Catholicity - Apologetics For Our Time

Part 1: Scripture Readings In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. A reading from the first Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians 1 Corinthians 9:16–19, 22b–27 Brothers and sisters: If I preach the gospel, this is no reason for me to boast, for an obligation has been imposed on me, and woe to me if I do not preach it! If I do so willingly, I have a recompense, but if unwillingly, then I have been entrusted with a stewardship. What then is my recompense? That, when I preach, I offer the gospel free of charge so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel. Although I am free in relation to all, I have made myself a slave to all so as to win over as many as possible. To the weak I became weak, to win over the weak. I have become all things to all, to save at least some. All this I do for the sake of the gospel, so that I too may have a share in it. Do you not know that the runners in the stadium all run in the race, but only one wins the prize? Run...

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ....      Recently I saw a meme in an online, anti-Catholic group that tried to say the Sign of the Cross for which Catholics are noted is secretly an upside down cross invoking the devil.      Now, it doesn't take much common sense to see thought such blatant propaganda. Indeed, I will call it plain ignorance of the truth. But those who loathe the Church to that intense degree, they have convinced themselves that Catholics worship the devil.        In response, some Latin Rite Catholics leap to respond that it is a St. Peters cross, aka, a Petrine cross. According to unverified historical accounts, St. Peter was crucified on an inverted cross, because he claimed he was unworthy to share the same cross as Christ. So these Catholics have adopted the idea that the sign of the cross duplicates a Petrine cross.      But the sign of the cross is not modeled...

  In the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. From the Book of the Prophet Isaiah: Thus says the Lord to Shebna, master of the palace: "I will thrust you from your office and pull you down from your station. On that day I will call my servant Eliakim, son of Hilkiah. I will clothe him with your robe, gird him with your sash, and transfer your authority to him. He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. I will place the key of the House of David on his shoulder; what he opens, no one shall shut, and what he shuts, no one shall open. I will fix him as a peg in a firm place, and he will be a throne of glory for his father's house." The Word of the Lord. R/ "Thanks be to God" From the Letter of Saint Paul to the Romans: Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are his judgments and how unsearchable his ways! "For who has known the mind of the Lord or who h...

MYTH #2: The Protestant Work Ethic Ignited Global Capitalism THE PROPAGANDA PITCH: Protestant “work ethics” developed before unseen thrift, diligence, and entrepreneurship, and established modern capitalist economics. Without Protestantism, man would have quickly reverted to the stone ages. +++      The claims that Protestants were responsible for birthing capitalism and a never before seen work ethic are both categorically false. Centuries before the Reformation, the Catholic Church championed the dignity of labor, invented foundational legal and corporate frameworks, and drove an extensive medieval industrial revolution that powered Western economic progress. Capitalism: Not Protestant Or Catholic     Indeed, we can leave both The Church and Protestants OUT of any discussion of capitalism in this context. We  need only to look at the Bible to see the truth.      Of course, the Bible cannot explicitly mention modern capitalisti...