“I believe that it’s important that if you’re going to be Catholic, that you have to be 100% Catholic... that you stand by the church, you believe what the church believes and you pass that on to your sons and daughters and your grandsons and granddaughters.” -Archbishop John Nienstedt: No Luke Warm Catholics!
Being lukewarm in our faith is not a good place to be. We are called to embrace fully the teachings of our Catholic Church and, more importantly, to live them. If our actions speak otherwise, we will confuse fellow Catholic Christians. When we avoid the truth, we deface it by our actions, thus, watering it down. We are called to proselytize with a genuine heart that bears the truth of the Catholic Church.
May we all be guided always by the Holy Spirit to know the truth, receive it, and live it fully.
Fr. Robert Barron, Catholic priest writer and author
What does the Bible tell us in relation to the present church scandal we are seeing once again? Will it ever end? What do statistics tell us? Let us see Fr. Robert Barron's thoughts on the issue. Take note of the biblical implications, as they are worth pondering upon. Here's his analysis.
Fr. Robert Barron writes for The Integrated Catholic Life website; he is currently in Rome as a visiting professor. Read about Fr. Barron here, found on the left-hand side of the site.
Let us continue to pray for our Church, our pope, and all our clergy. Mahalo!
Diocese of Charlotte Ordination 6-10-2010 vimeo.com Four men were ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Peter J. Jugis on Saturday, June 5 2010 at St. Mark Catholic Church in Huntersville, NC. Source: Divine Intervention Media
Fr. C. John McCloskey, III, discloses to us the amazing personality of Cardinal Newman. Here is a portion of what he wrote about this clergy whose beatification was first celebrated on the 8th of this month.
That Newman was profoundly religious by temperament is quite clear from his autobiography, in which he speaks of his religious sense from a very early age. Unlike a goodly number of his contemporaries of the Oxford Movement he did not come from a long line of clergymen. During his university years he felt a call to the clerical life and even to celibacy, not common at that time. Yet, in many other ways he was a man of the world. He drank deeply of the study of the classics and history during his undergraduate years, formed many deep friendships, and had a keen interest in the world of music, literature, and politics, as is evidenced by his letters and diaries. Indeed, he even chose the wine for his college. He played the violin, a hobby to which he returned in later life. He exercised vigorously by frighteningly long walks and enjoyed the fresh air of the sea while sailing with his close friend, Hurrell Froude. He was a poet, a novelist and a Latinist of the highest order. (The curia officials of the Vatican were astonished at the level of his classical Latin in their correspondence with him. He was able to express in a paragraph what took them a page!) He was also, arguably, the greatest master of English prose style of the nineteenth century.5 This emphasizes that while Newman was eminently religious, he was not monastic. He had a keen appreciation for the world in all its positive aspects and enjoyed the company and friendship of many laymen, as is evidenced particularly by his letters and diaries.
Father Richard Perozich, a priest of the Diocese of San Diego, speaks boldly about having the right attitude towards the coming election. Read here. Source: Renew America.
Archbishop John Nienstedt refused to allow the Holy Mass turn into a political protest. A group of 25 activists who are opposed to the Catholic Church's teaching on marriage wore rainbow sashes at a Mass celebrated by the Archbishop.
Not only did these protesters attend Mass wearing these sashes, but they tried to receive Communion despite publicly denouncing Church teaching. The protest organizer told the media: "We were making a statement during the Eucharist."
Studies in Theology have been back, so my posts have become limited once again. I thank you for your patience. I have also been busy taking some of our priests around, who are on the island of Oahu for theDivine Mercy Conference. It's been a great pleasure experiencing agape with them at different levels of communication, including an exchange of jokes and interesting thought provoking punches. I feel so blessed to have been given the grace -- as Fr. Mark Wheelan, SOLT, calls it -- to show them God's wonderful creations on the Island and to let them experience aloha.
Divine Mercy in Hawai'i is scheduled on October 7-10. Here's info.
For the meantime, here's something to share with all of you:
vatican September 25, 2010
The salvation brought by Jesus is obtained through the assumption of responsibility, the recognition of sin, the will to become new men. The Pope reiterated this in a speech to a group of bishops from Eastern Brazil at the end of their ad limina visits. The Pope noted that forgiveness and reconciliation are two concepts that today are overshadowed by a misinterpretation of freedom, though they are fundamental aspects for a proper Christian life and the salvation brought by Christ. In his speech, Pope Benedict also asked the bishops to pay closer attention towards a renewed youth ministry.
