The Diversity Within The Catholic Church One of the most wonderful things about the Catholic Church is the diversity one can find within it. Notice I’m not using “diversity” in the same sense that most of our secular culture uses the word. I’m not talking about a relativization in which we try to harmonize dissimilar […]
In 1992, my husband and I told my parents we were expecting an addition to the family. They responded with excitement. Mom expressed how happy she was that I was going to experience the joy of being a mother. Her words revealed much about herself, and the joy in her heart. It was a beautiful […]
If you enjoy controversial topics, you’ve come to the right place. In this article, I will take on one of the most contentious, emotional and persistent topics in the Catholic blogosphere: Communion in the Hand. Most people engaging in the debate are expressing emotion and opinion. Do we really know the Church’s position on receiving […]
My daughter gave me a CD for Christmas called Alma Mater: Featuring the Voice of Pope Benedict XVI. The first time I played it, I ended up on my knees in prayer. Good music will do that. Beauty in any form lifts us toward God. At a parish where our family used to worship, the pianist played […]
Even in this time of Lent in the Church, the world rolls on without any serious attention to God. Even within the Church, we often see more attention given to Fish Fry’s than we do Stations of the Cross. It’s a sad statement of our times that many appear to have chosen the wide path […]
“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens…” (Ecclesiastes 3:1) Particular moments and in life are too grand to be captured completely by anything new or original. While we may feel that nobody has ever experienced our depth of joy or sadness or love, we find our personal attempts fail […]
They are not always very obvious but they are not invisible either. Such is the liturgical role of the Sacristan within a parish. Many parishes have a Sacristan, but some do not. But even in those parishes that have one, the Sacristan’s duties may seem mysterious to some observers. The General Instructions of the Roman […]
Fr. Peter Irving is a priest of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. He has spent his priesthood far from the affluent parishes of South Pasadena, Santa Monica, and Woodland Hills, serving instead in poor, largely Hispanic parishes that were nearly defunct when he arrived. His most recent assignment is Holy Innocents in Long Beach. Kevin: […]
On a plane ride a few weeks ago, I found myself seated next to the founder of a Protestant church. He laughed because he was sandwiched between two Catholics, a married man who had been in Catholic seminary for a little while on his right and me, a Catholic high school Theology teacher, on his […]
I have always loved the study of what makes people tick, hence I dedicated part of my education to psychology. While I understand that not all parts of psychology mesh well with Christian ideals, there is much in psychology that can be applied to these ideals, and Benjamin Maslow’s famous Hierarchy of Needs is one. […]
Darren Aronofsky’s film mother! starts out well enough, making masterful use of its setting and cinematography and centring on stellar performances from Jennifer Lawrence as Mother and Javier Bardem as her husband Him, a writer. And then it falls apart, climaxing with a woefully trite parody of the Mass, particularly as it is connected to […]
Why do many Roman Catholics put up so much resistance to reintroducing traditional liturgical elements to the Mass? In two recent articles, Catholic Stand writer Nicholas LaBanca interviewed two Eastern Catholic priests, Fr. Thomas Loya of the Byzantine Rite and Fr. Alexander Wroblicky of the Ukrainian-Greek Rite. Both men observed that Millennials take to elements […]
This is the second and final interview with a duo of Byzantine Rite Catholic priests on the benefits of traditional elements in worship; principally, the offering of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass ad orientem. The first interview with Fr. Thomas Loya can be found here. Today, we sit down with Fr. Alexander Wroblicky, a […]
Last year, Robert Cardinal Sarah urged pastors the world over to “return as soon as possible to a common orientation, of priests and the faithful turned together in the same direction—Eastwards or at least towards the apse—to the Lord who comes, in those parts of the liturgical rites when we are addressing God.” To worship […]
Is liturgical reform “irreversible”? And what does that mean in practical terms? Pope Francis’ August 24 address to the participants of the 68th Italian Liturgical Week included a phrase that has predictably stirred up concern and ire among his traditionalist and conservative critics. As is also predictable of controversies surrounding Francis, it’s “much ado about […]
It’s been going on two years that I’ve been attempting to lead the responsorial psalm for Sunday Mass here at St. Anne’s. The individual who used to do it is no longer with us. No one else has stepped up, so “Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.” I guess I could just […]
This past Lent and Easter I spent a lot of time at a Byzantine (Ruthenian) Catholic parish near my home. As someone who often gets up between 4:30 – 5:30 am for work, making daily Mass is typically pretty hard to do on the average weekday. That’s why I was blessed to have this parish […]
Recently, I attending a conference called “The Symposium on Advancing the New Evangelization”, run by my alma mater, Benedictine College. It was the sixth time that it was run and my third time attending, the first time as a non-student. Most likely, if you are reading from a site such as this, you have heard […]
Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home. John 19:27 I have been reading Saint John Paul the Great’s encyclical, Ecclesia De Eucharistia, and it is a thing of beauty. I wanted to reflect on some of what is said as I pondered […]
“And also with you.” “And with your Spirit.” Six of one half a dozen of the other ? Mox nix ? Who cares? What difference does it make? The difference is all the difference in the world. Actually, all the difference in all the universe and all Heaven. The difference is: Jesus Christ present as […]
Time present and time past Are both perhaps present in time future, And time future contained in time past. If all time is eternally present All time is unredeemable. What might have been is an abstraction Remaining a perpetual possibility Only in a world of speculation. What might have been and what has been Point […]
“Give us this day our daily bread” … what does that mean? On the surface, it’s a simple acknowledgment that the things we need to live all have their source in God, as well as a request that our needs for the day be provided. However, hiding under that simple word “daily” is many centuries’ […]
Vatican II Music If you read what the Second Vatican Council wrote about sacred music (in Chapter VI in the 1963 constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium) you will wonder what has happened over the last fifty years. By reading the documents of Vatican II, we can learn that the Church considers our tradition of sacred music a treasure “greater than that […]
Doctrinal Homily Outlines, a lectionary-based aid for homilists, began as this layman’s response to the Year of Faith Pope Benedict XVI declared for 2012-2013. In Porta Fidei, Benedict’s apostolic letter announcing the Year of Faith, the Holy Father asked each of us to “rediscover the content of the faith that is professed, celebrated, lived and […]
The Hypocrite and the Sinner: Not Twins
The Struggle Is Real William Gurnall once stated, “While the Christian commits a sin he hates it; whereas the hypocrite loves it while he forbears it.” We have all felt the frustration of falling into sin the same day as attending Mass or praying. The truth is that we all play many positive and not […]
Seeing the Face of God in the Poor
There is a tenet in the Legion of Mary so central to the mission of the apostolate that perhaps all the works and prayers its members perform can be said to flow directly from it: it is critical for Christians to see the face of God in their fellow man. Whether a person is in […]
“Infinite Jest” Reaffirms The Power of Confession
David Foster Wallace’s book, Infinite Jest, is unique: hilarious and bleak, enlightening and depressing. Wallace tried on two separate occasions to become Catholic but sadly was never baptised. You can feel his striving and yearning, looking for the Truth. Tragically, he killed himself when he was only 46 and we will never know whether he […]
Living A Fanatical Catholic Life
Society desperately needs passionate Catholics – those who put Church teachings above secular ideologies, who strive daily to grow in the knowledge of God, who base their decisions around the Church, and who maintain joy through life’s trials. Living a fanatical Catholic life is what we are all called to do. When we apply the […]
Scripture Passages That Say Jesus Isn’t God
Imagine this scenario. You hear the doorbell ring, you open the door, and you see two well-dressed men standing on your porch with smiles on their faces. They ask you a seemingly harmless question about God, and then they ask you what religion you practice. You tell them that you are Catholic, so they ask […]
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