RCIA for the First Sunday of Advent – Catholic Doctrine

So Jesus was born in a stable over 2000 years ago in Bethlehem to a poor carpenter and his wife. He entered the world very humbly. But Jesus will return in glory! This is what we celebrate in the readings this week at Mass. You will notice though that throughout every Mass we are looking [...]

RCIA for the First Sunday of Advent – the Readings

Today’s liturgy invites us to become a church of expectancy and hope. We are looking to the future; we are anticipating the coming of the Lord at the end of time.
The Catholic Church has a three year cycle that takes us through most of the Bible in the readings at Mass. Today we begin the [...]

Catechesis on the Priesthood – Part 2

Well, I have my second Breaking Open the Word session under my belt. I prepared three pages for discussion and it didn’t seem like enough at first, but in the end it turned out to be just right.
Like I said in my last post, a lot of the content came directly from the catechist guidelines, [...]

Catechesis on the Priesthood

This Sunday I will be leading the Breaking Open the Word again for our RCIA participants. The guideline that I have says to focus the discussion on the priesthood, both the ministerial priesthood and the common priesthood. This entails a lot of prep work, for me at least.
So I have read through the Letter to [...]

Doing God’s Will

What does this mean? How do I know what God wants me to do so that I can do his will. How does God let me know this? How do I find what God’s will is for me?
I’ve been learning that God’s will is living a holy, Gospel-focused life. It isn’t necessarily about a specific vocation [...]

The Catholicism Project

A trailer for The Catholicism Project shows the Catholic Church to have an exciting, worldwide history. The Project delves into the artistic, architectural, and beauty of Catholicism. They want use technology to evangelize and present Catholicism from the Catholic point of view.
Discover the rich heritage of the Catholic Church in an epic media experience. Word [...]

Reflections on Christ’s Passion

The next time you pray the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary or if you just need to reflect on all that Christ suffered for us read this reflection from Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P.
Reflection on the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ +
The agony in the garden was really the agony in His mind. He suffered [...]

The Shroud of Turin

The Shroud of Turin will be on public display April 10 thru May 23, 2010 in the cathedral in Turin. The Shroud was last on public display in 2000 for the jubilee year, and is usually publicly displayed every 25 years, but there have been many discoveries in recent years so it was decided that [...]

Sts. Joachim and Ann

Today is the feast of grandparents, and in particular we are honoring Jesus’ maternal grandparents, Saints Joachim and Ann.
In the Scriptures, Matthew and Luke furnish a legal family history of Jesus, tracing ancestry to show that Jesus is the culmination of great promises. Not only is his mother’s family neglected, we also know nothing factual [...]

The Pope’s New Encyclical – In Charity and Truth

On July 7th, the Vatican released Pope Benedict’s third encyclical letter, Caritas in Veritate or In Charity and Truth.  It’s the Pope’s first socal encyclical. According to the Catholic News Agency:
Pope Benedict XVI makes clear that social issues cannot be disconnected from the defense of life from the moment of conception to its natural end, [...]