CCC
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I used to think that faith was what people believed (or didn’t believe) about God the creator, or that faith was a particular system of religious belief (e.g. the Christian Faith). Some people even use the meaning of trust or confidence: “I don’t have any faith that my team can win this weekend.” But those…
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Scott Hahn (1999) writes that for most Catholics, there is nothing as familiar as the Mass, for its prayers, hymns, and gestures are like home to us. Yet, most of us will not go beyond the surface of memorized prayers, and only a “few will glimpse the powerful supernatural drama they enter into every Sunday”…
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The Bread of Life is one of the the most prominent of Jesus’ figurative expressions of himself for it is about the Eucharist, which the Church recognizes as “the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself” (CCC 1324). Yet, in an earlier post I wrote that a 2022 study suggests that only 2/3…
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St. John the Baptist holds a special place in our faith as both his birthday (June 24) and the day of his martyrdom (August 29) are celebrated and memorialized (Diocese of Baton Rouge). He is an enigma for many, past and present, due to the way he lived his life in the desert (Matthew 3:1-4). …
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What exactly is a spiritual or faith journey, and how may we define it? The Simple Catholic blog and Dr. Scott Hahn’s book Holy Is His Name help us answer these questions. We can think of a spiritual journey as our entire life’s pilgrimage toward God. Our faith, a gift from God (CCC 153), teaches…
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The last ten years have brought many reasons to fear, feel downcast, and to wish for better times: a pandemic, political and social divisions, natural disasters. For many, these trials in addition to those of human life that include illness, death of loved ones, and troubles for our children weigh heavily on our hearts. A…
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Mary, the mother of Jesus, has many titles. The Blessed Virgin Mary, Holy Mary, Mother of God, Mother of the Church, Queen of Heaven, The Immaculate Conception, and several others based on the location of her appearance such as Our Lady of Lourdes. One title that is relatively new to me is The Ark of…
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As we begin this Lenten season, in addition to giving up something, we should also consider doing something that honors this Holy season. The St. Paul Center argues that although almsgiving is the most neglected pillar of Lent, it is better than prayer and fasting, because it is prayer and involves fasting. Almsgiving is prayer…