“Always remember this: life is a journey. It is a path, a journey to meet Jesus. At the end, and forever. A journey in which we do not encounter Jesus is not a Christian journey.” – Pope Francis In the Catholic Church, the red color symbolizes blood and fire; the color also symbolizes martyrdom, sacrifice, charity, and love. The clergy wear red vestments and the altar is draped in red during the celebration of the Precious Blood of Christ, on... Read more
“Prayer is the raising of one`s mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God” – Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC 2559). Catholics pray to and praise Mary as a way of raising their minds and hearts to God, they praise her as the Mother of God, as a Vessel, and as a Queen. Catholics praise Mary the same way the Angel Gabriel praised her in his salutation in Luke 1:28, “Hail, favored one!... Read more
The sacrament of Confirmation strengthens one`s relations with the Church, as Lumen Gentium teaches and Paul VI reaffirmed when promulgating the revised rite of confirmation: “By the sacrament of confirmation they (the faithful) are more perfectly bound to the Church by the sacrament of Confirmation.” The Catholic Church teaches that the Holy Spirit is the supreme gift given at confirmation. Catholics need the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit in order to live a life of divine grace, the life... Read more
In the Catholic Church, we have those people who have been set apart to imitate and follow Christ in a distinct way. These people live a consecrated life. They commit to giving everything (poverty) and doing anything (obedience) in God’s service, as a loving response to God’s love for them (chastity). In his apostolic exhortation, Vita Consecrata, St. John Paul II wrote the following, “We are all aware of the treasure which the gift of the consecrated life in the... Read more
On Tuesday 17 May 2022, Independent.co.uk reported about a 20-year-old Mississippi woman, Makaylia Shaylynn Jolley who was charged with capital murder for allegedly throwing her eight-week-old, Khalysie Lashay Jolley onto the road. Authorities were repeatedly called on 12 May, reporting that “a woman had repeatedly and forcibly thrown a baby on the roadway at 775 N. Bierdeman Rd”. Makaylia Shaylynn Jolley is no different to St. Germaine Cousin‘s stepmother, Armande de Rajols who ill-treated little Germaine for 17 years. Saint... Read more
Recently, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco barred Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi from receiving the Eucharist because of being in support of abortion rights; she joined many other public figures who were previously barred from receiving communion because of their support of abortion rights. However, in his apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis said, “The Eucharist is not a prize for the perfect, but a generous medicine and food for the weak.” The Eucharist... Read more
The Rosary as we have it today originated in the mid- to late fifteenth century, though legend has it that it first arose from St. Dominic, in the early thirteenth century, before falling into disuse. The Rosary was based on prayer traditions using multiple repetitions of the same prayer, at first the Lord’s Prayer, using knots on a rope to keep count. In ninth century Ireland, the laity began using a string of beads to keep count of the... Read more
The Catholic Church has seven sacraments that members of the Church receive at different stages of their lives. One of those sacraments is Holy Matrimony (marriage). What Are Sacraments? According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, ‘The sacraments are efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us’ (#1131). A sacrament`s essential purpose is “to give grace.” What kind of grace do the sacraments give? First and most... Read more
THE NOTION OF LOVE “For one human being to love another; that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation. I hold this to be the highest task for a bond between two people: that each protects the solitude of the other. This is the miracle that happens every time to those who really love: the more they give, the more they... Read more
The Sacrament of Reconciliation According to the Church The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, “The new life received in Christian initiation has not abolished the frailty and weakness of human nature, nor the inclination to sin that tradition calls concupiscence, which remains in the baptized such that with the help of the grace of Christ they may prove themselves in the struggle of Christian life. This is the struggle of conversion directed toward holiness and eternal life to which... Read more
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