We are fairly comfortable with having God as Our Father and we easily can identify Jesus as our Lord and Savior, but who is the Holy Spirit to us? Evidently Jesus thought highly of the Spirit because he said in Mark 3:28-30: “Truly I tell you, all sins and blasphemes will be forgiven for the sons of men. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven, but is guilty of an eternal sin.” Jesus also tells us in John 6: 17 “But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you”. We so often forget about or don’t understand the Holy Spirit, but the Spirit is so important to us. It is the lifeblood of the Church.
Fortunately Pope Saint John XXIII knew about the power of the Holy Spirit. This very gentle and unassuming man who led the Church for only five years (1958-1963) accomplished so much for the Church and the world because he relied upon the power of the Holy Spirit. Pope John XXIII was born Angelo Giuseppi Roncalli, the fourth of thirteen children, of a farming family in Italy. He was a holy young man who began Spiritual Direction at the age of fourteen. He was given a good Catholic education and excelled in the Spiritual life. He had considerable reflective contact with both St. Charles Borromeo and St. Francis de Sales, two very holy and spiritual men. He also had several tastes of the worst of humanity. He served in the Italian Army in WWI as a medic and then as a Chaplain. He saw the horrors of war. After the war he continued serving the Church in many ways as a priest, then Bishop, and then Cardinal. During WWII he helped to save many Jews from the Nazi extermination camps.
Angelo Ronacalli was elected Pope at a time when conservative and liberal elements within the Church were having a hard time finding a person who they both could agree upon. Angelo Roncalli was chosen not just because of his holiness and experience in the Church, but also because he was older and would probably have a short pontificate. Angelo Roncalli surprised everyone by taking the name John XXIII. During the western schism of the 15th century, an antipope had used that name and no one had used it since. Angelo Roncalli said, “I will be called John. A name sweet to Us because it is the name of Our father, dear to Us because it is the name of the humble parish church where We received baptism, the solemn name of numberless cathedrals scattered throughout the world, and in the first place of the most holy Lateran Church, Our Cathedral. A name that in the extremely ancient series of Roman Pontiffs has the primacy of plurality. Twenty-two Johns of indisputable legitimacy are numbered among the Supreme Pontiffs, and almost all had a brief pontificate. We have preferred to hide the smallness of Our name behind this magnificent succession of Roman Pontiffs.” Now this was a very humble and holy man.
Pope John XXIII listened to the Holy Spirit and decided that it was time to “open the windows,” to let fresh air into a church much in need of reform. He called for a Church Council to ‘Throw open the windows of the church and let the fresh air of the spirit blow through.” The prayer of Pope John XXIII at the beginning of the Vatican II Council says, “Divine Spirit, renew your wonders in our time, as though for a new Pentecost, and grant that the holy church, preserving unanimous and continuous prayer, together with Mary the Mother of Jesus, and also under the guidance of St. Peter, may increase the reign of the Divine Saviour, the reign of truth and justice, the reign of love and peace, Amen”. The Council most definitely allowed the Holy Spirit to work. Pope John XXIII wanted to allow the Holy Spirit to move in and through the Church. Later Popes reflected on this.
Saint John Paul II wrote “I am convinced that this movement is a sign of His action of the Spirit. This world is much in need of this action of the Holy Spirit, and it needs many instruments for this action. Now I see this movement everywhere.”
Pope Benedict XVI said “What we learn in the New Testament on charisms, which appeared as visible signs of the coming of the Holy Spirit, is not an historical event of the past, but a reality ever alive. It is the same divine Spirit, soul of the Church, that acts in every age and those mysterious and effective interventions of the Spirit are manifest in our time in a providential way. The Movements and New Communities are like an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the Church and in contemporary society. We can, therefore, rightly say that one of the positive elements and aspects of the Community of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal is precisely their emphasis on the charisms or gifts of the Holy Spirit and their merit lies in having recalled their topicality in the Church.” It would appear that the Vatican II council helped to set the stage for the Catholic Charismatic Renewal which has moved so powerfully through the Church and has helped us all better identify the Holy Spirit and His gifts. Pope Benedict also said, “His openness to the Holy Spirit made possible the “truly special gift” of Vatican II to the Church”
When Pope Francis canonized Pope John XXIII, he pointed to Pope John’s willingness to follow the Spirit: “In convening the Council, Saint John XXIII showed an exquisite openness to the Holy Spirit. He let himself be led and he was for the Church a pastor, a servant-leader, guided by the Holy Spirit. This was his great service to the Church; for this reason I like to think of him as the pope of openness to the Holy Spirit.”
This very humble man, Pope John XXIII, opened wide the doors of the Church and allowed the Holy Spirit to flow through. The people loved him and called him the “Good Pope”. Many people liked the humor that he showed. When the pope was innocently asked by a journalist how many people worked in the Vatican, he deadpanned, “About half of them.” Another time Pope John XXIII was visiting a hospital in Rome called the Hospital of the Holy Spirit, run by a group of Catholic sisters. The mother superior, deeply stirred by the papal visit, went up to him in order to introduce herself. “Most Holy Father,” she said, “I am the superior of the Holy Spirit.” “Well, I must say you’re very lucky,” replied the pope. “I’m only the Vicar of Christ.”
We are very fortunate that this great man listened to God’s Holy Spirit and because of that the Church was renewed by the Spirit through Vatican Council II. The day of his feast, October 11, was selected because it was the date of his opening the Second Vatican Council in 1962. It is interesting to note that Pope John XXIII confessed that he had some difficulty in falling asleep on the night of the memorable day that he announced the convocation of the Second Vatican Council. He said that he talked to himself in this way: “Giovanni, why don’t you sleep? Is it the pope or the Holy Spirit that governs the Church? It’s the Holy Spirit, no? Well, then, go to sleep, Giovanni!”
Category Archives: Holy Spirit
Proud to be Catholic – by Deacon Marty McIndoe
On the back of my car I have a sticker that says, “Proud to be Catholic”. With all that has happened in the recent sex abuse scandal some people might wonder how I could be proud to be Catholic and continue to publically acknowledge that. Nonetheless, I am proud to be Catholic and I am also ashamed at what some of our Catholic priests and bishops have done or even failed to do. It is so sad that those Catholic priests, who performed all sorts of atrocious acts on Children, failed to live by their calling. They are very sick men. I think that it is even sadder that some of our Bishops hid what had been happening thus perpetuating more abuse. St. Luke, in Acts 20:28 talks to the bishops of the early Church saying “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.” Some day these bishops will be held accountable before the Lord. But even though these priests and bishops are a big part of the Catholic Church, they do not account for the whole of the Catholic Church. The Church itself is Holy. St. Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians Chapter 2, verses 20 through 22 says “Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” The Church is Holy, but these men are human and are sinners.
We have to remember that for 2,000 years, the Church has been the presence of Jesus to the world. The Catholic Church put together the bible that we use. It is God’s word and we deliver it to a world that needs it so badly. Every day, in just about every area in the world, the Church brings forth the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist and continually offers to the sick (and dying) the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick as well as the other Sacraments. Besides all those things that you would expect the Church to do, it “has been the means of reducing more languages to writing than have all other factors combined. It has created more schools, more theories of education, and more systems than has any other one force. More than any other power in history it has impelled men to fight suffering, whether that suffering has come from disease, war or natural disasters. It has built thousands of hospitals, inspired the emergence of the nursing and medical professions, and furthered movement for public health and the relief and prevention of famine.” – Kenneth Scott Latourette, Sterling Professor at Yale University: A History of Christianity, Vol. II, originally published by HarperCollins Publishers 1953, revised 1975, pp.1470,14.
In Saint John’s Gospel (13:35) we read, “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another.” For me, the Catholic Church excels at showing the love of Jesus to all people (not just its own). Matthew Kelly tells us, “Every day the Catholic Church feeds more people, clothes more people, houses more people, and educates more people than any other organization in the world…” That is something to really be proud of. Statistics provided by both Forbes Magazine and Business Week confirm this statement. They state that, “The Catholic Church is indeed the largest charitable organization on the planet BY FAR.” Some of the statistics are quite interesting. Charity and healthcare centers run in the world by the Church include: 5,391 hospitals, most of them in America (1,627) and Africa (1,295); 16,610 dispensaries, mainly in Africa (5,181); America (4,731) and Asia (3,520); 604 Care Homes for people with Leprosy, mainly in Asia (296) and Africa (187); 16,270 Homes for the elderly, or the chronically ill or people with a disability, mainly in Europe (8,348) and America (4,086); 9,924 orphanages, mainly in Asia (3,934); 12,376 nurseries, mainly in Asia (3,247) and America (3,435); 14,551 marriage counseling centers, mainly in America (5,546) and Europe (5,666); 3,776 social rehabilitation centers and 38,484 other kinds of institutions.
To me the Catholic Church is the very presence of Jesus in the world. It continues to bring His healing and compassion and teaching and presence to those who need it so badly. It is made of human beings who often fail at being what God calls them to be, but it is empowered by the Holy Spirit and will continue the mission God has given it. I have no doubt that Satan loves to try to pull apart the Church. Satan knows how to use human weakness to harm the Church, but, as Jesus says, “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). I am proud to be a Catholic. I will continue to love my Church and do whatever I can to build it up. I will support all those many good priests and bishops that we have who have been so hurt by this scandal. I will also pray for all of the victims of the abuse and for all who have been affected by it. I will be vigilant in fighting the evils that are attacking and are within the Church. St. Paul tells us in Ephesians 6:12 “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Our Church is the Body of Christ, the Victor!
Consuming God’s Word – by Deacon Marty McIndoe
Consuming God’s Word – by Deacon Marty McIndoe
When I was growing up my father was very concerned about healthy eating. He had read several books about nutrition from Adele Davis and used the mantra “You are what you eat”. Adele Davis, and many nutritionists of the 1950’s and 60’s, used this phrase taken from Victor Lindlahr’s 1942 book of the same name. I heard that phrase over and over again. Dad grew almost all of our own food in his garden and went to local farmers to get eggs and chickens. Mom bought very little from the grocery store. The whole idea was that processed food and non-organic food was bad for you. Only wholesome, organic food should be ingested. It was a lot of work, caring for the garden and canning and freezing foods for the winters. I do think it was worth it. I am a pretty healthy person. We all know that the more we eat healthy food, the healthier we will be.
The Scriptures have some interesting things to say about eating God’s Word. Jeremiah 15:16 says, “When I found your words, I devoured them; your words were my joy, the happiness of my heart, because I bear your name, LORD, God of hosts”. In Ezekiel 3: 1-3 it says, “He said to me: Son of man, eat what you find here: eat this scroll, then go, speak to the house of Israel. So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat. Son of man, he said to me, feed your stomach and fill your belly with this scroll I am giving you. I ate it, and it was as sweet as honey* in my mouth. Then he said to me, Son of man, go now to the house of Israel, and speak my words to them”. And again in Revelation 10: 10 it says, “I took the small scroll from the angel’s hand and swallowed it. In my mouth it was like sweet honey, but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour”. Psalm 119: 103 tells us, “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” Now I really don’t think that we should start tearing pages out of our bibles and eating them, but I do think that we should look in to these words of scripture telling us to consume His Word.
God’s Word that is given to us in the scriptures is a very precious gift. It is not given to us to put on to a shelf and look at only occasionally. It is a gift for us to use and consume every single day. Pope Benedict says to us, “We must rediscover a taste for feeding ourselves on the word of God, faithfully handed down by the Church, and on the bread of life, offered as sustenance for his disciples (cf. Jn 6:51). Indeed, the teaching of Jesus still resounds in our day with the same power: “Do not labour for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life” (Jn 6:27)…Belief in Jesus Christ, then, is the way to arrive definitively at salvation.” How true this is! The mass reflects this perfectly, first we feed on the Liturgy of the Word, and then we feed on the Liturgy of the Eucharist. The two go hand in hand; both the Word and the Eucharist our needed for our spiritual growth. We need both of them. For the Eucharist, we need to go to our church and receive it from our priests but we cannot take it home with us. God’s Word is different. We do receive it in church, but we also can receive it in our home with our own hands. With smart phones we can literally take it with us wherever we go.
Having God’s Word on a book shelf or even on a smart phone isn’t enough. We quite literally have to consume it and consume it often. Pope Francis tells us, “Be constantly nourished by the Word of God.”. He also says, “I would like so much for all Christians to be able to comprehend ‘the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus Christ’ through the diligent reading of the Word of God, for the sacred text is the nourishment of the soul and the pure and perennial source of the spiritual life of all of us.” We all need to be nourished, and to use my dad’s mantra, “You are what you eat” think about what you put in to yourself. Think about what you read and what you watch on TV and what you see in movies. Is this wholesome food, or junk food?
I challenge you to also think about your families. Family life seems to be hit hard by today’s society. In some ways it seems to be disintegrating in to nothingness. Bringing God’s Word in to your family for nourishment is so important. The family consumes so much junk from society; it is time to give it the good wholesome nourishment of God’s Word. Again Pope Francis tells us, “A Bible for every family! …Not to place it on a shelf, but to keep it at hand, to read it often, every day, both individually and together, husband and wife, parents and children, maybe in the evening, especially on Sundays. This way the family grows, walks, with the light and power of the Word of God!”
My friends, we are truly called to consume God’s Word and yet we often ignore it and often consume “junk food”. I believe that we can change the Family, the Church and the World if we consume God’s Word every day. If you are not already doing this, start it as soon as possible. There are many resources out there to help you. As Catholic’s we should make sure that we use Catholic resources to help us. I personally like THE WORD AMONG US and MAGNIFICAT for looking at the scriptures of the day. Don’t be afraid to do some prayerful reading of the Bible on your own. Use a good Catholic bible with footnotes to help you in this. Make sure that you ask the Holy Spirit to lead you and guide you. It is the same Holy Spirit that inspired the Bible. Consuming God’s Word involves both prayer and study. St. Pope John Paul II tells us, “Pray and learn to pray! Deepen your knowledge of the Word of the Living God by reading and meditating on the Scriptures”. It is certainly time for us to grow with good nourishment remembering that “You are what you eat”.
Social Media Magisterium by Shaun McAfee – A book review by Deacon Marty McIndoe
Shaun McAfee has done it again. This is his fourth book and like the others it is easy to read and very informative. It also offers very practical advice based upon the years of experience Shaun has had using Social Media. This is a book that all Christians should read. It clearly presents Social Media as the tool to use to spread the Good News of God’s love. The title should grab most Catholics (Magisterium), but I hope that all Christians read it. Never before has the Church had such a great means to spread the Gospel message as we have today because of the Internet and Social Media. It would be a sin (probably literally) for Christians not to use this.
I have always viewed media as a powerful tool for society. I was co-editor of my High School news and in college I was a radio newsman and radio disc jockey. I was a member of the National Honor Society for Communications and studied communications in college. All of what Shaun says in this book fits in with what I have learned. I was pleasantly surprised that in the beginning of the book he mentions Marshall McLuhan (the intellectual of communications studies), who I studied extensively, but only found out from Shaun that he was a Catholic of extraordinary faith and had a real devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. We never learned that in our studies. Marshall McLuhan really predicted the birth of the Internet 30 years before it began. He called it the “global village” that communications would forge. Today we have that global village and as the scriptures say in Luke 10:2, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest”. You and I need to meet that call.
This book will help you meet that call. Shaun starts out with a history of the many documents issued by the Church on media. He then gives a little background, or as he calls it, “re-introduction in Social Media”. Both of these chapters are great but his third chapter “The Media and the Family” impressed me greatly. All parents and grandparents will find this chapter interesting and judicious for their time spent in the family. There is no doubt that as good as the Internet is; it also has its dark side. Like any tool, it can be used for good or for bad. It can be under-used and over-used. This chapter looks at the use of the Internet and the affect it has upon family life. Don’t miss this chapter. You probably should read it twice. There is a lot of “meat” there.
The fifth chapter is on Ecumenism: Sharing the Idea of Unity. I absolutely loved this chapter. I am a convert to Catholicism and so is Shaun. He presented many ideas that I have thought about over the last 40 years. As a convert I know the great presence of faith within the Protestant tradition, but I also know of the great lack of Unity there. As a Catholic I recognize the truth of our faith and how in our faith we are called to always share the truth but also seek to deal with Protestants as our own brothers and sisters in the faith. Shaun does a great job showing how all of us, with the proper use of Social Media can do both. Social Media is not just for Evangelizing unbelievers, but is also great for helping all of us grow towards obtaining what Jesus prayed for; that all might be one.
The last chapters of the book give great practical advice to bloggers and really to all that use Social Media in any of its forms. This too should be a must read. Shaun has had a great deal of experience in the use of all forms of Social Media and his suggestions are great. He tells us of things to do and things not to do. Both of these are important to know. His suggestions, as practical as they are, also fit in to what the many Church documents call us to do. The sub-title of this book is “A No-Nonsense Guide to the Proper Use of Media”. This book certainly does this. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who has used social media in any form or who plans on using it shortly. I think that covers just about everyone.
Note: I can’t help but to mention the cover of this book which is done by the very creative TJ Burdick. It is the very famous “Creation of Adam” by Michelangelo found on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. However, on the cover Adam is holding a cell phone showing its apps and God the Father is pointing towards it apparently ready to touch one of the apps. It is said that Michelangelo has God the Father pointing to Adam’s outstretched finger ready to impart the gift of life to him. Perhaps we can fast forward and say that God the Father has given us the Internet to continue to give life to mankind. I do think it can do that. In the original fresco God the Father is clothed and Adam is in full frontal nudity. However, on this book cover (back) the book bar code covers this up much better than a leaf would. Nice placement, TJ.
THE SHADOW OF HIS WINGS – FR. GEREON GOLDMANN, OFM – Review by Deacon Marty McIndoe
After reading this book, I now have a new hero: Fr. Gereon Goldmann. Fr. Goldman was an ordinary yet exceptional man who was filled with love for his God and for all of God’s people. He continually put this love in to action in the midst of one of the darkest times in human history. Father Goldmann was a proud German man who quite early in his life felt the call to the priesthood. In 1939, while he was a seminarian, he was drafted in to the German Army under the Nazi Regime. He despised the Nazis but served his country the best way that he could while still keeping his faith. His draft brought him in to the dreaded Nazi SS headed by Heinrich Himmler, but even in the midst of this darkness he was able to bring forth the light of God. The darkness continued even after his capture when he was taken to a French prisoner of war camp in North Africa. The French hated the Germans and treated them very poorly. In spite of all of this, Goldmann kept his faith and stood up to the darkness and prevailed.
I really do not want to give a further synopsis of this book. My hope is that you will read it yourself. This is a book that should be read by every Christian, especially Catholics. It is filled with suspense and harrowing war stories. It certainly shows the evil of war and most certainly shows the evil of the Nazis. What really shines out through this book is the faith of this one man and the faith of many associated with him. Faith can give us the strength to not only handle the difficulties thrown at us, but to rise above these difficulties and to shine. Fr. Goldmann certainly does this. I quite literally had a hard time putting this book down. This book surprises you over and over again and you can’t help but to want more.
The book deals not only with the experiences that Fr. Goldmann had during the war and during his imprisonment, it also shows those civilians left behind and how they dealt with the horrors of war. Over and over again a common thread of Faith and Prayer weaves together to form a blanket of protection over Fr. Goldmann. He should have been killed so many times, but wasn’t. He was also able to maintain his desire of not hurting or killing anyone during the war. As a matter of fact, the only time he seemed to use his gun was while threatening a Bishop and a Priest on two separate occasions. You need to read the book to learn about that. The Lord, often against apparently resolute Nazi orders, seems to take Fr. Goldmann all over Europe (even to meet the Pope) and Northern Africa. The Epilogue and Appendix show his post war work in Japan and in India. It is absolutely amazing how God has used this man in so many different places.
Fr. Goldmann had so many miracles happen around him that you will be totally astonished. To say that God worked through Fr. Goldmann would be an understatement. God empowered Fr. Goldmann to be able to do what would normally be impossible. There is no doubt that the angels were with him. This is true not only during the war and prisoner sections of this book but also in what happened after the war. Fr. Goldmann dreamt of being a missionary to Japan and his dream came true. He was so much more than a missionary. He was a beacon of light within the darkness of evil.
Central to Fr. Goldmann’s ministry was to bring physical healing (he was eventually a medic) and spiritual healing. His love of the Eucharist and Confession brought so much spiritual healing to those around him. Through this work he became quite an evangelist causing large numbers of people to come back to the Church or to be welcomed anew in to the Church. He stood up to the Nazi propaganda against the Church and people saw through its falsehood because of him.
This book has challenged me to be more of the man that Fr. Goldmann was. It challenged me to deeper prayer and deeper appreciation of the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist and Confession. It opened my eyes to see how God works through any situation, even those that seem so dark. The book challenged me to deeper trust in God and His call to me no matter where I am. It challenged me to believe more in the power of intercessory prayer. My challenge to you is to read this book. I am certain that you will be glad that you did. The book was originally published in 1964 and later in 2000 and then 2008 by IGNATIUS PRESS. I purchased it on Amazon. Go for it, you will be happy you did. What are you waiting for?
Blessed Among Women by Matt Nelson
“Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!”
The biblical view of Mary is that she has been specially set apart by God in the order of grace. Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, was one of the first to affirm this when she proclaimed Mary’s blessedness upon her visitation:
And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! (Luke 1: 41-42).
The Christmas season is a prime time for us to get re-acquainted with the mother of our Lord and reflect on some of the reasons why she is considered “blessed among women.” Not only for our own spiritual lives, but to prepare for conversations with non-Catholic family and friends who may have reflected very little on the place of Mary in salvation history.
One reason that the Virgin Mary is set apart from all other women is because of the weight of her “yes” to God’s plan—and because of God’s “yes” to her. Following her consent to bear the Christ child in her womb, her flesh was united with the body of Christ in the most literal sense. No other woman will ever experience this kind of union with Christ, this mother-with-child communion. Clearly, by this fact alone, Mary is blessed among women.
To steal a phrase from Einstein: God does not play dice. So Mary was not randomly endowed with her maternal role. Rather, from all of eternity, she was chosen by God for the task. She was favored by God to bear him, to raise him, to laugh with him—to suffer with him. The apologetic point here can be deceivingly simple: if God has honored Mary so singularly, shouldn’t we? If we are to reverence the mothers of our friends and relatives, shouldn’t we reverence the mother of our Lord?
And Mary is also our spiritual mother, because of her co-operative role in bringing into this world the Savior who would make it possible for man to be “born again.” The fathers of the Second Vatican Council put it this way.
In a wholly singular way she cooperated by her obedience, faith, hope, and burning charity in the Savior’s work of restoring supernatural life to souls. For this reason she is a mother to us in the order of grace (Lumen Gentium 61).
This spiritual motherhood is hinted at in John’s Gospel when Jesus speaks the words, “Woman, behold your son” to Mary who stands at the foot of the cross with John. “Behold your mother” says Christ to the beloved apostle (19:26-27). And as our Lord speaks these words in a literal sense to Mary and John, he speaks them in a spiritual sense to the Church throughout the ages. Thus St. Augustine would affirm:
That one woman is both mother and virgin, not in spirit only but even in body. In spirit she is mother, not of our head, who is our Savior himself—of whom all, even she herself, are rightly called children of the bridegroom—but plainly she is the mother of us who are his members (Holy Virginity 6:6).
She can be the mother of the Church because, as the Church’s Sacred Tradition holds, from the moment of her existence Mary was endowed by God with perfect sanctity. In 1854 Pope Pius IX declared in the papal bull Ineffabilis Deus:
We declare, pronounce and define that the doctrine which asserts that the Blessed Virgin Mary, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God, and in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, was preserved free from every stain of original sin is a doctrine revealed by God.
Pope Pius’s dogmatic declaration was not a nineteenth-century invention pulled out of a hat. Its purpose was to affirm in an official and formal way, as all ex cathedra statements are, a long-existing tradition passed down since the age of the apostles.
Saint Paul wrote that “all have sinned” (Rom 3:23). The context here is personal sin—that is, sin which is done rather than inherited. (Original sin is dealt with two chapters later in Paul’s epistle.) So have all sinned? In general, yes. But there are exceptions—beginning with Jesus himself! Other exceptions could include infants and the severely disabled, since a sufficient degree of knowledge and consent are key requirements for an offense against God. And there are other biblical exceptions besides Christ. Indeed, Mary is not the first woman to be conceived without sin: Eve too, the mother of humanity, was created free of sin—but eventually fell by disobedience. Mary did not fall.
Steeped in the writings of the early Church Fathers and drawing from their reflections on Mary, the convert Bl. John Henry Newman fittingly called the mother of Jesus “the daughter of Eve unfallen.” Indeed the earliest Church Fathers hinted at Mary’s sinlessness in their writings when they alluded to Mary, implicitly and explicitly, as the second or new Eve. St. Irenaeus, for example, writes in the second century that “the knot of Eve’s disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary. What the virgin Eve had bound in unbelief, the Virgin Mary loosed through faith” (Against Heresies 3:22:24).
The later Church Fathers conveyed the blessedness of Mary even more explicitly. Consider the words of St. Ephrem in the fourth century:
You alone and your Mother are more beautiful than any others, for there is no blemish in you nor any stains upon your Mother. Who of my children can compare in beauty to these? (Nisibene Hymns 27:8).
Even Martin Luther believed that Mary had received special graces from God, professing in a 1527 sermon:
It is a sweet and pious belief that the infusion of Mary’s soul was effected without original sin; so that in the very infusion of her soul she was also purified from original sin and adorned with God’s gifts, receiving a pure soul (On the Day of the Conception of the Mother of God).
Of course, this recognition began with the biblically unique greeting of the angel Gabriel: “Hail, full of grace” (Luke 1:28). He greeted Mary with a title—and an angel never speaks anything but exactly what God wants him to speak. This explains why Mary in all her humility “was greatly troubled at the saying, and considered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be” (Luke 1:29).
If an archangel of God greets Mary with such reverence, should not we also?
Aside from meditating on Sacred Scripture, one of the best ways we can reflect on the life of the Blessed Virgin is to return to the writings of the early Christians. They were the closest in time to Mary and the apostles (indeed some of them were apostles of the apostles) and although their writings were not inspired, they serve as a kind of historical and theological extension of the New Testament, providing for us further context and commentary.
At the very least we should remember, as St. Ambrose did in his commentary on holy virginity, that Mary’s life “is like a mirror reflecting the face of chastity and the form of virtue.” We have ample reason to believe that Mary was a perfect model of obedience and humility, and so we can do no better than to reflect on her life, though but for the grace of God she would have been conceived in sin and unfit to be Christ’s mother and ours. Nobody has understood our dependence on God’s grace greater than she whose sweet voice proclaimed in the home of Elizabeth:
My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden.
For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed (Luke 1:47-48).
***This article was originally published for the Catholic Answers Online Magazine, under the title Our Mother’s Singular Grace
Tepidity by A.J. Avila
There’s a show on television called Air Disasters, and some time ago they ran a segment on the September 25, 1978 PSA crash in San Diego.
I remember that day very well. Like everybody else, I saw the news coverage on television. On approach to the airport, the PSA jet had collided with a Cessna flying in the area. The jet’s right wing caught on fire, and both planes crashed. Everyone on the planes, along with seven people on the ground, perished.
[SIDENOTE: The photo above is of the actual plane going down. The collision was so loud it was heard on the ground, and a photographer aimed his camera upward and took that picture.]
But what I didn’t know, until my sister phoned me, was that a friend of mine had been on board the PSA jet. He was only 26 and was on his way to San Diego to open a photography studio.
I debated whether or not to record the Air Disasters show. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what my friend went through those last terrifying seconds of his life. After I did record it, it sat in my DVR a couple of days before I got up the courage to watch it.
A lot of things, I saw, went wrong that day. I discovered several factors had contributed to the crash. For example, an imminent collision alarm had gone off in the control tower but was ignored because the alarm had been sounding when there was no problem. The PSA pilot had seen the Cessna but then had lowered his seat, which took it out of his line of vision. The Cessna was flown by a student pilot who was learning to operate by instruments only, and so he was wearing a helmet that allowed him to see nothing but the control panel. And for some inexplicable reason, he had changed course. The radio transmission from the PSA pilot was a bit garbled, but it sounded to the air traffic controller like the pilot had said he had already flown past the Cessna. The combination of these incidents led to a terrible disaster.
Something else went wrong that day, horribly wrong. It wasn’t something that caused the crash. It was something that happened after the crash, or rather, something that didn’t happen after the crash. As ashamed as I am to admit it, not once did it occur to me to pray for the soul of my friend.
I had been raised Catholic, attended Catholic elementary school, and in fact was teaching in a Catholic high school at the time. I knew about Purgatory. I knew how important it is to pray for our deceased friends and relatives.
Why, oh why did it not occur to me to pray for my friend? You’d think all the news coverage, including a photo of the plane going down, wing afire, on the cover of Life magazine, (yes, that picture above is the one) would be enough to kick-start me into a rosary, at least. Yet somehow, it wasn’t. Why not?
Well, I’ll tell you why. That is what happens when you become a tepid Catholic.
If you’d asked me back then, I would have told you I was a great Catholic. I put in my hour at Mass every Sunday. I put money into the collection basket. Hey, I even taught in a Catholic school!
Yet the rest of the time I pretty much ignored God, except, of course, when I wanted a personal favor. My rosary was packed away in a drawer. I couldn’t remember the last time I had been to Confession.
In Luke 17:10 Jesus has some harsh words for those who do the bare minimum, calling them unworthy servants. In Revelation 3:16, He even states that He spits lukewarm souls out of his mouth. (The Douay-Rheims version uses the word “vomits” instead of “spits.”)
I thank God that He eventually wacked me over the head with a spiritual 2 x 4, and I finally came to my senses. Prayers and Masses were offered for my friend and other souls for whom I should have pleaded.
I don’t know if such things work retroactively. But, if my prayers were too late for my friend, I am certain they were applied to other members of the Church Suffering.
Let’s not forget those who have passed on before us. “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” (Matthew 5:7) And let’s be useful, not worthless, servants who live our faith daily through prayer and sacrifice.
The original post can be found at: Reflections On My Catholic Journey
Pentecost and Mary Mother of the Church – by Deacon Marty McIndoe
Pentecost is traditionally seen as the birthday of the Church. Pentecost is the day that the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles and disciples assembled together in the Upper Room. They had been praying for 9 days after Jesus ascended in to heaven. They had gone in to the Upper Room with sadness because the Lord was no longer with them. They were weak and unsure or what to do. They prayed their novena and the Spirit came and filled them and they left the Upper Room in joy and in strength and with a sense of purpose that they never had before. The Church was truly born that day. As we celebrate Pentecost we must look at the life of the Holy Spirit within our own lives. We should give thanks and praise for all that the Spirit has given us and we should also be resolved to be more open to the Spirit and its gifts and fruits. Reading the book of Acts is a great place to start.
The scriptures tell us that the Blessed Virgin Mary was present in the Upper Room with the Apostles and disciples praying for and receiving the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. You can picture Mary gathered there with all of her son’s friends. At first she must have been disappointed in the Apostles for the way they had abandoned her Son at the cross. She was probably concerned that all that Jesus had done was now in jeopardy due to the lack luster Apostles. Yet, she was there with them, praying with them and most likely praying for them. She must have looked upon them as a mother looks upon their children, encouraging them and hoping and praying that they would become what God called them to be. How joyous she must have been seeing the power of the Holy Spirit coming down upon them and empowering them. I am sure she was a proud mother looking at the growth in her children. She herself is the spouse of the Holy Spirit. She knew the Holy Spirit and was now empowered again to be part of the birth of new life, the new life that the Church was called to be. We can never separate Mary from the great day of Pentecost. Her being there was part of the plan and action of the Spirit to make the Church the true Body of Christ.
How beautiful it is that this year we celebrate the Feast of Pentecost on Sunday and then the next day celebrate the NEW memorial feast of Mary Mother of the Church. The title Mary Mother of the Church goes back to the beginnings of the early church. We first see it written down by Saint Ambrose of Milan (340-397). He was appointed Bishop of Milan in 374. Over the ages the title has been used in many places.
In recent times, Pope Paul VI, himself a former Bishop of Milan, closed the third session of Vatican II using words similar to St. Ambrose saying, “For the glory of the Virgin and our consolation, we proclaim Mary the Most Holy Mother of the Church, that is, the Mother of the whole People of God, both the faithful and the pastors.”
In 1981, shortly after his assassination attempt, Pope John Paul II had a mosaic of Mary Mother of the Church installed on a building facing St. Peter’s Square as a tribute to her intercession in saving his life. In 1987 he repeated this title in his encyclical Redemptoris Mater. Pope John Paul II also had a monastery built in the Vatican dedicated to Mary Mother of the Church (1990). Presently Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI lives in this monastery. In 1997 Pope John Paul II devoted a Wednesday general audience to the title, Mary, Mother of the Church.
Although many Popes and Bishops and ancient writers used the title Mary, Mother of the Church, the Church’s calendar did not have a universal memorial feast celebrating that title. Some countries celebrated the feast, but it wasn’t until this year that a Universal feast was set. Pope Francis declared that the Monday after Pentecost would be celebrated as Mary, Mother of the Church. I pray that we learn to celebrate by remembering the very close link between Mary and the Holy Spirit. We also need to see the motherly love of Mary for the Church. Mary is our mother.
The gospel reading set for the new feast is John 19:25-31. This gospel reading contains the familiar story of Mary and John at the foot of the cross. “When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.” We can see how Jesus shared His mother with John, and by extension, with us. We need to take Mary in to our home. She can help us grow closer to her son Jesus and she can help us be open to the Holy Spirit and receive its fruits and gifts. Thank you Jesus for sharing your mother with us. Happy Pentecost, and Happy Birthday. God is good.
Are You Really Ready to Win the Battle? – By Deacon Marty McIndoe
I was fortunate to have parents who saw that Scouting could be very beneficial to the formation of a child in to an adult. I was in Scouting from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts to Explorer Scouts (in High School). I learned a lot from them to help build my character. One of the primary things that they taught me was to BE PREPARED. This helped me in school, family and social life, in business, in being an Army soldier and especially in being a good Christian. I would like to look at BEING PREPARED as a Christian.
The question is, what are we supposed to be prepared for? There are several things but I find three that stand out the most. First of all we must be prepared for the LAST DAY. That last day may be when Jesus comes again, or more likely it will be when we die and go to meet him. We have a judgment to experience when we see Him face to face. All that we do as a Christian should lead us to be ready for this judgment. I am so happy that our God is a merciful God, but he is also a JUST God. Everything that we have said and done (and thought) or failed to do, will come before us; and we must answer for that. If we live out the words of Jesus and His Church, we should be prepared. The Church gives us the tools to prepare for this judgment. Those tools are the Sacraments and the Scriptures and prayers and examples of the Saints. We should use them to the fullest.
The second thing that we need to be prepared for is our battle against evil. For those of you who fail to believe in evil and the battle that we fight, you are sadly not prepared. The Church has always, from the very beginning, recognized the power of evil in the world. Our first Pope tells us: “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith.” 1 Pet. 5:8-9. Unfortunately today, too many people dismiss the devil and demons and evil as old fashioned and untrue. The devil and his demons are real, and we need to fight them. The war is already won in Jesus, but Satan still continues to battle and tries to confound us. He attacks us in our weaknesses. We must use the tools that Jesus and the Church gives us to fight him. St. Paul tells us, “Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” Eph. 6:11-17. These words of St. Paul are so much more than words of wisdom; they are words to lead us in our battle with evil. Do you hear the battle cry?
The third thing that we need to be prepared for is sharing the Good News. This is what we are supposed to be doing as Christians. It should be so much a part of us that it just comes naturally. I will spend more time on this topic on another post, but it is so important that it needs to be placed in context with this post. Probably the best way we share the Good News is by being a good Christian.
Being a good Christian is hard enough on its own, but when you have the legions of evil and darkness trying to keep you from being a good Christian, it becomes even more difficult. However, God knows the battle we fight and if we use the tools He gives us, we overcome easily. I would like to share with you some of the ways that I have found to use these tools. First of all, You MUST make them part of a daily routine. Just as you start out the day by washing and grooming, the tools need to be sharpened and put to use. I find that my morning routine is most important.
Daily I wake up at 6:30 (even though I am retired and could sleep) and I first say a rosary carefully meditating on each mystery. I then go to the local YMCA for my morning workout (the physical body and spiritual self are very connected). I then go to daily mass early enough to sit in front of the Blessed Sacrament for 15 to 20 minutes. I then carefully pay attention and serve at mass asking the Lord to strengthen me to be the person He wants me to be. I see the Eucharist as such a precious gift to strengthen me for the journey and the battle. I then go home to eat breakfast with my wife (she also attends daily mass with me) and then I do my morning prayer (Liturgy of the Hours). The rest of the day I intersperse other prayers. These prayers vary from spontaneous forms of praise to the various hours of the Liturgy of the Hours. Every Tuesday I do Exposition and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. Each evening my wife and I pray together. All of this is a life giving experience for me. I never see it as a burden. I find my strength in this routine.
Throughout the day I love to give thanks and praise to God for the many beautiful things that happen. I love to see Him in the beauty of creation and the gift of other people. I also try to do a lot of spiritual reading such as the Bible as well as books from great Christian authors. In the evenings I “surf” many Christian/Catholic websites. I also try to continue my learning through the New Saint Thomas Aquinas Institute and ClaritasU. As I read this over it sounds like all I do is “religious” things, but that isn’t true. I enjoy many aspects of life and do many activities from going out with the guys to the local pub for beer, to visiting with friends with my wife. However, the “religious things” are what help to make me who I believe God calls me to be.
I know that Jesus wants us to live an abundant life (John 10:10) even though the thief (Satan) would love to snatch it away from us. When I immerse myself in prayer, the sacraments and good study, my life is abundant and Satan doesn’t have a chance to snatch it away from me. I am prepared; are you?
7 Things to Know That Will Change Your Next Mass Experience by Matt Nelson
“Take, eat; this IS my body.” Mt 26:26
I believe that we live in an age where fallen-away Catholics don’t really know what they’ve left, non-Catholics don’t really know what they’re missing, and many Catholics don’t really know what they’ve got. They don’t really know the Mass.
The Mass is the climactic form of Christian worship and within it is contained the greatest miracle on earth. It is a mystery in the fullest sense, and yet, it is comprehensible. As Christians we possess faith, but do we possess understanding? Do we even seek it? I know personally that my understanding of the Mass and what happens during it is inexcusably deficient, mostly from neglect. But I (and you) can change this — and it begins here.
I want to help change your next Mass experience, by the grace of God. So I’ve compiled a list of 7 interesting facts about the Mass, each with a brief explanation. I hope you learn something new!
1. The Mark of the Christian
The Sign of the Cross that marks the beginning and end of the Holy Mass, and which signifies the sealing of the Word of God “in our minds, on our lips and in our hearts” at the reading of the Gospel, has its origin in the first centuries of Christianity.
Tertullian wrote in the mid-3rd century:
“In all our travels and movements, in all our coming in and going out, in putting on our shoes, at the bath, at the table, in lighting our candles, in lying down, in sitting down, whatever employment occupies us, we mark our foreheads with the sign of the cross” (De corona, 30).
The sign of the cross, done by faith, has immense power. St. Benedict once did the sign of the cross over a poisoned drink meant to kill him, and as his hand moved reverently through the four directions of the cross, the glass shattered. What would have happened if he had been insincere, or worse, not blessed his food and drink at all with the sacred sign? God only knows.
Each sign of the cross is also a sign —a renewal even — of one’s personal decision to accept Christ as Lord and Savior. How many times have we gone through the “motion of the cross” instead of the “sign of the cross”?
2. “And With Your Spirit”
When the Christian people respond “and with your spirit” to the priest’s greeting (“The Lord be with you”) in the Holy Mass, it is not just a polite (and somewhat odd) response. It is a profession of faith in the power of the Sacrament of Holy Orders. It recognizes the unique action of the Holy Spirit in the ordained priest, particularly in the Sacraments. Remember, for example, it is not the priest who changes the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ — it is Jesus Christ. Thus, the priest receives the power to serve as a special instrument of the Holy Spirit at his ordination; that is, when he receives the Sacrament of Holy Orders through the “laying on of hands” (see 1 Tim 4:14; 2 Tim 1:6).
Here’s what the 4th century bishop, St. John Crysostom,wrote about these words and their meaning:
“If the Holy Spirit were not in this your common father and teacher, you would not, just now, when he ascended this holy chair and wished you all peace, have cried out with one accord, ‘And with your spirit.’
Thus you cry out to him, not only when he ascends his throne and when he speaks to you and prays for you, but also when he stands at this holy altar to offer the sacrifice. He does not touch that which lies on the altar before wishing you the grace of our Lord, and before you have replied to him, ‘And with your spirit.’
By this cry, you are reminded that he who stands at the altar does nothing, and that the gifts that repose there are not the merits of a man; but that the grace of the Holy Spirit is present and, descending on all, accomplishes this mysterious sacrifice. We indeed see a man, but it is God who acts through him. Nothing human takes place at this holy altar.”
3. Kiss of the Priest
The priest kisses the altar in veneration, recognizing it as the sacred place where Christ’s once and for all sacrifice will be made present in the Sacrament of the Eucharist. Jesus’s death is re-presented in the Holy Mass as a celebration of the New Covenant Passover, just as the Old Covenant Passover was made present each year it was celebrated (see Ex 12:27). St. Paul contrasts the Eucharistic sacrifice to the pagan sacrifice in 1 Cor 11. Jesus is therefore not re-sacrificed at each Mass but rather, His one sacrifice becomes present to us as He is eternally presenting Himself to God as the sacrificial Lamb of God (Heb 7:25; 1 Cor 5:7; 1 Cor 11:26; Rev 5:6).
Around 70 A.D. Church leaders wrote this about the Eucharistic sacrifice (the Mass):
“Assemble on the Lord’s day, and break bread and offer the Eucharist; but first make confession of your faults, so that your sacrifice may be a pure one. Anyone who has a difference with his fellow is not to take part with you until he has been reconciled, so as to avoid any profanation of your sacrifice [Matt. 5:23–24]. For this is the offering of which the Lord has said, ‘Everywhere and always bring me a sacrifice that is undefiled, for I am a great king, says the Lord, and my name is the wonder of nations’ [Mal. 1:11, 14]” (Didache 14 [A.D. 70]).
4. What’s Inside the Altar?
Did you know that many Catholic altars have a relic placed inside?
Father Carlos Martins, CC, of Treasures of the Church describes relics in this way:
Relics are physical objects that have a direct association with the saints or with Our Lord. They are usually broken down into three classes. First class relics are the body or fragments of the body of a saint, such as pieces of bone or flesh. Second class relics are something that a saint personally owned, such as a shirt or book (or fragments of those items). Third class relics are those items that a saint touched or that have been touched to a first, second, or another third class relic of a saint.
The General Instruction of the Roman Missal, No. 302, contains the following statement:
“The practice of placing relics of Saints, even those not Martyrs, under the altar to be dedicated is fittingly retained. Care should be taken, however, to ensure the authenticity of such relics.”
The bones of St. Polycarp of Smyrna (a disciple of John the beloved apostle) were venerated in the early Church, for example:
“We took up his bones, which are more valuable than precious stones and finer than refined gold, and laid them in a suitable place, where the Lord will permit us to gather ourselves together, as we are able, in gladness and joy and to celebrate the birthday of his martyrdom” (The Martyrdom of Polycarp [A.D 156])
For more, I also discuss relics in this recent article.
5. Cross or Crucifix?
A cross with a figure of Christ crucified must be present on or near the altar. This is mandated by the Church. A bare cross or a cross with Jesus depicted in a non-crucified way (like the modern “resurrected” Christ portrayal which has become more common) does not meet this requirement. Like St. Paul in his first letter to the Church in Corinth, we preach Christ crucified as an ultimate sign of God’s love for us and the salvation won for us through His crucifixion:
“we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles” (1 Cor 1:23; see also 2:2)
The crucifix, properly understood, is not an image of a mere gory execution; rather, it is a sign of the once for all sacrifice of the Lamb of God (1 Cor 5:7).
The General Instruction for the Roman Missal states:
There is also to be a cross, with the figure of Christ crucified upon it, either on the altar or near it, where it is clearly visible to the assembled congregation. It is appropriate that such a cross, which calls to mind for the faithful the saving Passion of the Lord, remain near the altar even outside of liturgical celebrations (GIRM 308).
6. Sit, Stand, Kneel and Bow
A genuflection before the Jesus in the tabernacle is not meant to be a purely physical action. It requires a simultaneous “bow of the heart.”
The venerable practice of genuflecting before the Blessed Sacrament, whether enclosed in the tabernacle or publicly exposed, as a sign of adoration, is to be maintained. This act requires that it be performed in a recollected way. In order that the heart may bow before God in profound reverence, the genuflection must be neither hurried nor careless (Inaestimabile Donum 26).
Some people may wonder what’s up with Catholics and all the bowing, standing, sitting, kneeling that they do in the Mass. It’s a good and honest question. Catholics assume these gestures because of who and what they are encountering in the Mass — the King of Kings and His Word. In the case of veneration with the body, the body leads the heart.
Consider these words from C.S. Lewis’s Screwtape Letters:
“At the very least, they can be persuaded that the bodily position makes no difference to their prayers; for they constantly forget, what you must always remember, that they are animals and that whatever their bodies do affects their souls” (Letter IV).
Our postures matter, especially in the Mass — the climax of Christian Worship. As King David writes in this beautiful Psalm:
“O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! For he is our God…” (Psalm 95)
7. The Fraction Rite
After the consecration (when the bread and wine are changed into the body and blood of Jesus) but before Communion, the priest breaks off a piece of his “big” host and adds it to the precious blood (which still maintains the physical properties of wine). This breaking and commingling of the broken piece of the Body with the Blood is rich in significance:
First, it is not a separating of Christ, as though a “part” of Christ is here and a “part” of Christ is there. In each molecule of the consecrated host, the resurrected Christ is totally and perfectly present in His infinite divine substance.
Second, this “breaking”, called the “Fraction Rite”, follows Christ’s breaking of bread at the Last Supper and is rich in biblical significance (Luke 22:19; Acts 2:42, 46; 1 Cor 10:16).
Third, the commingling of the broken fraction with the blood in the chalice symbolizes the reunification of Christ’s body and blood in his glorious resurrection.
Now here’s an interesting tidbit to end off this post:
Originally, this Fraction rite and commingling had another important significance. At each Mass, the priest would break off a piece of the host (as he does now) but then, that consecrated fraction would be sent to another celebration of the Eucharist at another location. There, the fraction sent from the parish “down the road” would be commingled with the blood of Christ. The fraction of the host from that Mass would then be sent off to another Mass, and so on. This ritual created a great sense of unity among the faithful in the Mass, and signified the continuity of the eucharistic sacrifice in the Church (Mal 1:11; 1 Cor 10:17). This practice was known as fermentum, but has fallen out of practice in modern times.
If you would like to read more about the specifics of the Mass I highly recommend Mass Revision by Jimmy Akin to get you started.
See you in the Eucharist!
Visit Matt Nelson at Reasonable Catholic
The Birth of Mary and the Protoevangelium of James by Deacon Marty McIndoe
If we asked most Catholics who Mary’s parents were they would probably answer Anna and Joachim. But if we look in the Holy Bible there is no mention of Mary’s birth or the name of her parents. So how do we know their names? The simple answer is through tradition. As Catholics, we believe that God reveals His truths to us through the Holy Bible AND through tradition. Tradition was sacred to the Jews (we all know that great song from Fiddler on the Roof) and is also sacred to us. St. Paul tells us to “stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter” (2 Thess. 2:15).
On September 8th we celebrate the birthday of Mary. This is exactly nine months after we celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on December 8th. This feast was celebrated no later than the 6th century. An eastern Saint, St. Romanos, a deacon who composed numerous liturgical songs, wrote a hymn celebrating the birthday of Mary. The hymn was quite popular and used in liturgies to celebrate the birthday of Mary which helped lead us to the feast day. The Eastern Churches first celebrated it and then within a century the Roman Church celebrated it. St. Romanos relied heavily upon the apocryphal writing, The Protoevangelium of St. James, in composing the lyrics to his hymn on the Nativity of Mary.
As an apocryphal writing, we must realize that the Church decided that this book was not inspired as scripture and it was not placed in the canon of the bible. However, this writing has been seen as a good source of tradition from the earliest times of the Church. Most scholars believe that it was composed around 145 AD. Because of this, and the language structure, we know that St. James did not write it. However it came from an area where St. James had followers and there may be some things passed on from him in the writing. In view of all of this, and with a certain amount of caution, I would like to share some of the points covered in the Protoevangelium concerning Mary and her birth and upbringing.
The Protoevangelium does repeat many items found in the scriptures concerning Mary and the birth of Jesus. But it adds details prior to that not mentioned in the sacred scriptures. It tells us that her parents were named Joachim and Anna and that Joachim and Anna were unable to conceive for many years and that both of them became depressed at not being able to have children. It tells us that Joachim became so depressed that he went out to the desert to live in solitude in a tent where he fasted for 40 days and 40 nights pleading with God. At the same time, Anna grieved not having Joachim with her and not being able to become pregnant. She prayed that God would bless her as He had blessed Sarah with Isaac. The Protoevangelium tells us that an angel appeared to Anna and told her that God had heard her prayer and that “you shall conceive and bring forth; and your seed shall be spoken of in all the world”.
About the same time, an angel appeared to Joachim and told him that God had heard his prayers. He was told to go to Anna and that Anna would conceive a child. Nine months later Anna gave birth to a little girl and they name her Mary. The Protoevangelium tells us that at the birth Anna said, “My soul has been magnified this day.” The writings go on to say that Mary walked at six months old. When she was one year old, Joachim held a great birthday feast for Mary and invited the priests, scribes and elders and all the people of Israel. The priests blessed Mary saying, “O God of our fathers, bless this child and give her an everlasting name to be named in all generations”.
The Protoevangelium tells us that at the age of three Joachim and Anna took Mary to the temple to be raised there hoping that her heart would be captivated by the Temple. When they gave her to the priest he kissed her and blessed her saying, “The Lord has magnified your name in all generations. In you, on the last of the days, the Lord will manifest His redemption to the sons of Israel.” The priest put her down on the third step and the grace of God came upon her and Mary danced with joy and the people loved her.
The Protoevangelium goes on to tell us that Mary stayed in the temple until she was 12 years old. At that time the chief priest received a visit from an angel while in the Holy of Holies telling him to assemble the widowers of the people and that God would give a sign as to which widower He chose for Mary. When all of the widowers assembled the High Priest again prayed to God for a sign to show which widower would receive Mary as his wife. When a dove appeared and landed on Joseph’s head, the high priest declared him to be the one who was chosen. At first Joseph declined saying that he had children and was an old man and it wasn’t good for him to take such a young girl. The chief priest reminded Joseph that it was God’s will and Joseph said to Mary, “Behold I have received you from the temple of the Lord; and now I leave you in my house and go away to build my buildings, and I shall come to you. The Lord will protect you”.
As interesting as all this is, we must remember that the Church refused to recognize the Protoevangelium as sacred scripture. We cannot be sure of any truth found here, but as I said earlier, this is a very early writing that passes on at least some of the tradition handed down about our beloved mother, Mary. It might help us imagine a little better the life of the most significant woman who ever walked the earth (and rule in Heaven). Hail Mary full of grace…….
As Saint Augustine said, “She is the flower of the field from whom bloomed the precious lily of the valley. Through her birth the nature inherited from our first parents is changed.”
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOTHER MARY….WE LOVE YOU
RIVERS OF LIVING WATER – Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal by Deacon Marty McIndoe
I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the RIVERS OF LIVING WATER 2017 Catholic Charismatic Renewal Jubilee Conference in Pittsburgh last month. This conference was designed to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. Since it was the Catholic Charismatic Renewal that led me in to the Church back in 1972 and has fed me so well with its Spiritual Fruits, my wife and I decided we had to go celebrate. I am so glad that we did. The Conference ran from Thursday July 29th through Sunday July 23rd. Many thousands of people filled the Pittsburgh convention center with songs of praise and witness to the power of the Holy Spirit at work in the Church today. Pittsburgh was chosen as the place to have the conference because the Renewal started near there.
From February 17th through the 19th in 1967, several Duquesne University students gathered at the ARK AND THE DOVE Retreat House (see picture) to experience more fully their Baptism and Confirmation. After considerable prayer, the Holy Spirit came down upon them there as in a New Pentecost. They experienced the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. This changed their lives dramatically and empowered them to go out and tell others and the Charismatic Renewal began, initially at Catholic Colleges and in local parishes. It quickly spread throughout the world so that today there are over 120 million Catholic Charismatics in the Church today. There were bus trips out to the Ark and the Dove Retreat house. My wife and I went and were so glad that we did. It is definitely a Holy Place (see pictures).
Top: Retreat House chapel where the students gathered to receive the Baptism in the Spirit. Bottom: Cross and Spirit placed on Retreat grounds to celebrate the 50th anniversary. In the back you can see the DOVE house. The large blue house is the ARK.
The Conference had large gatherings and masses for all those in attendance and included song groups that sung in English, Spanish and Haitian. There were workshops for all three languages to supplement the General Sessions. Msgr. Joseph Malagreca, from Brooklyn emceed the event. Msgr. is fluent in many languages and went back and forth in all the General Sessions. Msrg. Is a good friend of mine who actually prayed over my wife and I for the Baptism of the Holy Spirit while he was a seminarian. Bishop Sam Jacobs, and two other Bishops, were celebrants at the masses. The music and prayers of praise were outstanding.
Three bishops and many priests and deacons celebrated mass.
Another good friend of mine, Eileen Benthal, is a member of the English music group, Living Praise (see picture) that sang at the Conference. Being at the general sessions was like being in Heaven on Earth. Each general session had a keynote speaker. They included, Patti Masfield, Esther Garzon, Ralph Martin, Mario Castaneda, David Mangon and more. Father Dave Pivoka moved so many people with his homilies. Damian Stayne led a healing service where hundreds of people received miraculous healings. In the midst of so many things to do, the Conference planners took time to present a slide show featuring many of the early leaders of the Renewal. They also included, and honored, those who have died. Throughout all of the sessions, the power of God was continually being manifest. God was certainly at work.
Living Praise song group
The breakout sessions included many notable teachers and speakers such as my good friends, John and Theresa Boucher, Mary Healy, Sr. Nancy Kellar, Mary Beth McLanski Green, Vinson Synan, Michelle Moran, Fr. Bob Hogan, Dave Van Vickle, Alan Schreck, Dan and Caroline Dirkes and others. There was something for everyone. I attended a priest and deacon workshop by Bishop Sam Jacobs. He was fantastic.
On Saturday evening we had Eucharistic Adoration and then a Eucharistic procession out of the Conference, through the city streets to a park about a mile and a half away. Thousands of us went in the procession carrying lit candles. We started out of the Conference center going through their wall of water, which reminded me of Moses parting the Red sea (see pictures). It was a very moving experience and a sign of witness to the city.
We started our evening candlelit Eucharistic procession by passing through the walls of water at the Conference Center. It reminded me of Moses dividing the Red Sea.
The Eucharis was carried under a canopy as we all sang songs of praise.
We closed the conference on Sunday by celebrating the Mass of Pentecost with Bishop Sam Jacobs presiding. The whole weekend was a witness to the Power of the Holy Spirit at work in the Church. I know that it invigorated me. God is so good.
The streets were alive with the sound of music. This is outside our hotel. The spirit of joy and praise carried on throughout the hotels and restaurants and city streets.
Several times, Popes have addressed the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. Below you will find some of the most important quotations that have given the Renewal light and strength. ICCRS has published a book with all the messages and addresses which the Popes have given to the CCR: The book, “Then Peter stood up…” – Collection of the Popes’ Addresses to the CCR from its origin to the year 2012.
Pope Paul VI
“How then could this “spiritual renewal” not be “a chance” for the church and for the world? And how, in this case, could one not take all the means to ensure that it remains so? […] Nothing is more necessary for such a world, more and more secularized, than the testimony of this “spiritual renewal”, which we see the Holy Spirit bring about today in the most diverse regions and environments. Its manifestations are varied: deep communion of souls, close contact with God in faithfulness to the commitments undertaken at Baptism, in prayer that is often community prayer, in which each one, expressing himself freely, helps, supports and nourishes the prayer of others, and, at the basis of everything, a personal conviction. This conviction has its source not only in instruction received by faith but also in a certain experience of real life, namely, that without God, man can do nothing, that with him, on the contrary, everything becomes possible.”
Saint John Paul II, Pope
“The Catholic charismatic movement is one of the many fruits of the Second Vatican Council, which, like a new Pentecost, led to an extraordinary flourishing in the Church’s life of groups and movements particularly sensitive to the action of the Spirit. How can we not give thanks for the precious spirituals fruits that the Renewal has produced in the life of the Church and in the lives of so many people? How many lay faithful—men, women, young people, adults and elderly—have been able to experience in their own lives the amazing power of the Spirit and his gifts! How many people have rediscovered faith, the joy of prayer, the power and beauty of the Word of God, translating all this into generous service in the Church’s mission! How many lives have been profoundly changed! For all this today, together with you, I wish to praise and thank the Holy Spirit.”
Pope Benedict XVI
“What we learn in the New Testament on charism, which appeared as visible signs of the coming of the Holy Spirit, is not a historical event of the past, but a reality ever alive. It is the same divine Spirit, soul of the Church, that acts in every age and those mysterious and effective interventions of the Spirit are manifest in our time in a providential way. The Movements and New Communities are like an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the Church and in contemporary society. We can, therefore, rightly say that one of the positive elements and aspects of the Community of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal is precisely their emphasis on the charisms or gifts of the Holy Spirit and their merit lies in having recalled their topicality in the Church.”
Pope Francis
“You, the charismatic Renewal, have received a great gift from the Lord. Your movement’s birth was willed by the Holy Spirit to be ‘a current of grace in the Church and for the Church’. This is your identity: to be a current of grace. […] You have received the great gift of diversity of charisms, the diversity which becomes harmony in the Holy Spirit, and in service to the Church. […] The Charismatic Renewal is a great force meant to serve the preaching of the Gospel in the joy of the Holy Spirit. […] You, the people of God, the people of the Charismatic Renewal, must be careful not to lose the freedom which the Holy Spirit has given you! […] I expect you to share with everyone in the Church the grace of baptism in the Holy Spirit (a phrase we find in the Acts of the Apostles).
Life in the Spirit by Deacon Marty McIndoe
The Life in the Spirit Seminar – by Deacon Marty McIndoe
This year we will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the birth of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in the Catholic Church. Today there are over 160 million Catholics involved in the Renewal in over 230 countries. At the heart of the Charismatic Renewal is the Life in the Spirit Seminar. I would like to look at this great gift. But before I do this I would like to give a brief history of the renewal.
It is quite apparent that the early Church had the elements that are found in the Charismatic Renewal today. Many of our communities and our Saints also seemed to possess many of these same characteristics over the ages. However, by the modern age most of this seems to have gone dormant. At the beginning of the 1900’s something very special happened. It really seems to have started with a nun in Lucca, Italy, Elena Guerra (1835-1914), the founder of the Oblate Sisters of the Holy Spirit, whom Pope John XXIII was to beatify and give the title “Apostle of the Holy Spirit”in 1959.
Near the end of the 1800’s, Blessed Elena wrote 13 letters to Pope Leo XIII asking him to dedicate the new century, the 1900’s to the Holy Spirit. Pope Leo was very interested in doing everything he could to bring unity to the Church. He hoped to unite the Orthodox as well as Protestant sects and he saw the power that the Holy Spirit had in bringing forth unity. He was very open to Blessed Elena’s desire to bring the Holy Spirit out more in the Church. In 1895 he wrote an apostolic letter calling all the faithful to pray a special Novena to the Holy Spirit for Pentecost. In 1897 he wrote another letter, an encyclical on the Holy Spirit. The bishops all seemed to like these letters but didn’t act on them. Blessed Elena, in her sixth letter to Pope Leo said, “It is true that right after the publication of that encyclical, which I believe was dictated by the Holy Spirit, many bishops thanked Your Holiness. And this was good. But wouldn’t it have been better to obey?
Sister Elena and Pope Leo did not give up. Sister Elena asked that at the very beginning of the new century, Pope Leo dedicate the century to the Holy Spirit. On January 1, 1900 Pope Leo XIII ushered in the new century by solemnly invoking the Holy Spirit over all of Christendom. It should be noted that he included ALL of Christendom, not just the Catholic Church. He chanted the Veni Creator Spiritus. This new century was now begun with the Pope praying for the Holy Spirit to come on all Christians. Only a few hours after his prayers, a Methodist woman by the name of Agnes Ozman started speaking in tongues in Topeka, Kansas. This was seen as the beginning of the Pentecostal renewal in the Protestant Church. In the early 1900’s the Pentecostal Renewal flourished and grew. Today there are over 700 million Pentecostals. In 1962 Pope John XXIII opened the Vatican Council II invoking the Holy Spirit and using the phrase, “a new Pentecost”. Five years later the Charismatic Renewal in the Catholic Church began when Catholic professors from Duquesne University went on a Cursillo in Pittsburg and started studying the Holy Spirit. A new Pentecost flowed among them and is still very active today. As the renewal began to grow, a Life in the Spirit Seminar was developed to help people be open to the Holy Spirit. I went through that Life in the Spirit Seminar in 1972 and it led me in to the Catholic Church. It helped me to discover the power of God’s Holy Spirit and the riches within the Catholic Church. I was welcomed in to the Church in 1973 and my life has been totally changed. I have seen so many gifts of the Holy Spirit made manifest through so many different people. I have seen so many miracles and lives changed to follow Jesus. I strongly believe in the fruits that this Life in the Spirit Seminar brings forth.
Pope Francis seems to also believe in the fruits of this seminar. Addressing a worldwide retreat for clergy at St John Lateran Church in Rome, the Pope reminded his audience of priests and bishops from 90 countries that they were dispensers of grace, and could never love or forgive too much. “Speaking of dispensers of grace, I ask each and all of you that as part of the current of grace of Charismatic Renewal you organize seminars of Life in the Spirit in your parishes and seminaries, schools, in neighborhoods, to share Baptism in the Spirit,” said Francis. “It is catechesis. It is catechesis that produces, by the work of the Holy Spirit, the personal encounter with Jesus who changes our life. (from Goodnews Magazine, ccr.org.uk and catholicnews.org.uk).
The Life in the Spirit Seminar has several forms and can be done over several weeks, or one weekend. It usually consists of seven talks. Here are the normal titles used for each seminar talk:
1 – The Explanation Talk
2 – The Sign up Session
3 – Seminar 1: God’s Love
4 – Seminar 2: Salvation
5 – Seminar 3: The New Life
6 – Seminar 4: Receiving God’s Gift
7 – Seminar 5: Praying for the Baptism of the Holy Spirit
8 – Seminar 6: Growth
9 – Seminar 7: Transformation in Christ
10 – Continue in a Charismatic Prayer Meeting
I would highly recommend that if you haven’t already done a Life in the Spirit Seminar, or even if you did one many years ago, search your parish or local parishes for one and attend it regularly. I think you will be glad you did. Please, if you are Catholic; choose one given in a Catholic Church. It is designed especially for you and makes references to our Sacramental life.
For more information on being baptized in the spirit, click on this link which brings you to an earlier article I wrote: What is the Big Deal About the Holy Spirit
For more information on the 50th Anniversary Jubilee Conference in Pittsburg click here: Charismatic Jubilee
BORED AGAIN CATHOLIC – How the Mass Could Save Your Life by Timothy P. O’Malley – reflections by Deacon Marty McIndoe
You probably noticed that in the topic I called this a reflection, not a book review. My purpose is to share with you how this book touched me. I will leave a real book review to those more skilled in the process, like Pete Socks from Catholic Stand. To begin with, you must know that I absolutely love the mass. I am a daily communicant and I believe that the mass is the “source and summit” of my faith. When I saw this book I immediately pre-ordered it. I highly respect Timothy P. O’Malley as an author and he was writing about a topic that was dear to my heart. I did worry about the first part of the title, BORED AGAIN CATHOLIC. I saw it as a cute spin on “born again” but I never considered the mass boring. The second part of the title was more to my liking, HOW THE MASS COULD SAVE YOUR LIFE. I know this statement to be true.
From the very beginning I saw what Timothy P. O’Malley was getting at in looking at the “boredom” of the mass. He shows how there is good boredom and bad boredom. The good boredom is the space where you can allow God to work. In it we can ponder on the wonders of God at work in the mass. The bad boredom is really a time where we allow ourselves unhealthy distractions from what God is doing. The author gives great examples of good boredom and bad boredom. He really makes you think about how the mind and its thought processes can lift you up spiritually. There is no doubt that the author has a great love for the mass and for liturgy in general. I see a lot of myself in him.
The book takes just about every part of the mass and applies personal stories, as well as scripture and quotes from theologians, Saints, Popes etc. and creates a space for your own personal reflections. It even includes questions at the end of each chapter to help you reflect on what was just given to you. Some of the questions even challenge you to actions that will help you in better understanding the gift of the mass and liturgy. I cannot think of any adult or teen that wouldn’t learn and grow by reading this book. Whether you are a seasoned Catholic, or a new Catholic, this book is for you. I can also see that it could be used to help non-Catholics better understand the mass (and hopefully decide that they too need the mass).
As I said earlier, I am a daily communicant who really loves the mass. This book gave me some new insights in to the mass and liturgy, even though I have been doing this since I became Catholic in 1973. It gave me a better appreciation for the signs used in the mass. His discussion of how when his mind might wander and then get caught up in the smoke rising from the incense in to the light of the sun made me better appreciate the use of incense (which we really do not use enough). I loved the author’s suggestion of how we really should enshrine THE BOOK in our homes. For many years we always kept a large bible open in a prominent area of our living room. Somehow we got away from this. I now plan on starting doing this again.
I really loved the chapter dealing with the homily. As a person who often does both weekday and Sunday homilies, I was moved by what Dr. O’Malley said. He recalled how one day he took his toddler to the back of the Church because the toddler was fussy. He admitted that he himself was fussy because the homily was not on target and was too long. He recalled that the homily was not on target because it did not connect to the Gospel. It was filled with too many personal stories. Now, I have no problem with some personal stories, but I realize that everything that I say during a homily must connect to God’s word. I recalled what was said to me by the Bishop who was ordaining me. He handed me a book of the Gospels and said, “Believe what you read, Teach what you believe, and Practice what you teach”. I actually keep a small plaque on my desk saying this so that I always remember what being a deacon is all about. We too often hear that the Catholic Church suffers from poor homilies. Actually, I have been lucky that the bishops and priests and deacons that I have been exposed to usually give great homilies. This book inspired me to be better in my preaching. It also reinforced my love of liturgy and the mass. I know that I could tell you more, but I really believe that the best thing that I can tell you is to go out and get the book and read it. Actually, don’t just read it, ponder it. God is so good. Thank you Dr. Timothy P. O’Malley for this gem.
Teach as Jesus Taught – in 12 Easy Steps by Deacon Marty McIndoe
TO TEACH AS JESUS TAUGHT – IN 12 STEPS
Jesus was a fantastic teacher. We can learn from His example, and from the scriptures, how we too can be a great teacher. Whether we are a professional teacher, home school teacher, religious education teacher, parent or grandparent, Bishop, Priest or Deacon, layperson, we can follow 12 easy steps to teach as Jesus taught.
The first six are about you; the last six are about your teaching
1 – Keep growing in your own personal relationship with Jesus
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28
2 – Dig in to the Scriptures
“All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness” 2 Timothy 3:16
3 – Stay in touch with the Holy Spirit
“But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you” John 14:26
4 – Be a person of service/ministry
“As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace” 1 Peter 4:10
5 – Take time for focused learning
“Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come” 1 Timothy 4: 7,8
6 – Take time to rest and pray
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11: 28-30
7 – Know your students
“Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind” 1Peter 3:8
8 – Teach in stories
“Jesus told them a story to teach them that they should keep on talking with God and not give up.” Luke 18:1
9 – Seize teachable moments
Read any of the more than 50 parables of Jesus
10 – Engage other viewpoints
““You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?” Matthew 5: 43-47
11 – Keep up with dialogue
There are many bible verses that present stories of people in dialogue with each other. Good teachers also dialogue with their students.
12 – Teach by example
“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” 2 Timothy 2:15
Final thoughts:
“Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.” Titus 2:7-8
“Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6
“A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.” Luke 6:40
“And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19
And finally, “What we need is a cup of understanding, a barrel of love, and an ocean of patience.” Saint Francis de Sales
The Gift of Healing; and some miracles I have witnessed by Deacon Marty McIndoe
In 1 Corinthians 12 verse 9, St. Paul tells us that the Holy Spirit gives us the gift of healing. We have heard numerous accounts of Jesus healing people, and even of the disciples healing people, but do we still believe that healings occur? Is this gift still present to us today? Do we have to be a Saint in order to have this gift? I personally believe that this gift is still very present among all of God’s people. I have seen several miraculous healings with my own eyes. I would like to take a few moments to look at this precious gift of healing that God has given his people.
First of all, it used to be assumed that illness and sin go hand in hand. You just have to read the bible to see how often the two are put together. I think that we have to be careful to avoid thinking that sin causes sickness. Sickness seems to just happen to people, some good people, and some sinners. It doesn’t discriminate between the two. There is no doubt that some sins might bring about sickness. For instance, promiscuity and sex outside of marriage may very well bring about sexually transmitted diseases. Not properly taking care of our body, can also bring about illness. These things are pretty obvious, but most illnesses are caused by various factors that don’t include sin. We are called to live as holy people, outside of sin, but many who do still get sick. It just happens.
We are very fortunate to live in a time when medical science can deal with many illnesses and bring about healing. God created our body to be able to heal itself in many ways (minor cuts, etc.) but there are so many illnesses that need the help of medical science. I really believe that God has given to our doctors and nurses and other medical personnel the gift of healing. He has given them the ability to go for intense schooling to help treat our illnesses. He heals through the very work that they do and we should recognize that. Probably the best way to receive any healing is through the combination of medical help and prayer. A good friend of mine who is undergoing medical treatment just told me that he can feel the power of prayer at work through the treatments. I think this is so true. All healings are really miraculous, even those through “normal” medical means.
Sometimes there seems to be times when the gift of healing is made manifest in very remarkable ways. I remember one time attending a Priest’s and Deacon’s conference at the Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio. On one evening of the conference they opened it up to the public to attend a “healing mass”. There were several priests at that conference who were known for having a healing ministry within the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, and they were going to pray for healings. I was sitting in a huge tent with fellow priests and deacons and members of the public, when I noticed a man coming in who was blind. He had two family members with him to help him. He sat about four chairs away from me. I remember thinking that he must really be hoping to be healed. The mass started and after we all received the Eucharist, the priests began leading us in a healing service. One of the priests went down among the people sprinkling them with Holy Water. When he came to us I remember feeling the water hit me and I heard a loud crying out sigh from the blind man. I looked over and he was praising God and dancing in place. He took off his dark glasses and was looking all over. The people who brought him were crying. I kept looking over to him and he began to look through his wife’s purse, picking up individual items and staring at them incredulously. He had been healed. It was a remarkable sight to see.
Another time my wife and I were on retreat at the St. Augustine retreat center on Staten Island. We were attending a healing retreat given by Father Francis MacNutt. Fr. Francis was known for having the gift of healing. There were several healings at that retreat, but one that I really remember was of a young college age girl who walked with difficulty and wore one shoe that had a platform on it making it about six inches higher than the other shoe. She explained to us all that she had been in a very bad car accident and that they had to operate and take out about six inches of her leg bone that had been crushed. The raised shoe platform was to make up for that six inches of missing bone. Even with the platform shoe on, she walked with great difficulty due to other damages to her hip. Father MacNutt prayed over her for an extended period of time. I remember hearing someone near her during the prayers saying that they saw the leg growing. I had to really doubt this and it was getting late so my wife and I went to bed. The next day we saw this woman walking perfectly normal with no shoes on. I still remember her playfully, or should I say joyfully, running up and down the stairs. She had to go around for the rest of that day with no shoes on because now both legs were the same length and the raised shoe was a problem. I know, this is hard to believe, but I saw it. I also remember her mother coming to pick her up from the retreat and seeing her back to normal. She was in shock. Yes, God does do miraculous and remarkable healings. I have seen others and heard of others and have no doubt that miraculous healings occur.
The problem that I have is that I don’t understand why some people are healed and some are not. Right after that Staten Island retreat, I came home filled with expectant hope of healings for some people that I knew. One of them was a young teen age boy with cancer. His parents attended the prayer meeting in our parish and I knew them to be faith filled people. I remember going over to their house to pray with their son fully confident that he would be healed. Unfortunately he wasn’t, and died shortly after. I do believe that in death we receive the greatest healing possible. Still it is hard to lose a young person like that. Unfortunately, this has been repeated several times. I know that God heals, and I also know that death is the door to great healing, fullness of life in Him.
We cannot know why some people are healed, and some don’t seem to be. But we must know that prayers and the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick do work. We also must trust that in any of our sicknesses and our pains, God can use them to bring about the good. It is all about a God who showers us with miracles every day because of His great love for us. No matter what, He is at work in our life and leads us to the fullness of life in Him.
Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton and How She Personally Brought a Miracle to My Family by Deacon Marty McIndoe
January 4th is the feast day of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton. She is the first native born American to be canonized the Church. She is a convert, was married with children, and the woman who started the first Catholic School in the United States. She was a prolific reader and loved the scriptures and the Eucharist and the Blessed Virgin Mary. She also gave me the gift of my daughter (see below).
Elizabeth was born two years before the American Revolution and was from the upper class of New York City. She married a wealthy man and was extremely happy for many years. Unfortunately, her husband became quite ill and lost his import business. She cared for him and his younger siblings when his parents died. Elizabeth brought her sick husband to Italy to help his health, and they stayed with friends, but he finally died there from tuberculosis. While in Italy she was influenced by their friend’s Catholic faith and converted to Catholicism. She returned to the United States to settle in Baltimore. There, at the suggestion of the president of St. Mary’s College, Elizabeth started a secular school. It didn’t take long for Elizabeth to decide to change it to a Catholic School. She started an order of sisters known as the “Sisters of Charity” (following closely the rule of St. Vincent de Paul in France) who helped children by establishing schools and orphanages. Even though Mother Seton contracted tuberculosis herself, she worked tirelessly guiding the order. Mother Seton died in 1821 at the age of 46, only sixteen years after becoming Catholic. She was beatified by Pope John XXIII in 1963 and canonized by Pope Paul VI on September 14th, 1975.
Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton is very special to me. I attribute the gift of our daughter to her. My wife and I desperately wanted children but after many years of trying and then going to doctors, we decided that God wanted us to adopt. The doctors never found anything wrong with either of us, but we were never able to conceive. Back in the 70’s it was very difficult to adopt. I didn’t have the money to go through a private adoption and I was worried if we would ever have any children. One day, both my wife and I felt, through prayer, that the time was right for us to go through an agency to try to adopt a baby. We really wanted a newborn, but most agencies just laughed when we told them. However, we felt inspired to not give up and to keep trying. We called the Long Island Adoption Services number and they told us to give a call to New York Foundling Hospital in Manhattan. They said that this hospital offered classes twice a month on ways to adopt.
When we called NY Foundling Hospital, the woman on the phone seemed so excited. She told us to come in to the next meeting that they were having on September 14th, 1975. We signed up for that and drove in that day. We found ourselves in a room with eleven other couples and one single person. The social worker came in and said she would explain different ways to go about adopting. She first said that she would show us pictures of some older children that were awaiting adoption. Most of them were special needs children that really tugged on your heart. They were also older children. She then explained ways that you could adopt younger, normal (I really don’t like that word, but that is what she used) children. At that time, Korean children were popular and she explained how to get them. She also told us that there were a number of black American children available and how to get them. She then paused for a moment, quite dramatically, and said that she had something very important to tell us. Both Martha and I were sitting there a little stunned by all that had been presented to us. We were quite curious what was left to tell.
The social worker said to us that for the first time in about eight years, their “white infant” list was growing short. Their adoption committee decided that they could not advertise that they were taking new names for this list because too many would apply. Since they placed only two or three babies per year, they decided to open the list only to the people who showed up at the next adoption class, the one we were attending. Martha and I both looked at each other, recognizing that this was no coincidence that we were here. We knew God was at work. We immediately put our names in and were told that we would be contacted in within 30 days by a social worker. Martha and I walked out of the class and went downstairs and went in to the chapel to thank God. We knew we were there as part of His plan. I remember a large statue of Elizabeth Ann Seton just outside the chapel. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought that she winked and smiled at us. We later found out that New York Foundling Hospital was operated and founded by the Sisters of Charity who were founded by Elizabeth Ann Seton. We were told that the process could take several years, first we had to be checked out, and then we had to wait until we were next on the list and a baby arrived. Martha and I drove home to Long Island praising and thanking God.
A little before Christmas in 1976 we were called and told we were next up. It was a great Christmas for us. On January 4th, 1977, we were called and told that our daughter was born the day before and we could pick her up at New York Foundling Hospital on January 7th. I looked on the calendar and we were called on the Feast of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. We had remembered that when we were driving in to the initial session in September 1975 at New York Foundling, the radio was covering the news that Elizabeth Ann Seton was just canonized that day. We had received our daughter through the Sisters of Charity, the order she founded. We saw the hand of God at work in all of this and felt that St. Elizabeth Ann Seton was an integral part of his plan, and knew we had to name her Elizabeth Ann McIndoe. Our social worker told us that she had been doing this for many years and had never seen a baby go to a couple that shared so much of the same ethnic background as the child. Not only was our daughter from basically the same Irish, English and a little Italian background, but her mother was Catholic and her father protestant, just as Martha and I had been. Our social worker told us that Elizabeth’s birth mother became pregnant in High School and would not abort her baby due to her Catholic faith. I thank God that her birth mother saved her life and offered her for adoption. She was a very strong, faith filled young woman. Our social worker told us that many of the babies that they placed were born to drug addicted mothers and needed special medical help. Elizabeth was born from a drug free mother and in perfect health. God is so good.
The evening before we had to pick our daughter up in Manhattan a winter storm was brewing. We woke up to find about 11 plus inches of snow on the ground. The roads were not good and we had to drive almost 60 miles in to the city. I called the hospital and told them that we planned on coming no matter what the weather. It was a slow trek in to the city, but we made it. Nothing was going to stop us from getting our daughter. A last worry was parking near the hospital. If anyone has been to NYC, they know that parking is always a problem. When you have a snow storm, it becomes much worse as there is no place to put the plowed snow. I remember coming up to the hospital, praying that God would get us a parking spot close to the hospital. Just as we pulled up to the entrance we needed, a parked car pulled out and gave us a place. God answers prayer, even for parking spots.
We drove home with our little miracle adopted baby. We were so very happy. To this very day, exactly 40 years later, our daughter has brought us so much joy. She has also given us three wonderful grandsons who light up our life. There has never been a time that I haven’t thanked God for the precious gift he gave us, through adoption, of our daughter, Elizabeth Ann.
Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, we thank you for your role in bringing us our FANTASTIC daughter. God works through His Saints. God is so good!
ASSISI, THE HOME OF ST. FRANCIS by Deacon Marty McIndoe
Back in 2004 I was blessed to be able to make a retreat in the beautiful, and old, city of Assisi in Italy. It was wonderful. Assisi has the charm of being unchanged since the middle ages. It also has a true sense of PEACE about it, unlike I have seen anywhere else. It is certainly a most wonderful place to visit. I want to share with you some pictures I took there. God bless you and may St. Francis always lead you to Jesus and the true PEACE that only He can give.
A statue of St. Francis found in the grounds of nearby La Verna, a place he loved to retreat to.
Looking from the top of the mountain down on to the city of Assisi. This old section of Assisi was never developed over because the new city was built below it.
Assisi was actually originally a Roman city. Here is a Roman temple built before the birth of Jesus. This is in the town square and was a temple to Minerva. In the 300’s the Christians made it in to a church now called Mary over Minerva. I was blessed to assist at mass inside here.
The Church of Mary over Minerva with the middle aged church tower built next to it. This tower was present at the time of Francis.
One of the city gates built by the Romans
The Church of St. Claire. This church contains the remains of St. Claire as well as the original cross of San Damiano that spoke to Francis telling him to “Rebuild my Church”.
One of the many small, but beautiful streets of Assisi.
A bell tower of St. Stephen’s church. A place that Francis loved to visit.
Another quaint street of Assisi. Great food throughout the city (typical of Italy). One restaurant that we ate in existed in the time of Francis. It had a Plexiglas floor that allowed you to see the Roman ruins it was built upon.
Since Assisi is built on a mountain side, many of its streets consist of stairs.
The large Church built over the grave of St. Francis. It is absolutely beautiful inside.
The outside lawn shows the Franciscan Tau symbol as well as the PAX symbol. St. Francis was all about the cross and peace.
The actual grave of St. Francis. The front wall was removed to be able to see his stone coffin. We had mass here.
Another quaint street of Assisi.
We walked down from Assisi to the Church of San Damiano, as Francis so often did.
On the walk down, we saw the beautiful olive groves with a farmer burning off clippings.
The Church of San Damiano. It was originally built in the 900’s but had fallen in to ruin by the time of St. Francis. He loved to go there to pray. One day the cross inside spoke to him telling him to rebuild the church. Originally, Francis took this to mean physically rebuilding and he started that. Later he realized that he was told to rebuild (spiritually) the whole Church.
The cloisters of San Damiano.
Looking up to Assisi from the Church of San Damiano. Beauty and Peace and God’s Spirit fill all around here.
I hope that this pictorial view of Assisi has helped you to appreciate the beauty of the place St. Francis called home. If you haven’t been there yet, I hope you get a chance to go. May our good Lord bless you with His peace.
Is The Bible Alone The ‘Word Of God’? by Matt Nelson
When it comes to Christian doctrine the word “alone” is a very heavy word; for it comes with the burden of proving an absolute statement. Words matter—especially divinely revealed words; and correct interpretation of those words matter most of all.
We have to be especially careful with biblical phrases or passages that we hear and pray often. These can become so cliché that we fail to think about what they really mean and glaze over them without thinking about them. Remember: we are to love God with all our mind (Lk 10:27) and therefore we should never stop allowing the written Word of God to penetrate deeper into our intellect, the site of understanding. As Frank Sheed often reminded his readers, every new thing we learn about God is a new thing to love about God.
Furthermore, grasping the true teaching of Christ and the apostles aids us in our own growth in holiness and assists us in becoming the most effective evangelists we can be. St. Paul writes:
“Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.” (1 Tim 4:16, KJV)
So is the Bible the Word of God? Yes.
Is the Bible alone the Word of God? Not according to the Bible.
For one, Jesus himself is the Word of God made flesh (Jn 1:1). But the Scriptures also reveal God’s Word to be something both spoken and written, something passed on by word of mouth and by letter (see 2 Thess 2:15).
All Christians can agree that the Bible is the inspired Word of God; for the Scriptures are theopneustos (God-breathed) according to Paul (2 Tim 3:16). But as I’ve mentioned above, God’s Word does not come to us merely by the Bible alone.
Sometimes the divine word travels directly from God’s mouth to man’s ear, such as it did to Abram in the Book of Genesis:
“After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” (Gen 15:1)
These words are in the Scriptures now but at the time they were not; instead God’s holy Word was spoken directly to Abram in a vision.
The risen Christ appears to St. Paul and speaks to him after his conversion; but there is no direct transcript of this encounter between Paul and the Lord in the Scriptures. Surely, however, the words spoken by Christ directly to Paul can be considered “God-breathed.” Consider also when God speaks to Jesus—his beloved Son in whom he is well-pleased—at his baptism in the Jordan (Mt 3:17; Mk 1:11).
Here’s what I’m getting at: God’s inerrant Word comes to man in different ways than merely in writing. That the Bible is the sole rule of faith was never the view of the early Christians for, just like St. Paul and the apostles, the early Church writers held that tradition was to be revered and upheld for the sake of orthodoxy (or correct belief).
St. Ireneaus, and a disciple of Polycarp who was a disciple of John the apostle, affirmed tradition on many occasions—especially when addressing the heresies of his time. He writes:
“With this church, because of its superior origin, all churches must agree—that is, all the faithful in the whole world—and it is in her that the faithful everywhere have maintained the apostolic tradition.” (Against Heresies, 3:3:1–2)
Now let’s get this straight: when Jesus gets after the Pharisees for their “traditions of men” he is not condemning all traditions; he is condemning religious traditions that directly contradict the Word of God and the Christian way of love.
Apostolic tradition is a whole different ball game.
Protestants might be tempted to respond by saying, “Fine! But what Ireneaus means by “apostolic tradition” is the Scriptures.” But that’s a groundless assertion. No early Church writer ever affirmed this notion of sola scriptura. No passage in the Bible affirms that only the Bible is to be considered apostolic tradition (in fact, the Bible directly contradicts this as you’ll see). And finally, most of the early Christians had no access to the Gospels and epistles of the apostles (or copies of them), and the New Testament Scriptures were not even formally determined to be inspired until the fourth century. The gospel of Jesus Christ was primarily communicated to the earliest Christians by preaching!
Often Catholics are criticized by Protestants because they put sacred tradition on the same footing as sacred Scripture. Catholics assert that Scripture and tradition “flow from the same divine wellspring.” But this insight into the status of tradition has its roots in the Bible. In fact, tradition is something that comes to man from God in both written and oral form—the Bible itself is a tradition, for its contents are not declared in Scripture but rather have been discerned by the Church itself with the inspiration and guidance of the Holy Spirit. It is an interesting (and often overlooked fact) that both Catholics and Protestants put their trust in the discernment of the Catholic Church in this matter of the “inspired” contents of the Bible.
St. Paul explicitly refers to oral and written tradition in his second letter to the Thessalonians:
“So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter.” (2 Thess 2:15)
And in his first letter to the Thessalonians, Paul refers to the word of God as something passed on by word of mouth (and not just by letter):
“And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.” (1 Thess 2:13)
And HERE Paul refers to the oral tradition passed on as the Word of God. Similarly in 1 Peter, apostolic preaching is referred to as inspired by God:
“‘[T]he word of the Lord abides for ever.’
That word is the good news which was preached to you.” (1 Pet 1:25)
Again, the point is that God’s inerrant Word (his divine and errorless revelation) comes to man in several ways and this is evident in the Bible, especially through the writings of St. Paul.
The Word of God is always perfect and without error; but it is not always in writing.
God can speak his Word directly to man interiorly. He can speak through visions or miraculous encounters. God speaks to man through the Scriptures. And God speaks to man through the sacred oral tradition of the Church (the foremost example being the “tradition of the New Testament books.”
G.K Chesterton saw the practicality of tradition, both in religious belief and in society. He wrote famously:
“Tradition means giving a vote to most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead.”
In other words, the voices of those who have died before us matter; and especially the voices of the apostles. Christians thus have a duty to interpret the Scriptures in unison with the tradition of the apostles, for they have looked him in the eyes and heard him speak; they have watched God move among man. It was the apostles, and them alone, that could say:
“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life.” (1 Jn 1:1)
Check out Matt’s website at: http://www.reasonablecatholic.com
The Church, from the very Beginning…was Catholic! By Kenneth Henderson – Part 2 of 3
The Synagogue in Capernaum where Jesus and His disciples visited many times.
We can see by the year A.D. 110, in the writings of Saint Ignatius of Antioch, a disciple of Saint John, yes “that” John, that the Church had bishops that had authority. That they were to obey the clergy and deacons, just as they would the apostles. They were also supposed to regard the bishop as a “type” of the Father. (…hmmm, sound familiar?) Also note that the Eucharist was only valid if the bishop or by a person authorized by the bishop were to celebrate it. They had a council and a college of apostles and without these it could not be called a church. Why? Because Jesus provided an authoritative teaching body in the Church to maintain the Truth, guided by the Holy Spirit. Ignatius even calls the Church, the Catholic Church! Sounds like what we refer to today as the Magisterium of the Catholic Church. Read for yourself.
Ignatius of Antioch
Follow your bishop, every one of you, as obediently as Jesus Christ followed the Father. Obey your clergy too as you would the apostles; give your deacons the same reverence that you would to a command of God. Make sure that no step affecting the Church is ever taken by anyone without the bishop’s sanction. The sole Eucharist you should consider valid is one that is celebrated by the bishop himself, or by some person authorized by him. Where the bishop is to be seen, there let all his people be; just as, wherever Jesus Christ is present, there is the Catholic Church (Letter to the Smyrneans 8:2 [A.D. 110]). –> Read online in its entirety here
For, since you are subject to the bishop as to Jesus Christ, you appear to me to live not after the manner of men, but according to Jesus Christ, who died for us, in order, by believing in His death, you may escape from death. It is therefore necessary that, as you indeed do, so without the bishop you should do nothing, but should also be subject to the presbytery 1, as to the apostle of Jesus Christ, who is our hope, in whom, if we live, we shall [at last] be found. It is fitting also that the deacons, as being [the ministers] of the mysteries 2 of Jesus Christ, should in every respect be pleasing to all. For they are not ministers of meat and drink, but servants of the Church of God. They are bound, therefore, to avoid all grounds of accusation [against them], as they would do fire.
Be you subject to the bishop as to the Lord, for “he watches for your souls, as one that shall give account to God.” (Heb 13:17) Wherefore also, you appear to me to live not after the manner of men, but according to Jesus Christ, who died for us, in order that, by believing in His death, you may by baptism be made partakers of His resurrection. It is therefore necessary, whatsoever things you do, to do nothing without the bishop. And be you subject also to the presbytery, as to the apostles of Jesus Christ, who is our hope, in whom, if we live, we shall be found in Him. It behooves you also, in every way, to please the deacons, who are [ministers] of the mysteries of Christ Jesus; for they are not ministers of meat and drink, but servants of the Church of God. They are bound, therefore, to avoid all grounds of accusation [against them], as they would a burning fire. Let them, then, prove themselves to be such. (Letter to the Trallians 2:1-2 [A. D. 110]). –> Read online in its entirety here
1- presbytery translates in English as priest, ministers.
2- Mysteries of Christ, also translated as Sacraments
In like manner let everyone respect the deacons as they would respect Jesus Christ, and just as they respect the bishop as a type of the Father, and the presbyters as the council of God and college of the apostles. Without these, it cannot be called a Church. I am confident that you accept this, for I have received the exemplar of your love and have it with me in the person of your bishop. His very demeanor is a great lesson and his meekness is his strength. I believe that even the godless do respect him (Letter to the Trallians 3:1-2 [A. D. 110]). –> Read online in its entirety here
The early church was NOT an unorganized band of Christian followers, but a very organized group, even though they were most of the time practicing their faith “underground” due to persecution. There were no factions or splinter groups that were allowed to stay in operation, but as Ignatius points out, if you were not in union with and under the authority of the bishops, then you were not following the Church that Jesus Christ established.
In the Martyrdom of Saint Polycarp, also a disciple of John the Apostle, written around A.D. 160 we can see that the Church at the time was Catholic and shows that the church was seen as a unified Church.
The Martyrdom of Polycarp
When finally he concluded his prayer, after remembering all who had at any time come his way – small folk and great folk, distinguished and undistinguished, and the whole Catholic Church throughout the world – the time for departure came. So they placed him on an ass, and brought him into the city on a great Sabbath (The Martyrdom of Polycarp 8 [A.D. 160]). –> Read online in its entirety here
We also see in the writings of Saint Irenaeus in A.D. 189 that he refers to a unified Church. Of important note, this writing comes from his Letter Against Heresies. He is pointing out in the letter that any who teach a gospel outside of the unity of the Catholic Church are teaching heresy.
Irenaeus
The Catholic Church possesses one and the same faith throughout the whole world, as we have already said (Against Heresies 1:10 [A.D. 189]). –> Read online in its entirety here
Since therefore we have such proofs, it is not necessary to seek the truth among others which it is easy to obtain from the Church; since the apostles, like a rich man [depositing his money] in a bank, lodged in her hands most copiously all things pertaining to the truth: so that every man, whosoever will, can draw from her the water of life. For she is the entrance to life; all others are thieves and robbers. On this account we are bound to avoid them, but to make choice of the things pertaining to the Church with the utmost diligence, and to lay hold of the tradition of the truth. For how stands the case? Suppose there should arise a dispute relative to some important question among us. Should we not have recourse to the most ancient churches with which the apostles held constant intercourse, and learn from them what is certain and clear in regard to the present question? For how should it be if the apostles themselves had not left us writings? Would it not be necessary [in that case] to follow the course of the tradition which they handed down to those to whom they did commit the church? (ibid. 3:4). –> Read online in its entirety here
Did he say that we are to lay hold of the tradition of the truth? Yes, he did. And how did he say we should solve disputes and questions about what we should believe? We should have recourse to the ancient churches, which at this point in history were only around 200 years old. Still, that is a long time. Yet, here we are 2000 years later, and yet those outside of the Catholic Church, do not follow his advice.
LOOK FOR PART 3 ON WEDNESDAY