Catholicity

  Something I read recently struck a chord with me. It was an article by Thomas V. Mirus, the podcast  administrator  at catholicculture.com.... And I'm going to borrow heavily from it here, so all credit is due Mr. Mirus ===== ✠ =====      In the particular piece mentioned above, titled, " When 'Staying Informed' Becomes Illusion,"  Thomas describes a phenomenon he experiences when his work requires the need for using social media.      What he has discovered is how it feeds what he calls his, “addictive side.”      Now, it's not all social media that attracts him in this way. In fact, he says he can take or leave most of the sites. But when it comes to Twitter - he's hooked. Whatever it is, there's something about the, “constant text-flow of (mostly bad) opinions on Twitter” that captures his attention, and he can end up wasting a lot of time there. I'm sure some of you can relate.     True confession:...

     Today, we discuss an interesting phenomenon in Christianity: the mistaken notion,  outside the Catholic Church,  that the ONLY way to understand God and Jesus Christ is the Bible.      This idea arose out of the Protestant Reformation, and really gained steam  in the late 19th and 20th Centuries, especially among the two Christian groups we often refer to as, "fundamentalist," and "independent." Today, it has become the generally accepted, "modus operandi" among nearly all non-Catholic groups.     But to be frank about it ,  this is fraught with error, and only proves that these, "Bible-only" folks  don't really understand the Bible. They read it, but they know little of its background and they tend to select fragments from the Bible which  they want to hear   - and discard what they don't like. This practice is called, "cherry picking," of verses.      Along with this error another idea has d...

  Ascension   by an unknown artist, 1490–1500 [Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest]. This is the outer panel of an altarpiece from a Franciscan church in Gyöngyös, Hungary.      T he Feast of the Ascension should, by all rights, get equal billing with Easter.       The Ascension is one of the five major milestones in the gospel narrative of the life of Jesus, the others being Baptism, Transfiguration, Crucifixion, and Resurrection.     It is  the penultimate act in Christs ministry, and t he Ascension implies Jesus' humanity being taken into Heaven as the main goal, and it points directly to our own hope for salvation.      The feast itself dates back at least to the later 4th century, but, more importantly, it figured  in our founding faith doctrine. After all, in both the Apostle's and Nicene creeds, we say: “On the third day, he arose from the dead.  He ascended into heaven.”     ...

I was given permission to borrow from todays homily at mass, delivered by one of our visiting deacons, "Mark." We will call him that only, because... a. I don't know his last name b. He asked, humbly, that he be given no credit ---------- ✠ ----------      Today marks a very important Sunday in the United States, because it is both the day we remember the Ascension of Jesus into Heaven... and the secular observation of Mother's Day. Why The Ascension?      Jesus' Ascension is crucial in our journey as Christians. We invoke its call each time we say the Apostles or Nicene creeds...that is how pivotal it is to us.      Indeed, it marks the final act of Christs earthly ministry, and it points to our own hope of salvation – the day our own souls are taken home to heaven to be with God and Jesus.      Really, we must remind ourselves, often daily, that our home is not here.      This is not where we are destin...