Catholicity - Apologetics For Our Time

  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...

  Friday of the Third Week of Easter. John 6:52-59 Jesus - The Bread of Life      The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying,  "How can this man give us his Flesh to eat?" Jesus said to them,  "Amen, amen, I say to you,  unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood,  you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood  has eternal life,  and I will raise him on the last day. For my Flesh is true food,  and my Blood is true drink. Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood  remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me  and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven.  Unlike your ancestors who ate (manna) and still died,  whoever eats this bread will live forever." These things he said while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum. =================== ✠ ========...

     Occasionally we hear variations on this theme: “I had a run-in (got mad, had a disagreement, didn't like the response, etc.) with a priest in Confession in 1982, and I haven’t seen the inside of a church since then.”           We might wonder: 1) Maybe the priest didn’t have his morning coffee and was grouchy. 2) Maybe the priest had the flu and couldn’t concentrate. 3) Maybe the priest’s mother died, and he was preoccupied. 4) Maybe the priest is just an insufferable jerk.     Then we come to our senses...      “Okay, well...look at the bright side. You received absolution, right? Oh you didn't? So tell me, what sin did you commit, and why did you try to argue/justify it?”      Confessions, after all, should be sincere. What About Jesus?     In a similar situation, w hat could a penitent expect from Jesus and, allowing for human failure, from His priestly instrument and mouthpiece i...

  The Only True Church 1. "You always come back to the claim that yours is the one and only Church"      Not the one and only Church....there are hundreds of churches.      Rather that the Catholic Church claims to be the only true Church. 2. "How can your Church be the only true Church, when Christ Himself was a non-Catholic?"      As the Founder of the Catholic Church He could not possibly be a non-Catholic.      You will admit, surely, that Christ established a Church.      We have it recorded that He definitely said: "I will build my Church." Matt. 26:18.      He so identified Himself with that Church that when St. Paul was persecuting that Church  before his conversion,   Christ appeared to him 3 years AFTER His Assumption, directly, and said: "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?" Acts 9:4; 22:7; 26:14.      Now comes the question:     Q. " Which of th...