Category: Readings and Reflections

Moral Disconnect Regarding Sex

Posted: by Virginia Lieto

Moral Disconnect

Moral disconnects regarding sex exist between God and man as a result of individualism, autonomy secularism, and concupiscence. Today, we are bombarded from all four fronts; fighting a moral battle within. Let’s start this discussion by first defining the four terms:

Individualism

“…there is a tendency to grant to the individual conscience the prerogative of independently determining the criteria of good and evil and then acting accordingly. Such an outlook is quite congenial to an individualist ethic, wherein each individual is faced with his own truth, different from the truth of others.” 1

Autonomy

“…the right to determine what… Read more…

A Book Review on Catholicmom.com

Posted: by Nancy Bilyeau

I’m honored that Sister Margaret Kerry, for forty years a daughter of St. Paul, reviewed my trilogy of novels on Catholicmom. I “met” her on Twitter. Sister Margaret proclaims the gospel in all sorts of ways, writing books and conducting workshops on media literacy. She’s great on Twitter! I’m often struck by how many wonderful people you can get to know on social media.

To learn more, go here.

Sex Inside/Outside of Marriage – God’s Stance

Posted: by Virginia Lieto

bible

This month we’ll hear from the U.S. Supreme Court. Before we do that, let’s hear what God has to say on the matter of sex inside and outside of the covenant of marriage.

Sex is a gift from God as a means for expressing self-giving love and for procreating children. If we believe this, then it behooves us all to be cognizant of God’s will in how we are to “be fertile and multiply” (Gen. 1:28). If one was to think that the expression of sexual love between any two people should be acceptable, then why does God think differently about fornication, adultery and sodomy? He has maintained the same position on these acts since the creation of Adam and Eve, never changing His position.

Before going further, let us first define the… Read more…

Mary & the Blessed Trinity

Posted: by Steven Hepburn

Workflow: Sinar HR 43 digital camera back (single and 4 shot modes) connected to a Horseman Digiflex SLR camera using Nikon lenses. Lighting: Quadx (Bowens) strobes and heads

Coronation of the Virgin by Bruyn the Elder

The king’s daughter is all glorious within: her clothing is of wrought gold.
She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework: the virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought unto thee.
With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought: they shall enter into the king’s palace.
Psalm 45:13-15

A philosophically minded person might ask the question ‘If God is cause what is effect?’ Those of us who are more simply minded are might ask ‘If God is cause what is His effect on me?’ It was, I think, because faithful Christians were seeking an answer to this second question that they began to look upon the person of Mary the mother of Jesus. If we wish to learn what sort of impact having a direct personal relationship with God could or should have upon us it is natural enough for us to look first of all at those who have preceded us in the faith. We can deduce from them what is likely to be the case for ourselves.First to appear before the eyes of the faithful were the Apostles and still today we can learn much from them through the pages of Scripture. After them were many saints of the Church, male and female, in whom God as effect shines through in the transformations wrought in their lives and the courage with which they gave witness to their faith. Following the principle of ‘think universal, act local’ we should try to see God as effect in the Christians nearest at hand to us, perhaps within our families, perhaps within our communities.

One deduction we should be able to make from this cloud of witnesses is that having a relationship with God can have a profound, thoroughgoing and lasting effect on human lives. Another deduction would be that this effect is not uniform in nature, it is different in kind and degree in each individual depending upon that persons character and the closeness of their friendship with the Father, through the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit. Given that relationships are different in degree it follows that out of all the actual relationships that exist there must be one which is closer, more perfect and more profound than all the rest. To answer the question ‘if God is cause what is His effect on me?’ it will help us to know who it is that is most effected by Him so that we can learn from that person and through following their example come closer ourselves to God.

If we consider the question of who is most effected purely in relation to God incarnated in the person of Jesus then a number of different answers might be proposed. Apart from His mother we could consider the claims of the Beloved Disciple mentioned in the Gospel according to St John (probably the Evangelist himself) or those of St Mary Magdalene the first witness to the resurrection and Apostle to the Apostles (although claims that she was married to our Lord can be dismissed as fanciful at best.) However, if we consider the question in relation to the Triune God then there can be no doubt at all that the answer will be the Blessed Virgin Mary. The formula in which this is expressed is that Mary is daughter of the Father, mother of the Son, spouse of the Holy Spirit. This is a formulation which is both accurate and necessary but it is most useful for the philosophically minded people whom I mentioned earlier. Is there a more, as it were, human way of describing the relationship which will help us to answer our query about God’s effect on me? click here to read more

The Church Will Survive…But We Have Work To Do

Posted: by David W

The Internet is full of people gloating over what they see as the defeat of the Catholic Church. Ireland, being long seen as a bastion of Catholicism, has voted for “same sex marriage” (62% voting yes) and the critics of the Church think this is a win-win situation. In their mind, either the Church changes her teaching and becomes what they want her to be or she refuses and goes extinct. In other words, they get what they want either way. At the same time, there are a lot of Catholics are looking for someone to blame. There are accusations being leveled that if the Church had done things differently, this would not have happened. In other words, both sides seem to look at this as a permanent loss for the Church.

There is no doubt that the implications of this vote are serious. Catholics have become so uninformed about that their faith that they think they can reject Church teaching as if it was an opinion, or even that it is compatible with the “greater truths” of the faith—as if Catholicism could be compartmentalized or one part set against another. But despite this apostasy in Ireland, this is not the “end of the Church.” Not universally, and not in Ireland (which Catholic bloggers love to ask as headlines).

[Continued HERE]

Chastity in the 21st Century???

Posted: by Virginia Lieto

chastity

Chastity tempers, regulates and moderates our sexual desires, thoughts and actions.1

According to God, Adam and Eve were instructed to “be fertile and multiply” (Gen 1:28). Jesus affirmed this instruction by stating, “So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, no human being must separate” (Matt 19:6). Jesus teaches that through the covenantal oath of marriage and through the sexual union that ensues, the husband and wife become one. As a married couple, they are free to engage in sexual relations; to bring forth new life, thusly fulfilling God’s command to be fertile and multiply.

Scripture dictates that sexual relations are… Read more…

Road to Purity – The Road Less Traveled

Posted: by Virginia Lieto

theroadlesstraveled

The road to purity (holiness) is paved with repentance, leading us away from sin. The virtues are our guideposts on our journey, so that we know we are heading in the right direction. Prayer and receipt of the sacraments are our fuel. The Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes are the laws of the road. The Bible is our roadmap that helps us plot our course. Our own bodies are our mode of transportation. If we were smart, we would put Jesus in the driver’s seat!

Where are we headed? Why Heaven of course! From the moment that God breathed life… Read more…

Catholic Writers: Stand Up for the Truth in LOVE

Posted: by Melanie Jean Juneau

The challenge is to witness to the validity of our Catholic spirituality with a mature love, without vermeer007stooping to ridicule our Protestant brothers.  It is God who converts and convicts; we are simply called to tell our stories and to pray.  Then our sinfulness will not hinder any move of God

I am proud to proclaim I am a Catholic writer. A saved, born again, Spirit-filled lover of Jesus who expects to be accepted by Protestant lovers of Jesus, because I am a sister in Christ. However, my culture conspires against my attempts at reconciliation, because my language habits sound foreign to Protestant ears.  I am misunderstood and judged to be against the true faith by Bible-based Christians.

Initially, I wrote for secular and Protestant sites and felt I had to hide my Catholicism. When I finally wrote about my Catholic faith, I was immediately grilled and interrogated by shocked readers and co-authors. Yet God had His own agenda and through the moderator, forgiveness and unity began. Of course, the site decided to simply ignore my Catholicism and centre on my love of God.

continue reading

Dissenter’s Deception

Posted: by David W

I’ve been reading a book, What Went Wrong With Vatican II by Ralph McInerny that leaves me with a strange sense of déjà vu. The main premise is the rejection of authority in the 1960s did not come about because of Vatican II, but because of Humanae Vitae. A good portion of this book deals with the fact that the Pope made a binding teaching of the ordinary magisterium which people did not like, and to justify their dislike, they invented a theology  which never had been taught before which claimed the right to judge the teachings of the Church and reject those which they did not wish to follow.

The déjà vu portion comes when I see what liberal dissenters did in 1968 in rejecting magisterial authority—and see just how similar their arguments are to the arguments used by radical traditionalists today in rejecting the magisterial authority of the Church when it makes decisions they dislike.

[Continued HERE]