A Treasure To Be Shared

[6 minute read] A recent incident involving a Florida Catholic priest and a bully would-be communicant has set forth a reminder that adequate formation in the Faith is a never ending necessity. https://www.ncregister.com/cna/florida-priest-charged-for-biting-arm-of-woman-he-says-was-desecrating-eucharist Communion on the tongue emphasizes docility and therefore reception. In order to receive (the Body of Christ), one renders oneself vulnerable, receptive. Kneeling in adoration is an appropriate accompanying posture for the creature encountering his Creator. In the Eucharist, as at His incarnation, birth and crucifixion, Jesus makes Himself vulnerable and allows Himself, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, to be subject to humans, those (with the exception of His Immaculate Mother who was spared from Original Sin by a singular act of God) Jesus came to rescue from sin and death. Should we not acknowledge the sublime reality of Jesus' humility by adopting the approach of Jesus ...

The few, the faithful. In no particular order. https://www.catholicregister.org/  Founded in 1893 https://canadiancatholicnews.ca/  Canadian Catholic News (CCN) is a coast-to-coast co-operative news service serving Catholic media across Canada. https://cchahistory.ca/ | The CCHA’s mandate is to: promote the presentation and understanding of historical sites and buildings, documents, and significant heirlooms of the past; print and distribute its own publications: Historical Studies, and other works about Canadian Catholic History, as the occasion warrants or circumstances permit. https://ccrl.ca/  The Catholic Civil Rights League https://fatherdesouza.com/  Internationally acclaimed journalist. https://loc.ignatius.com/michael-obrien-novels/  Michael D. O’Brien is the author of several books, including his nine-volume series of novels published by Ignatius Press, notably the best-selling Father Elijah. For more than thirty years he has been a professional artis...

Napa Institute Procession, Oct. 10, 2023 | Zach Fiedler According to Catholic Church teachings, virtue is defined as: A stable disposition of the intellect and will that governs our actions, orders our passions, and guides our conduct in accordance with reason and faith. [1,2] Virtues are habitual and firm dispositions to do good. [3] They are not just random good deeds, but a deep-rooted goodness that becomes an integral part of a person's character. [3] Virtues enable us to freely choose the right course of action and have a tendency towards what is good. [3] There are human virtues, such as the four cardinal virtues of prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. [1] These virtues order our lives in society. [6] There are also theological virtues, which raise us to a divine life, such as faith, hope, and charity. [5] The goal of virtuous living is to become like God - to grow in holiness and moral perfection. [5] Virtues are not just acquired through human effort, but also by t...

An excerpt from an article that recently appeared in the inbox. The excerpt from Dom Alcuin's 2014 presentation affirms the fundamental orientation needed for an effective and authentic renewal in the Church. We are blessed in the Ordinariates, established by the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus, to be able to honour with enthusiasm and dedication the renewal sought by the Fathers of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council. In Divine Worship, the Mass of the Ordinariate, we are blessed with an abundance of riches, of poetry - signs or gestures and spoken prayers, music - that corroborate the sage perspective expressed in the following excerpt. - - - Elements of the New Liturgical Movement Dom Alcuin Reid St Mary’s Norwalk, CT & Holy Innocents’, New York June 2014 [Highlights and comments added by blog editor] Let us begin with Cardinal Ratzinger’s 1997 assertion that: The Church stands and falls with the Liturgy. When the adoration of the divine Trinity declines, whe...

LtoR: Sword of Saint Michael, the Blessed Sacrament, Relic of the True Cross Above | A procession of priests carrying the sword from the statue in the famous shrine of Saint Michael in Gargano, along with the Blessed Sacrament and a relic of the Holy Cross (a gift brought by a Crusader in 1228). We belong to the Church militant ; and she is militant because on earth the powers of darkness are ever restless to encompass her destruction. Not only in the far-off centuries of the early Church, but down through the ages and in this our day, the enemies of God and Christian civilization make bold to attack the Creator’s supreme dominion and sacrosanct human rights. No rank of the clergy is spared ; and the faithful—their number is legion—inspired by the valiant endurance of their shepherds and fathers in Christ, stand firm, ready to suffer and die, as the martyrs of old, for the one true Faith taught by Jesus Christ. Into that militia you seek to be admitted as leaders. | Pope Pius XII Agai...

Necessary Questions & Common Sense Responses In a free society governed by the rule of law: Is it wrong to question and reject a nation's (military) actions? No, it is not wrong to judge and to publicly condemn the actions of any nation or government provided the challenge to said actions is conducted in a peaceful and respectful manner. Constructive criticism is essential to the workings of the state. The actions of any government may be questioned and rejected if those actions are found to be unjust by a reasonable moral standard. See:  https://catholicism.org/catholic-teaching-just-war.html No one behaving in a rational and orderly way may be restrained or indicted for engaging in a peaceful and respectful protest. No law-abiding protestor should be compelled to abandon a cause if it be a reasonable and objectively just cause. Given a natural right to promote justice, no government may impede the right of citizens to associate in the exercise of said right. Any inconven...

The Holy Father Pope Francis desperately needs our prayers. Minds greater than this blogger's have weighed in and have concluded that like earlier documents of this pontificate,  Dignitas Infinita  shows signs of a familiar flaw, namely imprecision. https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2024/05/04/diane-montagna-interviews-edward-feser-on-dignitas-infinita/ The dignity of the human person, a finite creature made in the image and likeness of God, is not to be confused with the dignity that God alone possesses to an infinite degree. We share in that divine dignity by the grace of God. God shares His very life with us so that we may become like Him. God does not act beneath His sublime and eternal dignity. We humans can, indeed, act against our dignity. Some may imagine that by entering into the human condition God surrendered His dignity, and therefore that Being we call God could not be Almighty God. That conclusion would be an untenable and misleading assumption. A muslim and a her...