A Treasure To Be Shared

The following sites are selected from among numerous edifying internet resources that are accessible, faithful to Catholic teaching, fair-minded, up-to-date, and well-organized. Big Pulpit: intelligent news aggregator that presents links to current events and solid Catholic teaching. Consider supporting the work of Little Vatican/Big Pulpit. https://bigpulpit.com/ The Catholic Thing: features brief but highly informative and well-written essays by eminent authors. https://www.thecatholicthing.org/ Brian Holdsworth: Edmonton based marketing and communications expert and apologist who publishes well-informed videos on current issues that are solidly Catholic and highly engaging. https://www.brianholdsworth.ca/ Father Benedict Kiely | Gospel Nuggets offers excellent short videos featuring a knowledgeable Catholic priest’s take on biblical texts, pressing current issues, the saints, and key spiritual topics essential for living the Catholic Faith. https://www.nasarean.org/news?tag_id=17 Fr...

Just for Kicks When fortune's hand doth turn so cruelly as to bid us remember. Lamentation This we know: hard working Canadian men and women cannot afford housing. In a country blessed with abundance, with vast mineral resources, oil sands, fertile prairies and recovering fisheries, why is it that food and fuel costs are skyrocketing? Young people, having been subjected to one social experiment after another, are melting down in dangerous ways - the horrific Tumbler Ridge shooting should be a sobering reminder of the increasing disintegration and deepening despair. And even a cursory review of local news sites reveals an astonishing level of foreign interference in the national and regional economies, yet deals continue to be signed that give additional access to bad actors . Globalist-socialist-anything-but-noblest? Prime Minister Mark Carney, weekly Mass-goer, successful international banker, inherited the quagmire manufactured by Justin the Apostate. Sadly, it appears that PM Ca...

The New Israel In Catholic theology, “the New Israel” primarily means the Church—the people of the new covenant established by Jesus Christ—understood in continuity with God’s covenant with Israel. The New Covenant The Church is “New Israel” because the new covenant promised by God is fulfilled in Christ: Israel’s election is not erased, but the covenant reaches its definitive form in Jesus. The Pontifical Biblical Commission explains that: “(t)he New Testament takes for granted that the election of Israel… is irrevocable… [and] God has also offered to Israel a ‘new covenant’… established through the blood of Jesus.” It then states that the Church is composed of those who accept this new covenant and of others who “have joined them,” while insisting “(f)ar from being a substitution for Israel, [the Church] is in solidarity with it.” So, “New Israel” does not mean Israel is replaced; it means the covenant people reach their fulfillment in Christ, and the Church participates in that stor...

And this is love, that we follow his commandments; this is the commandment, as you have heard from the beginning, that you follow love. For many deceivers have gone out into the world, men who will not acknowledge the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh; such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist.  | 1 John 5:3-5 Advent is a time to pause and refocus our hearts on God. It’s a season to seek His grace and stay aware of the promise of Jesus Christ’s return. Advent is an opportunity to reflect on our spiritual lives, looking to the example of the saints and Christ Himself, so we can welcome Him with a pure heart, mind, body, and soul. But first - Christ the King! Who is Jesus? What is Jesus' identity? He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. He is 'I am', God. He is the Good Shepherd. He is the Bread of Life. He is... the King of the Universe! He wants us to share in his identity. Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” St Matthew 16:16 For th...

Guilds — from an article at   New Advent Guilds were voluntary associations for religious, social, and commercial purposes. These associations, which attained their highest development among the Teutonic nations, especially the English, during the Middle Ages, were of four kinds: religious guilds; frith guilds ; merchant guilds; and craft guilds. The word itself, less commonly, but more correctly, written  gild , was derived from the Anglo-Saxon  gildan  meaning "to pay", whence came the noun  gegilda , "the subscribing member of a guild". In its origin the word guild is found in the sense of "idol" and also of "sacrifice", which has led some writers to connect the origin of the guilds with the sacrificial assemblies and banquets of the heathen Germanic tribes. Brentano, the first to investigate the question thoroughly, associating these facts with the importance of family relationship among Teutonic nations, considers that the guild in its earli...

Dear Readers, in the wake of the much desired announcement of Saint John Henry being declared a Doctor of the Church, the 38th Doctor, that is, it is important to hear the saintly Newman in his own words. Various voices are already attempting to claim Newman as their own, to further a liberal agenda, or to condemn Newman as the progenitor of what is, to some minds, the accursed Second Vatican Council, as if his great mind's contribution of the development of doctrine is grounds for dismissing a council that many (most?...) have yet to properly digest and distinguish from the "media council" criticized by Pope Benedict XVI. This ongoing debate underscores the complexity of Newman's theological contributions and the ways in which they intersect with contemporary issues in the Church. As scholars continue to explore his works, it becomes increasingly clear that his insights might offer a path to reconcile differing viewpoints within the Church. This blogger, along with m...

Joseph Rudyard Kipling 1865 - 1936 Language has been appropriated by the enemies of reason and civilization for nefarious and deadly purposes. As a weapon, relativism has been quite successful at wasting words in a way that has enabled innumerable distortions of reality to take hold of conversations to the serious detriment of human conversations, understanding, well-being, and community. Desperation brought on by language robbing and emptiness leads people to try to forge identities through social and political manipulation, which splits societies and results in many causalities. The negative consequences of language loss have long been felt by indigenous peoples. A group that loses its language weakens and loses its identity, making it more susceptible to manipulation. The Church will continue to fracture until Catholics recover the language, the poetry, of our patrimony. The Liturgical Dialect of the Ordinariate Familiarity with the Our Father or Lord's Prayer can guide the in...

Shylock | The Merchant of Venice If we do take Pope Francis at his word, then 'tis of little moment to squander time in disputation regarding the past. What hath transpired is irrevocable. His Holiness's pronouncements, beseeching that a tumult (i.e., a mess) be wrought, are well-acknowledged. Thus, the disorder (i.e., the mess) doth linger even after its creator hath departed this realm. This disarray hath been entrusted to others for resolution. Let us now attend to his penance. Let us change the bedclothes and launder the garments, set aright the chairs of the kitchen, cleanse the dishes, and restore order to the household. What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful. It behooves all of us to preserve the riches which have developed in the Church’s faith and prayer, and to give them their proper place. |  Benedict XVI, Letter of Accompaniment to the MP Summorum Po...

We Ordinariate Catholics are a small and determined community within the Church. The Personal Ordinariates, of which there are three at present, are like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade. St. Mark 4: 31-32 Those who share in the blessings of the Ordinariate tend to be confident Catholics because the identity that we share has its source and summit in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which we call Divine Worship, the source and summit of the Christian life. The primary mission of the Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter is evangelization. Through the reverence and beauty of our worship, study of sacred Scripture and charity for those in need, we desire to share the joy of being Roman Catholic! Our mission is particularly experienced in our (reverent ad orientem ) celebra...