The Cordial Catholic - Page 3 of 23 - Cordially explaining the Catholic faith.

Why Does the Priest Do The Dishes?

April 16, 2018 By K. Albert Little

At the end of the Liturgy of the Eucharist, the Lord’s Supper, the Priest does the dishes. Sometimes a fellow priest who is present and concelebrating can do them, or sometimes it’s the deacon. But someone does the dishes. I’m of a generation, I think it’s safe to say, that’s returning to many of the traditions of our faith. I’m not alone, and statistics bear this out. Disillusioned with a doctrinal liberal and laissez faire approach to non-denominational Christianity, many Christians are… Read more

I Love Being Catholic (But I Don’t Always Like It)

April 9, 2018 By K. Albert Little

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When my wife and I began marriage preparation classes almost 10 years ago one of the first questions we were asked was, “Do you think you’ll be more or less ‘in love’ after 10 years of marriage?” I’ll save you from wondering and tell you, right away, that I answered wrong. “Well of course we’ll be at least a little bit less in love,” I said, far too quickly. I assumed, back then, that those heady early days of marriage… Read more

The Incredible Biblical Basis for Relics

April 7, 2018 By K. Albert Little

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As someone with a more than passing interest in the world of the paranormal and bizarre I’ve always had a particular fascination with the ancient Shroud of Turin. But it wasn’t until I became Catholic and shook off my Protestant superstition towards the physical dimension of my faith that fascination passed into a kind of devotion. That the burial shroud which covered Christ’s body still exists as something we can see and touch seemed incredible to me. That it would bear the image… Read more

The Liturgy Is Not Me: Why We All Should Worship Like Catholics

March 29, 2018 By K. Albert Little

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As an eager Evangelical, I once wrote an article about tradition in the context of a Sunday morning worship service. Long before becoming Catholic, I was processing the idea that all Christian modes of faith come with a certain level of tradition, even if it wasn’t as the high liturgical ritual of a Catholic Mass. Here’s how a typical Sunday morning in my non-denominational church would look. We gathered in the pews before the service began catching up with friends before… Read more

Was Peter the First Pope?

March 18, 2018 By K. Albert Little

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Before we even begin to discuss Peter as Pope we need to get one thing out of the way: no church historian, worth their weight, would ever claim that Peter was the first Pope—in the exact way we understand it today. Like our understanding of the Trinity, the canon of the New Testament (what books make up our Bibles), and our doctrines surrounding salvation and the after-life these concepts, naturally, developed over time as the Church grew into its britches. The… Read more

Did the Catholic Church Just “Deliver” the Bible?

March 14, 2018 By K. Albert Little

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I was once asked the question by a friend of mine, “Which is more important: The Bible or tradition?” As a good evangelical I knew that the answer to any question in Sunday School was either “the Bible” or “Jesus” and although I wasn’t in Sunday School any longer I knew tradition couldn’t be the answer. “The Bible,” I said confidently, congratulating myself for knowing so much about my faith. “But who put the Bible together?” My friend replied. “Wasn’t it… Read more

You Should Receive Communion Kneeling, On the Tongue

February 25, 2018 By K. Albert Little

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If you’re at all a Vatican watcher like me then you’ll have heard something of the remarks made by Cardinal Robert Sarah this past week. Cardinal Sarah, a Guinea-born priest, is prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. The African priest, being a bit more conservatively-minded in his approach to the Liturgy, is often at odds with Pope Francis in that respect and, as a result, is often in the news. The media love a… Read more

What We Are in the Darkness

February 2, 2018 By K. Albert Little

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I hate to admit this, but it’s probably true: We are who we are in the dark. That doesn’t bode well when I’m bouncing a shrieking, fussy newborn in the waning hours of the night. And I’m only up until 11pm, it’s my wife that has the middle-of-the-night shift. (St. Gianna Molla, pray for us!) But, reticent as we may be to admit it, we know it’s true. Our true, unvarnished, completely non-gussed-up self is the one that’s often really in… Read more

What Is Lacking in Christ’s Afflictions?

January 31, 2018 By K. Albert Little

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As a Christian of no real denominational or theological affiliation, I always struggled with Paul’s seemingly off-the-cuff remark in his epistle to the Colossians, Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions. (1:24; NASB) What exactly did Paul mean when he implied that Jesus’ “afflictions” were lacking? How did he make up for a… Read more

Jesus Has Your Stegosaurus

January 29, 2018 By K. Albert Little

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I like to people watch, it’s always fascinating. This past Sunday I sat in the narthex area of our bustling little church. It’s a tiny old church, a chapel really, with a number of tasteful additions holding it all together. With my wife and our newborn baby at home, the toddler and I made the trek to church alone this morning. The negotiation to get him through the door of his Sunday School class was a bit lengthy and by the time… Read more