the old blog

Two of the precepts of the Church are that we must receive Holy Communion at least once a year, and we must attend Mass every Sunday and Holy Day of Obligation. If you regularly attend one parish, you quickly notice that hardly anyone goes to confession while almost everyone receives Holy Communion. One hopes this is because all Catholics are living lives of such extreme sanctity that they don't need to avail themselves of confession beyond... [ Read more ]
I was born and raised Catholic. I was baptized as a baby, did my first communion, reconciliation and in 8th grade I was confirmed. I went to mass EVERY Sunday with my family. EVEN on Vacation! I used to have check off parts in my head. That meant mass was over in 20 min, 10 min, WOO HOO, 5min after communion. I never felt much nor understood it. Once in a while, a good song after mass would stir a little something inside me but by the time we... [ Read more ]
It's been said that St. Thomas Aquinas as knew the objections to the faith better than the objectors themselves did. Thomas regretted the medieval Church's tendency to burn heretical books, because he believed that by refuting the strongest arguments for error we can arrive at a better grasp of the truth. For example, the canons of the First Vatican Council declared the following about the nature of God: If anyone... [ Read more ]
Once again our country has been thrown into the “gay marriage” debate, and the stakes have seemingly never been higher now that the Supreme Court is involved. The reasons for the Catholic Church’s opposition to state-sanctioned same sex unions have been explained and written about extensively as of late (Check out Noe Perez’ “Why Marriage Cannot Be Redefined”), and I will not here reiterate what others have... [ Read more ]
Let's be honest, the problem with Catholic culture in America is fundamentally a problem of education. Since the Baltimore Catechism went out of style in the 1960's, American Catholics had been without a comprehensive and pedagogical resource with which to form their or their childrens' minds. It was not until 1995 that Bl. John Paul II introduced us to the revised and updated Catechism of the Catholic Church - the first definitive... [ Read more ]

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