In This Year of Faith: Thank You, Mr. Monaghan, for the Catechism

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 3:58 pm By Kathy Schiffer

“Before we begin,” said Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, “I want to thank Tom Monaghan for funding the Catechism.” The group gathered at the Archbishop’s Palace in Vienna gasped—Mr. Monaghan, despite occasional snips in the press, has always been modest about his personal philanthropy, and even his office staff had never heard this story. I was there, and I heard the Cardinal’s heartfelt expression of thanks. On this twentieth anniversary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, I join with Cardinal Schönborn... Read more

Bells Herald the Year of Faith

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 3:58 pm By Kathy Schiffer

Church Bells. School Bells. Hand Bells. Sleigh Bells. Bicycle Bells. Even Doorbells! At 12 noon on October 11, 2012, hundreds of Catholic churches and thousands of people across the United States will be joining together to ring in the first day of the Year of Faith. Declared by Pope Benedict XVI for the period from October 11, 2012 through November 24, 2013, the Year of Faith is intended as “a summons to an authentic and renewed conversion to the... Read more

I Was Wrong–It’s Not ALL Good!

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 3:58 pm By Kathy Schiffer

I think this must be the processional for a Catholic liturgy. Please disregard my last post. It’s not all good! This is Most.Definitely.Not.Good! https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=MxfO7a7_bWs If this doesn’t display correctly on your screen, click and watch it anyway. Really. Read more

I Said I Liked the Novus Ordo. Mayhem Ensued.

Last updated on: April 4, 2015 at 3:26 pm By Kathy Schiffer

Last week over on Facebook, I happened to mention that I had attended a Tridentine Mass, and that I left with a renewed appreciation for the Novus Ordo. From every corner, from every persuasion, Catholic friends spoke up in raging defense of one form of liturgy or another. Those who regularly attend Tridentine Mass rose up, rosary beads clicking and mantillas still draped over their hair, to insist that the Novus Ordo, the Mass of the Roman Rite which was... Read more

Good Without God: Einstein’s “God Letter” Goes on the Auction Block

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 3:58 pm By Kathy Schiffer

Albert Einstein didn’t believe in God. At least, he didn’t believe in the trinitarian God revealed in the Scriptures. And he didn’t regard the Jewish people as God’s “chosen people.” On January 3, 1954, a year before his death, Einstein tried to explain his belief system in a letter to Jewish philosopher Eric B. Gutkind. Einstein was responding to Gutkind’s book, Choose Life: The Biblical Call to Revolt. Writing candidly about his denial of the Jews’ chosen status, Einstein said:... Read more

THINK THIS, NOT THAT #6: Monothelitism. Say THAT With Your Mouth Full!

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 3:58 pm By Kathy Schiffer

Oh, the confusion! Last time in “Think This, Not That,” I talked about the Council of Chalcedon, at which the Church ironed out the controversy over the “Three Chapters” and Nestorianism (which wrongly claimed that Jesus had two distinct subsistences). In the seventh century, one of the biggest theological crises looming at the Council of Constantinople III (680-681 A.D.) was the spread of monothelitism. Say what? Well, that’s “mono” (as in “one”) and “thelitism” (as in theanthropic will—as in, God’s/man’s... Read more

Lepanto, the Life Chain, and the Rosary: YOU Can Make a Difference

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 3:58 pm By Kathy Schiffer

On October 7, the Church celebrates the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary—looking back to the great victory in 1571 of the Holy League, Christian naval forces who defeated the invading Ottoman Empire in the historic battle of Lepanto. And on October 7, thousands of people of faith—in cities across America—will stand in silent solidarity, participating in the annual Life Chain. The link between these events—the historic defeat of invading Muslim forces by Catholic warships in 1571, and the... Read more

St. Francis of Assisi: Patron of Animals and the Environment

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 3:58 pm By Kathy Schiffer

“Not to hurt the creatures, brethren, is our first duty to them, but to stop there is not enough. We have a higher mission – to be of service to them wherever they require it.” –Saint Francis of Assisi On October 4, the Church celebrates the feast of St. Francis of Assisi. A Franciscan monk who lived in the thirteenth century, Francis was the son of a wealthy cloth merchant in Italy; but following a dramatic vision, he forsook his high-spirited... Read more

Are You Always Working?

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 3:58 pm By Kathy Schiffer

Do you work in an office? Do you find that you’re chained to a desk, hands poised above the keyboard, for a big chunk of your life? This is just for fun– Makes you want to tickle the keys in style! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgP95q3fnaY&feature=player_embedded Read more

THINK THIS, NOT THAT #5: Knock-Down, Drag-Out Fights Over Jesus

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 3:58 pm By Kathy Schiffer

Whiz, bam—the early church leaders certainly knew how to put heretics and dissident theologians in their place! They’d bang their coffee cups on the table and cry, “Anathema!!” (An anathema, if you have to ask, is a ban or curse solemnly pronounced by ecclesiastical authority, and accompanied by excommunication. And anathema was one of the actions which came out of Constantinople II, the fifth ecumenical council.) The story of Constantinople II is a saga of disagreement and dissent, bitter argument... Read more

Which prophet was a shepherd and a sycamore-fig farmer?