Catholicity - Apologetics For Our Time

     Today, June 6, the Church Celebrates the memorial of  St. Barnabas, Apostle and teaches The Gospel of Reconciliation Readings of the Day First Reading: Acts 11:21-26; 13:1-3 “The hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned to the Lord. The news reached the ears of the Church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he arrived and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and exhorted everyone to remain faithful to the Lord with a firm heart, because he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great multitude was added to the Lord.” (Acts 11:21-24) "Barnabas set out for Tarsus in search of Saul, and when he found him, he took him to Antioch. They met with the Church for a whole year and taught many people. It was in Antioch that, for the first time, the disciples received the name of Christians.” (Acts 11:25-26) “While they were celebrating the worship of the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Separ...

The Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi), June 7, 2026 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.      Today the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ — Corpus Christi .      In the readings today, we hear how God fed His people in the desert. Through Moses, the Lord reminded Israel: “ Remember the journey the Lord your God led you on for forty years in the desert… He fed you with manna, a food unknown to you and your ancestors, to teach you that not by bread alone does one live, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”      God sustained His people physically and spiritually. In the desert, He gave them manna. But that manna was only a preparation for something greater.      In the Gospel of Saint John, Jesus Himself declares  clearly what Corpus Cristi is all about. He does not say this in symbolic terms; He isn't vague. ...

  "While they were eating, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, gave it to them, and said, 'Take it; this is my body.' Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, and they all drank from it. He said to them, 'This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed for many.'" The Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ is observed on the Thursday following on the Solemnity of the Most Blessed Trinity. Where the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ is not observed as a Holy Day of obligation on Thursday, it is assigned to the Sunday after Trinity Sunday, which is then considered its proper day in the calendar. The Mass includes an option of singing or reciting the Sequence Laud, O Zion or Lauda Sion before the Alleluia. This sequence is optional. There are only two other feasts (Easter and Pentecost) with Sequences. This feast is both a doctrinal and cultic response to heretical teaching on the mystery of the real presence of Christ in t...

  FROM COVENANT THEOLOGY TO LITERALISM: HOW A CHANGE IN INTERPRETATION RESHAPED CHRISTIANITY INTRODUCTION Intro One of the most overlooked questions in Christian theology is not what Christians believe, but how they read Scripture. The earliest Christians inherited from Judaism a covenantal worldview. They understood God’s actions throughout history as a unified plan unfolding through covenants, priesthood, sacrifice, temple worship, sacred authority, and typological fulfillment. The Old Testament was not viewed as a collection of disconnected texts but as a covenant story culminating in Jesus Christ. For the first centuries of Christianity, Scripture was interpreted within this covenantal framework. The Church Fathers did not merely ask what a verse meant in isolation. They asked how each text fit within God’s covenantal plan and how Christ fulfilled what came before Him. The Protestant Reformation introduced many important theological debates, but one of its most significant effe...

  Proclaim the Word in Season and Out of Season Patience, Humility, and Faithfulness in the Christian Mission “Proclaim the word; be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient; convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching.” — 2 Timothy 4:2     Dear brothers and sisters in Christ...      The readings of the day present a profound and challenging message for every Christian: perseverance in our mission and humility in our service.       In the second letter of Saint Paul to Timothy, Paul gives a passionate exhortation: “Proclaim the word. Be persistent in season and out of season. Convince, reprimand, and encourage with all patience and wisdom.”      Many evangelizers quote this passage when speaking about preaching the Gospel, emphasizing the call to correct, exhort, and teach. Yet, two essential words are often forgotten: patience and wisdom .      Too often, we become impatient. We ...

    Dear brothers and sisters in Christ....      Many anti-Catholics loudly claim that the Church does not use or teach the Bible. Some go further and say, “The Church teaches things that aren’t in the Bible!”      On the first point, they misunderstand what the Church actually does. That is not surprising; many simply repeat what they have heard about Catholicism from critics of the Church. As Scott Hahn observed, "...many have learned what they think they know second or third hand from the Church’s opponents...."      On the second point, they are partly right. The Church may teach things drawn from Scripture and its deeper meaning that are not always explicitly spelled out in biblical text.      The deeper issue is that many assume the Bible belongs to them alone and that “biblical authority” means Scripture stands by itself as the sole authority. Yet the Bible does not claim this for itself. Christ did not hand Hi...