A Treasure To Be Shared

The minute you walk outside of your church on Sunday you’re in mission territory. | Bishop Robert Barron There is a lot of complaining about social and political upheaval. Many Western societies are tipping sideways due to poorly thought out and poorly managed governmental social policies. Peoples from very different cultures are inflecting their new homelands, and responses range from indifference to confrontations of one kind or another. I am not capable of doing big things, but I want to do everything, even the smallest things, for the greater glory of God.  | Saint Dominic Savio May it be suggested that there is an opportunity to evangelize newcomers and invite them to embrace the Christian Faith? Though social circumstances could be seen as a challenge or threat, the creative mind can see beyond obstacles to create opportunities to welcome people, foster civility, and to work for the common good by sharing what Christianity has always offered: faith and reason, authentic hospi...

Faith and hope are means by which we express our love: we believe God's word, because we love it; we hope after heaven, because we love it. We should not have any hope or concern about it, unless we loved it; we should not trust or confide in the God of heaven, unless we loved Him. Faith, then, and hope are but instruments or expressions of love; but as to love itself, we do not love because we believe, for the devils believe, yet do not love; nor do we love because we hope, for hypocrites hope, who do not love. But we love for no cause beyond itself: we love, because it is our nature to love; and it is our nature, because God the Holy Ghost has made it our nature. Love is the immediate fruit and the evidence of regeneration. | Excerpt from Sermon 21. Faith and Love , Saint John Henry Newman. https://www.newmanreader.org/works/parochial/volume4/sermon21.html   Faith is not just a matter of logic or intellectual assent, but is rooted in a deep, personal love for God and His teaching...

2 Peter 1:3-4 |  His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, that through these you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of passion, and become partakers of the divine nature. Deification, also known as theosis or divinization, is the process of becoming united with God, sharing in His divine life, and experiencing His eternal happiness. This concept is deeply intertwined with the doctrine of the Trinity, as it is through the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that humanity is called to share in God's own life. The Scandal of the Incarnation: Irenaeus Against the Heresies, Selected and Introduced by Hans Urs von Balthasar, trans. John Saward  (1981), pp 54 & 55. | There was no other way for us to receive incorruptibility and immortality than to be united to incorruptibility an...

This year marks the Council of Nicaea's 1700th anniversary (A.D. 325). Numerous micro-articles promoting revisionist histories have surfaced on X and other platforms, and they require correction. Certain voices are promoting revisionist histories for reasons that appear to be motivated by ill will. Fortunately, Mark Bonocore has conducted extensive research on the subject of authority in the ancient Church, offering a crucial correction that cuts through the mist of factually incorrect narratives. H/T Mark Bonocore for his article Does the Orthodox Church predate the Catholic Church? https://www.catholicbridge.com/orthodox/does-the-orthodox-church-predate-the-catholic-church.php Excerpt (T)he patriarchal authority of Jerusalem is an invention of the Council of Chalcedon. It did not exist before A.D. 451. The same is true of the so-called patriarchal authority of Constantinople. Despite medieval, state-sponsored legends (which have no basis in fact or ancient history), Byzantium had...

During the process of following up on an article at CNA concerning the petition calling for the removal of Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, this blogger happened to land at a parish attended by one of the signers. The homepage of the Parish of St. Lambertus in Mettmann has the following text header: In unserer Gemeinde ist jede und jeder herzlich willkommen, egal woher er/sie kommt, was er/sie fühlt und wie und wen er/sie liebt. Jede/r wird in dieser Haltung wertgeschätzt und angenommen. Gottes Liebe macht vor Niemandem Halt. Everyone is warmly welcome in our congregation, regardless of where he/she comes from, what he/she feels, or how and whom he/she loves. Everyone is valued and accepted in this spirit. God's Love Stops for No One. It would seem the designer of the introduction felt the need to shout the last phrase. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/264571/petition-to-pope-leo-xiv-to-remove-german-cardinal-gains-over-60k-signatures So, curious to determine the exact ideologi...

2017 post by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf o{]:¬) [ RCM LINK ] formatted by Gilbert 2025 A brilliant composition by Father Zuhlsdorf as we approach the august mystery of the Holy Trinity held in the Ordinariate as Trinitytide (Ordinary Time) following Whitsuntide (the season of Pentecost). + + + In the mystery of the Unity and Trinity of God we believe that, from all eternity and before material creation and even outside of time itself, the One God who desired a perfect communion of love expressed Himself in a perfect Word, containing all that He is.  The Word God uttered was and is a perfect self-expression, also perfectly possessing what the Speaker possesses: being, omniscience, omnipotence, truth, beauty, and even personhood. So, from all eternity there were always two divine Persons, the God who spoke and the Word who was spoken, the God who Generates and the God who is Generated, true God with and from true God, Begetter and Begotten, Father and Son. There was never a time when this was...