fulfill in this earth.  Justification is not based upon our works or righteousness; and not even our faith.  Faith is only the means or the instrument that allows...

June 8, 2015Monday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time    Reading 1 2 Cor1:1-7 Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,and Timothy our brother,to the Church of God that is at Corinth,with all the holy ones throughout Achaia:grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,the Father of compassion and the God of all encouragement,who encourages us in our every affliction,so that we may be able to encouragethose who are in any afflictionwith the encouragement with which we...

VATICAN CITY — Following in the footsteps of his predecessors, Pope Francis this year again observed the liturgical feast of Corpus Christi, leading what has become the traditional candlelight Eucharistic procession through the streets of Rome. The route begins at the basilica of St. John Lateran and ends at the basilica of St. Mary Major, just over a mile away.     Although numerous bishops’ conferences have transferred the feast to this Sunday to accommodate the faithful, the Vatican liturgical calendar has stayed true to tradition, marking the Solemnity on the Thursday after Holy Trinity Sunday.   A wave...

Pope Francis elevates the Eucharist during Mass outside the Basilica of St. John Lateran in observance of the feast of Corpus Christi in Rome June 4. (CNS photo/Paul Haring) Readings: • Ex 24:3-8 • Psa 116:12-13, 15-16, 17-18 • Heb 9:11-15 • Mk 14:12-16, 22-26 I’ve written several times about the centrality of the Eucharist in the decision made by my wife and I when we decided to become Catholic. Our recognition, by God’s grace, of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament was not sudden; I would be hard pressed to think of an...

June 7, 2015The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi)   Reading 1 Ex 24:3-8 When Moses came to the peopleand related all the words and ordinances of the LORD,they all answered with one voice,"We will do everything that the LORD has told us."Moses then wrote down all the words of the LORD and,rising early the next day,he erected at the foot of the mountain an altarand twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel.Then, having sent certain young men of the Israelitesto offer holocausts and sacrifice young bullsas peace offerings to the LORD,Moses took...

He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.(Matthew 12:30)I am led to share a couple of “Spiritual War” stories, which have powerful lessons for the ones who have ears to hear…. First of all I will tell a sad story of young woman who came to one of our services, at Believers in Grace Fellowship, the church I pastor in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It was Palm Sunday. The Church was full of the lovely spiritual aroma of true worship. The sermon was an exposition of Psalm 118, in view of...

June 6, 2015Saturday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time    Reading 1 Tb 12:1, 5-15, 20 Tobit called his son Tobiah and said to him,“Son, see to it that you give what is due to the manwho made the journey with you; give him a bonus too.”So he called Raphael and said,“Take as your wages half of all that you have brought back,and go in peace.” Raphael called the two men aside privately and said to them:“Thank God! Give him the praise and the glory.Before all the living,acknowledge the many good things he has done for you,by blessing...

Bruce Jenner is an object lesson for my generation, a living parable of a failed philosophy of freedom, and the miserable and deformed end of it. Who of my age doesn’t remember the powerful images of the Olympian Jenner as a kind of symbol of virility, accomplishment, potential and achievement. In that smiling, confident, all-American face grinning from the Wheaties Cereal box, a generation demoralized by the Carter Malaise, and by the failure of our politicians to uphold the victory in Viet Nam, and the seeming collapse of our culture into moral anarchy, we were encouraged that there was still...

June 5, 2015Memorial of Saint Boniface, Bishop and Martyr    Reading 1 Tb 11:5-17 Anna sat watching the road by which her son was to come.When she saw him coming, she exclaimed to his father,“Tobit, your son is coming, and the man who traveled with him!” Raphael said to Tobiah before he reached his father:“I am certain that his eyes will be opened.Smear the fish gall on them.This medicine will make the cataracts shrink and peel off from his eyes;then your father will again be able to see the light of day.” Then Anna ran up to her son,...