BIG C CATHOLICS

By Matthew Coffin The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity is May 22nd. The Divine Family that is God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit is the central mystery of Christian faith and life . The mystery of the Trinity is the life that dwells in us and sustains us . ___________ "God in his deepest mystery is not a solitude but a family, since he has in himself fatherhood, sonship and the essence of the family which is love." — St. John Paul II The Exchange of Persons in the Trinity The three-leaf clover used in religion classes to explain the mystery of three Divine Persons in one God does not begin to penetrate the incomparable majesty, boundless love, and total communion, which the Church in her Tradition and creeds ascribes to the Trinity. To the early Church Fathers the idea of perichoresis (the exchange of Persons in the Trinity), was indispensable to understanding God. This sublime, metaphysical concept is central to John Paul’s Theology of the

Here is Raymond Cardinal Burke's address before the Rome Life Forum last week entitled "Martyrdom for the Faith in our times", via Life Site News . [Read the full text here .] His Eminence quoted the words of Father John Hardon who in speaking of the need for contemporary witness noted present-day Catholics' ignorance regarding the truths of the faith: "In a particular way, Father Hardon knew that the necessary strong Catholic witness depends essentially upon the right understanding of the faith and its demands provided by sound catechesis. He saw how decades of a thin and even false catechesis had created a situation in which many Catholics were illiterate regarding the faith. He saw how many were left in confusion and error regarding the most fundamental tenets of the Catholic faith and of the moral law written upon the human heart and definitively articulated through the word of Christ handed down in the Church. Faith in the Real Presence of Our Lord J

The St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology , in honor of the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima, is making all twelve lessons of it's series The Bible and the Virgin Mary available to watch online from Wednesday, May 11th to Friday, May 13th. [See video below for the trailer.] While portions of this series are accessible on YouTube, this is a chance to view it in its entire original, unedited, presentation. From the series' website : 1. What is The Bible and the Virgin Mary ? Part of the St. Paul Center’s Journey Through Scripture program, The Bible and the Virgin Mary is a dynamic, beautifully shot, digital Bible study comprised of 12 different lessons, each roughly 25 minutes in length. Based upon the work of theologian Dr. Scott Hahn, this study is presented by speaker and author Matthew Leonard. It teaches Catholics how Marian doctrine and devotion are firmly rooted in Scripture and answers common objections from non-Catholics. The Bible and the Virgin Mary is based up

Father Daniel Meyer is an Orthodox priest at Holy Ascension Orthodox Church . He does an admirable job explaining the differences between the Roman and Orthodox Churches on Holy Ascension's website. His Q & A presentation of the barriers to unification is informative and in large part fair [albeit from an Orthodox perspective].  Fr. Meyer explains: For a Roman Catholic walking into an Orthodox church, there will be many elements that are familiar—services led by an ordained priesthood, sacramental worship, ancient tradition, Christian art, etc. But Orthodoxy also has much that is unfamiliar—a mostly married priesthood, communing infants, no papacy, and so forth. It is also likely that an Orthodox church will be a riot of color in comparison with the simpler statuary of Rome’s churches. But beyond these initial impressions, there is actually much that continues to separate Rome from Orthodoxy. One of the most common mistakes is an assumption that surface similarities mean

I am very happy to inform you that last August's blog of note,  The New Theological Movement , which ceased publication in December 2014, appears to be publishing articles once again. The New Theological Movement Blog emanates from the minds of Father Ryan Erlenbush and a fellow diocesan priest who is the site's webmaster. NTM is a treasure trove of theological commentary, apologetics, scriptural exegesis and more. From the About page: "The aim of this blog, first and foremost, is to write for the benefit of the Catholic faithful and clergy. We will try to make the articles neither too academic such that they would belong in a theologically technical publication, nor merely 'popular.'" Fr. Erlenbush describes his method of theological interpretation thusly: " The Catechism of the Catholic Church is 'the sure norm of truth' to which we will remain faithful. (John Paul II, Laetamur Magnopere ). It goes without saying that whatever is written

In this fascinating DVD, What Every Catholic Needs to Know about Hell, you will consult Holy Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and some of the most influential voices in Catholic apologetics today, to discover the truth about this essential, but misunderstood, doctrine. Separating fact from fiction, this presentation answers questions about the existence and meaning of Hell. Since many today deny Hell's existence, it is worth remembering that during the apparitions of Fatima and the Divine Mercy, both Sister Lucy and St. Faustina witnessed Hell first hand and wrote of its horrors. Those who deny Hell's existence do so at their own peril. What Every Catholic Needs to Know about Hell is available through the EWTN Religious Catalogue and on Amazon .

Not all Catholic Youtube channels are created equal, however, A Minute With a Monk is worth a look. From the about page of their website : One year ago (well, a bit more) a new little island appeared in the huge YouTube ocean : some monks from Austria started making little videos to spread these good news: You are loved by Someone Greater than the world, and your heart is good. With hardly no means at all, and no experience of media work, they began with baby steps! A lot of friends, who say the sample videos, gave their advices and encouraged this! Even our Prior General and our superiors told us: Do it, don’t hesitate! But the one who, even earlier, had inspired us the most was our Pope Francis, who unceasingly calls to "find new ways to carry the Word of God to the world". Sometimes he says: “Wake up the world!“, or even: "Shake things up" or "make a mess!" (haha, this I think we can do!). How can we just stay indifferent to this? Of course th

Most people see the Incarnation of Jesus in light of His atoning death. Christ, the Lamb of God, the unblemished offering, became man to pay the ransom for humanity's transgressions. In so doing, Jesus conquered sin and death, opening up for us the gates of Heaven and hope for life everlasting. Venerable Fulton J. Sheen writes in Life of Christ : Christ was our "stand-in" on the stage of life. He took our guilt as if He were guilty and thus paid the debt that sin deserved, namely, death. This made possible our resurrection to "new life" in Him. Christ, therefore, is not just a teacher or a pleasant revolutionist, but our Savior. Much has been written about the nature and necessity of Jesus' redemptive sacrifice on the cross. And for good reason. It was the climactic act of His earthly ministry. However, Christ didn't just live in order to die. If the sole mission of Jesus was to provide an expiating death, than the Holy Family needn't have fled t

Among the Church’s seven sacraments the Holy Eucharist is preeminent because it is the body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ. The Real Presence is the source and summit of the faith from which innumerable graces flow. Catholics who receive Communion receive Christ into their bodies to be more fully assimilated into His. In so doing, we assert our fidelity to the teachings of the Church. According to Saint John Paul II, "The Eucharist builds the Church," [ Redemptor Hominis 20 ]. Receiving Jesus in the Eucharist signals our unity with the Church, and with Christ Himself. Moreover, Communion strengthens us. In the Eucharist, Jesus forgives our venial sins and helps us resist mortal sin. To encounter Christ in this way is a supreme miracle and divine gift; the power of which cannot be exaggerated. The Sacrifice of the Mass should evoke in us awe, reverence and profound love. Numerous times, Jesus proclaims unequivocally the nature and importance of the Euchari

No serious scholar has ventured to postulate the non-historicity of Jesus.   — Otto Betz One assertion detractors of Christianity make to sow seeds of doubt about Jesus is the alleged lack of historical evidence for Christ outside of Sacred Scripture. Such claims are counterfactual and easily refuted. Here are five, first-century, non-biblical, historical references to Jesus of Nazareth. Publius Cornelius Tacitus (55-120 c. AD) was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. His two major works, the Annals and the Histories, record the reigns of seven Roman Emperors: Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those who ruled in the Year of the Four Emperors (69 AD). These works span the history of the Roman Empire from the death of Augustus in 14 AD to the 1st Jewish – Roman War in 70 AD. In the Annals , [XV,44] Tacitus mentions the death of Christ and the existence of Christians in Rome at the time of the great fire: "But not all the relief that could come from man, not al

The straight forward but constantly misinterpreted doctrine that " Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus ": "Outside the Church there is no salvation", is the source of much confusion among many Catholics and non-Catholics alike. Does it condemn anyone not in communio sacris with the Church to damnation? To answer in the affirmative would place limits on God's grace and the salvific Incarnation and ministry of Jesus Christ. So, what exactly does this doctrine mean? The Catholic Church teaches that a person may be saved outside the visible boundaries of the Church, ( Lumen Gentium , sec. 19 ) provided the following conditions are met: A person who, through no fault of his own, is ignorant of the truth that Christ established the Catholic Church and desires all men to obtain salvation through it ( invincible ignorance ). A person lives according to the truth that he is capable of discerning. A person responds to the graces that he has been given. Or, re-formula

In Part 1, we introduced C. S. Lewis' trilemma in which he demonstrates the divinity of Christ. His argument has been formulated several ways. Consider these: Jesus could be either: A liar  — who deceived mankind by conscious fraud, A lunatic —  who was deluded and self-deceived or The Lord —  the Son of God Incarnate Formulated another way it sometimes appears as: Jesus was either: Bad  — someone who deceived mankind by conscious fraud, Mad —  someone who was deluded and self-deceived or God —  really and truly the Son of God Incarnate __________________________________ Many today see Jesus as, an enlightened teacher, or a philosopher, who was deified by his followers. Lewis' contention seeks to overcome this line of thinking. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus declares that he is God. In Mere Christianity , Lewis recounts Jesus' assertions: - to have authority to forgive sins — the exclusive preserve of God, - to have always existed, and - to r

Peter Kreeft calls C. S. Lewis' trilemma, "the most important argument in Christian apologetics." Lewis describes it thusly: Christ either deceived mankind by conscious fraud, or He was Himself deluded and self-deceived, or He was Divine. There is no getting out of this trilemma. It is inexorable. In his seminal work Mere Christianity , Lewis further elaborates his argument outlined here: I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him

St. Thomas, in his Summa Theologica , gives five separate proofs for the existence of God. Unlike St. Anselm's proof, which deals with concepts, Aquinas' proofs rely on empirical facts - what we can observe. In these proofs we can see the influence of Aristotle and his doctrine of the Four Causes . l. The Proof from Motion We observe motion all around us. Whatever is in motion now was at rest until moved by something else, and that by something else, and so on. But if there were an infinite series of movers, all waiting to be moved by something else, then actual motion could never have started, and there would be no motion now. But there is motion now. So there must be a First Mover which is itself unmoved. This First Mover we call God. 2. The Proof from Efficient Cause Everything in the world has its efficient cause--its maker--and that maker has its maker, and so on. The coffee table was made by the carpenter, the carpenter by his or her parents, and on and on. But

August's blog of note ceased publication in December 2014. The New Theological Movement emanated from the minds of Father Ryan Erlenbush and a fellow diocesan priest who was the site's webmaster. Despite it's inactive status, The New Theological Movement Blog emanates from the minds of Father Ryan Erlenbush and a fellow diocesan priest who is the site's webmaster. NTM is a treasure trove of theological commentary, apologetics, scriptural exegesis and more. From the About page: "The aim of this blog, first and foremost, is to write for the benefit of the Catholic faithful and clergy. We will try to make the articles neither too academic such that they would belong in a theologically technical publication, nor merely 'popular.'" Fr. Erlenbush describes his method of theological interpretation thusly: " The Catechism of the Catholic Church is 'the sure norm of truth' to which we will remain faithful. (John Paul II, Laetamur Magnopere ).

(Dr. Peter Kreeft is a renowned Catholic apologists who teaches philosophy at Boston College. This is his compilation of twenty arguments for the existence of God. I have summarized the arguments below. They can be read in their entirety here .) 1. The Argument from Change  Briefly, if there is nothing outside the material universe, then there is nothing that can cause the universe to change. But it does change. Therefore there must be something in addition to the material universe. But the universe is the sum total of all matter, space and time. These three things depend on each other. Therefore this being outside the universe is outside matter, space and time. It is not a changing thing; it is the unchanging Source of change. 2. The Argument from Efficient Causality Even as you read this, you are dependent on other things; you could not, right now, exist without them. Suppose there are seven such things. If these seven things did not exist, neither would you. Now suppose t

Many of the Church’s detractors criticize her in light of adherents who don’t “walk the walk.” When encountering such comments, we should remember this quote by G.K. Chesterton: Most Christians fail to fulfill the Christian ideal. This bitter and bracing fact cannot be too much insisted upon in this and every other moral question. But, perhaps, it might be suggested that this failure is not so much the failure of Christians in connection with the Christian ideal as the failure of any men in connection with any ideal. That Christians are not always Christian is obvious; neither are Liberals always liberal, nor Socialists always social, nor Humanitarians always kind, nor Rationalists always rational, nor are gentlemen always gentle, nor do working men always work. If people are especially horrified at the failure of Christian practice, it must be an indirect compliment to the Christian creed.  — G.K. Chesterton

Fr. Barron on the SCOTUS Same-Sex Marriage Ruling  Ryan Anderson: The Marriage Debate Fr. Barron on Gay Marriage and the Breakdown of Moral Argument How Can Catholics Approach the Topic of Same-Sex "Marriage"? Made for Each Other

Mohandas K. Gandhi The following quote attributed to Mohandas Gandhi has been used as a rhetorical cudgel against Christians, portraying them as vain, materialistic, hypocritical disciples: "I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ." — Mahatma Gandhi Another version attributed to Gandhi elaborates on how Christians are unlike Christ: "I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ. The materialism of affluent Christian countries appears to contradict the claims of Jesus Christ that says it's not possible to worship both Mammon and God at the same time." Despite the ubiquity of this saying on the internet and elsewhere, I find no evidence that Gandhi uttered these words. First, whenever it is invoked, no source is provided. Second, Gandhi says, " your  Christ" and " your  Christians" as if he were addressing a follower of Jesus. Mohandas

Jesus defines eternal life as knowing God (Jn 17:3). What are the ways? In how many different ways can we know God, and thus know eternal life? When I take an inventory, I find twelve. The final, complete, definitive way, of course, is Christ, God himself in human flesh. His church is his body, so we know God also through the church. The Scriptures are the church's book. This book, like Christ himself, is called The "Word of God." Scripture also says we can know God in nature see Romans 1. This is an innate, spontaneous, natural knowledge. I think no one who lives by the sea, or by a little river, can be an atheist. Art also reveals God. I know three ex-atheists who say, "There is the music of Bach, therefore there must be a God." This too is immediate. Conscience is the voice of God. It speaks absolutely, with no ifs, ands, or buts. This too is immediate. [The last three ways of knowing God (4-6) are natural, while the first three are supernatur