Catholicity

  What is Ordinary Time?      I am sometimes asked by people what I mean when I refer to, "ordinary time" as the Catholic Church reckons it. Occasionally, these questions even come from Catholics! While it is pretty straightforward, it can maybe be a little confusing for some folks.      I found this today, and I thought it may go a long way to help explain it.       The Church Relies on Liturgy To grasp the meaning of, "ordinary time," there is a fundamental backbone to the Church that must be first understood. This foundation is known as the, "liturgy." This is not unique to the Catholic Church - all churches have their own liturgies i nsome form. So, here's what that means: liturgy  /lĭt′ər-jē/ noun 1. A prescribed form or set of forms for public religious worship. 2. In the Roman Catholic Church, it includes all forms and services in any language, in any part of the world, for the celebration of the Mass. Excerpt...

  St. John Bosco      John Bosco was born near Castelnuovo ,in the archdiocese of Turin, Italy, in 1815. His father died when John was only two years old and it was his mother, Margaret, who provided him with a good humanistic and Christian education.      His early years were financially difficult, but at the age of twenty he entered the major seminary, thanks to the financial help received from Louis Guala, founder and rector of the ecclesiastical residence, St. Francis of Assisi, in Turin.      John Bosco was ordained a priest on June 5, 1846, and with the help of John Borel, he founded the oratory of St. Francis de Sales. APOSTOLATE FOCUS At this time, the city of Turin was on the threshold of the two greatest influences in modern, European history: the Industrial Revolution and the rise of Socialism.      As a result of the former there were many challenges and problems, especially for young men. T he city reflecte...

  I saw a meme today , one that intoned us to call The Apostle Paul by the name given to him at his circumcision, which was, "Saul."           The point of the post was that we should adopt the modernistic trend of using "preferred names" for Bible figures, as people today do in their chosen, "lifestyles."      By that I mean, we are expected in our time to apply, "pronoun names," "sex-change names," and whatever names people apply to themselves based on how they choose to identify... so, we should follow suit and similarly use the birth names of figures in Scripture.      Why? Because, well, they would probably prefer that, and... the people making the memes think we should do that because they say so.      So lets have some Backstory Time, shall we?      At his circumcision in the Temple, Paul WAS named, 'Saul'. This was for two reasons:      1. It was the custo...

“WHY CHESTERTON MATTERS” Excerpted from a lecture by Professor Dale Ahlquist G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936) was a prolific British novelist, satirist, poet, essayist, and speaker, and he was a devoted Catholic.... and a Catholic like you've probably never imagined. Chesterton took in the world with childlike expansiveness, but also with honesty, creativity, and penetrating intellect. His sprawling coherence and monumental capacity for wonder embodied the spirit of the heart that so matters in the Catholic world. According to Chesterton, “thinking means connecting things.” And though this might sound obvious, too often society only gives it lip service. Instead, our culture operates on the assumption that education, especially higher education, requires a hyper-specialized form of 'knowing,' versus thinking and connecting. Chesterton put the lie to that logic. He was educated, yes. But his interests and intellect ranged across politics, economics, literature, philosophy, and...

26 January, 2024 It has been  suggested that Catholics, such as myself, don't read the Bible. That's ridiculous, of course, a mistaken notion grown up over the years since the Reformation.      However, there is a small ring of truth to it, because what we normally don't do is engage in the modern version of, “Bible study.”  In this activity, one normally cherry-picks snippets of verse from Scripture, and then makes arguments to support our self-interpretation of these fragments.      We Catholics don't do that much, however, because it is considered a perilous method, fraught with the possibility of error, and Scripture itself does not endorse such individualized perusal.        Therefore,  we tend to view the entire context of Scriptural passages to glean meaning and full understanding. Along with this approach, we use scholarly reinforcement and commentary, often from ancient, well-studied resources much closer to the ...