Have Too Many Of Us Forgotten Our Catholic Responsibility?

(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons)

 

What is our Catholic responsibility? It is painfully obvious. Our duty is to know the truth revealed by Christ and taught by His Church. Our duty is to live the truth, as Christ who is Truth Incarnate showed us by His life on earth how we are to live in this passing world of space and time. Our duty is to defend the truth, because we realize how disastrous are the consequences of error and how blessed are the fruits of possessing the truth. Our duty is to share the truth with others, because this is the highest practice of charity, on which our salvation depends. Our duty is to suffer for the truth. We are to rejoice as Christ tells us when people oppose us, criticize us, and speak all kinds of calumny against us – in a word – when we are persecuted for proclaiming the truth which God, who is Truth, became man to reveal. Our Lord, Truth Incarnate, was crucified for proclaiming in Palestine. 

Servant of God Father John A. Hardon, S. J.

 

The Forgotten Purpose of Fasting

(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Dear Brothers and Sisters! In our own day, fasting seems to have lost something of its spiritual meaning, and has taken on, in a culture characterized by the search for material well-being, a therapeutic value for the care of one’s body. Fasting certainly brings benefits to physical well-being, but for believers, it is, in the first place, a “therapy” to heal all that prevents them from conformity to the will of God. The faithful practice of fasting contributes, moreover, to conferring unity to the whole person, body and soul, helping to avoid sin and grow in intimacy with the Lord. 

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI

What God Requires of The Baptized

(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons)
 

These three things God requires of all the baptized: right faith in the heart, truth on the tongue, and temperance in the body.

St. Gregory Nazianzus

 

The Priest Is Only A Man. But...

The priest is only a man, a sinner like all of us, but in the moment of giving absolution he is Christ Himself Who forgives us…In the sacrament of reconciliation, we do not confess our sins to a mere mortal.  We whisper our transgression to Christ Himself through the ears of the priest, His representative…When you approach the confessional, know this that I Myself am waiting there for you.  I am only hidden by the priest, but I Myself act in your soul…Never permit fear of confession to keep you from the font of God’s mercy. 

Ven. Fulton J. Sheen

 

Tragic That We Rarely Hear This Truth Preached Anymore

(Photo©Michael Seagriff)

 

 

In the life of the body a man is sometimes sick, and unless he takes medicine, he will die. Even so in the spiritual life a man is sick on account of sin. For that reason he needs medicine so that he may be restored to health; and this grace is bestowed in the Sacrament of Penance.

St. Thomas Aquinas