On True – and False – Loyalty Loyalty, Fidelity, Trust, and unswerving Devotion – these virtues are prized by almost every association, club, or group; by every business, church, or military organization; and by every society in every historical era. So highly regarded is loyalty that it is accompanied by a retinue of prepositions. Loyalty is said to be up, down, across, throughout, before, after, and during. The Bible, too, speaks regularly about the covenant between God and man, assuring us that God is always faithful (Dt 7:9, Lam 3:22, 2 Tim 2:13, etc.) and urging us to seek friends …
Author: Manuel Xavier
Three Bishops Set the Bar
Three Bishops Set the Bar: What’s Next? Three bishops in Kazakhstan have solemnly professed the Church’s received teaching and discipline regarding sacramental marriage and the limited conditions under which the “divorced and remarried” may receive Holy Communion. (Three more bishops and a cardinal have now joined them.) Presented “before God who will judge us,” their Profession is effectively an apostolic declaration that these are matters of faith and morals that no one, including other bishops, may reinterpret so as to approve sexual activity in “second unions” or to permit Holy Communion for those who continue such activity. This is a …
This is the Legion of Mary
Drawing its inspiration from the True Devotion to Mary, as taught by St. Louis Marie de Montfort, and which had a profound influence on the Founder of the Legion, the Servant of God, Frank Duff, the Legion is at the disposal of the Bishops and Priests for use in the mission of the Church. While essentially a lay association, legionaries look for spiritual and apostolic formation to priests and religious, who, as Legion Spiritual Directors, hold an honored place in the Legion system. The Legion requires ecclesiastical approval to work in a diocese or parish. Loyalty to the Magisterium and …
There is a Hell
The Sunday of Divine Mercy
The second Sunday of Easter is observed in the Church as Sunday of Divine Mercy. Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska 1905-1938 We owe the existence of this celebration on the octave day of Easter to the graced intervention of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, a young Polish religious born in 1905 who belonged to the Congregation of Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy. In Saint Faustina’s famous Diary appear fourteen revelations of the Lord regarding the desired feast. At the canonization of Saint Faustina on April 30, 2000, Pope (now Saint) John Paul II declared: “This Second Sunday of Easter…from now on …
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
The Church celebrates in May the solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. This mystery of mysteries — “the central mystery of Christian faith and life” (CCC 234) — is especially difficult to understand. We gain a way in by calling to mind a revelation of Saint John: God is love (1 Jn 4:8). The Church teaches that the Trinity is one of the divine mysteries that can never be known unless they are revealed by God. All the same, as the Catechism tells us, “God has left traces of his Trinitarian being in his work of creation” (237). One of …
The Seven Sacraments
The seven sacraments are efficacious (effectual) signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted tot he Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us. The visible rites by which the sacraments are celebrated signify and make present the graces proper to each sacrament. They bear fruit in those who receive them with the required dispositions. Baptism We are born into the new life in Christ through Baptism. The fruits of this sacrament are: Remission of Original sin. Birth into the new life by which man becomes an adoptive son of the Father, a member of Christ’s body, and participation …
The Religion of the Day
Blessed John Henry Newman was born on 21 February 1801, and died on 11 August 1890. Through his published writings and private correspondence he created a greater understanding of the Catholic Church and its teachings, helping many persons with their religious difficulties. At his death he was praised for his unworldliness, humility, and prayerful contact with the invisible world. Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman is the author of many books including, Parochial and Plain Sermons, Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent, Difficulties of Anglicans, The Idea of a University, Fifteen …
The Prince of Lies
Different Drum, Same Drummer Sacred Scripture documents the behavior problems of the Devil. He has trouble with the truth, has a wildly excessive opinion of himself, and is an expert at disguising his hatred for humanity. He tempted Adam and Eve with a half-truth. The newlyweds would indeed “know” good and evil by eating the forbidden fruit. They would henceforth know evil, but they could never be the final arbiters of good and evil. (Cf. Gen 3:4) That belongs to God alone. So through their disobedience to God, demonic suffering and death were unleashed upon the world for all time. The Prince of Lies …
The Precepts of the Church
The obligatory character of these positive laws decreed by the pastoral authorities is meant to guarantee to the faithful the indispensable minimum in the spirit of prayer and moral effort, in the growth in love of God and neighbor. 1. You shall attend Mass on Sundays and on holy days of obligation and rest from servile labor. This precept requires the completion of the Sunday observance by participation in the principal liturgical feasts that honor the mysteries of the Lord, the Virgin Mary, and the saints. It requires, also, abstinence from those labors and business concerns that impede …