Category: Learn & Live the Faith

A Revolutionary Approach to the Bible: Jairus’ Daughter and The Enlightenment
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A Revolutionary Approach to the Bible: Jairus’ Daughter and The Enlightenment

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by on Jun 28, 2015 in Catechesis, Columnists, Featured, MyChurchParish.com
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In the days when states were still “the colonies” and men wore powdered wigs, a new way of thinking captured the intelligentsia of the western world.  “The miracle stories in the Bible and the lives of the saints may be quaint, entertaining, and even have symbolic meaning.  But certainly we should not take them literally!  […]

Let's Fall in Love
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Let’s Fall in Love

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by on Jun 24, 2015 in Evangelization, Featured
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Some things make you feel just a little more alive. Hearing a moving song. Helping someone in need. Reading words that make you cry. Seeing a sunset splash the sky with breath-taking colors. And the feeling is multiplied immeasurably if you are sharing those experiences with someone special. Indeed, love completes us as human beings. […]

Where Is the Mission Field?
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Where Is the Mission Field?

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by on Jun 24, 2015 in Evangelization, Featured, Live in Christ, Those in Need
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Last week I went on a mission trip. I was able to travel with our youth group from Georgia to Cincinnati, OH to work with the Franciscans for the Poor. We stayed at the Tau House, a converted convent that is now used to house groups who wish to come and do mission work within […]

Reflections for Sunday, June 28, 2015
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Reflections for Sunday, June 28, 2015

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by on Jun 24, 2015 in Catechesis, Featured, Learn & Live the Faith, Sunday Reflections
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Meditation and Questions for Reflection or Group Discussion Mass Readings: 1st Reading Wisdom 1:13-15; 2:23-24 2nd Reading: 2 Corinthians 8:7, 9, 13-15 Responsorial: Psalm 30:2, 4-6, 11-13 Gospel: Mark 5:21-43 Putting Our Faith in Jesus’ Healing Love, Mercy, and Compassion Please, come. (Mark 5:23) Imagine what Jairus must have felt as he approached Jesus—his impatience, […]

A Mission: "Be Jesus Today"
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A Mission: “Be Jesus Today”

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by on Jun 19, 2015 in Evangelization, Featured, Live in Christ
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A sticky note on the bottom of my computer monitor at work features three simple words, but a powerful command: Be Jesus Today If I have a consistently whispered “mantra,” that’s it. I say it to myself every morning. The note reminds me of my personal desire throughout the workday. At night, as I reflect […]

Clergy Heretics and Heretical Synods: Been There, Done That
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Clergy Heretics and Heretical Synods: Been There, Done That

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by on Jun 19, 2015 in Apologetics, Featured
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There is some fear that the Vatican’s upcoming fall Synod on the Family will proclaim and promote heresy. The feared heresy would be in contradicting the explicit scriptural teaching of Jesus and of St. Paul regarding the prohibition of divorced-and-remarried Catholics receiving Holy Communion. Historically, the Church has dealt with heresy accepted, proclaimed, and promulgated […]

Of God and Godparents
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Of God and Godparents

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by on Jun 19, 2015 in Catechesis, Featured, Parenting
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Everyone loves seeing the babies baptized early Sunday morning. Some squeal with delight while others cry their eyes out as the cold Holy Water runs across their heads. I’m always curious though about who the parents chose as godparents for their child. If physical similarities matter, many seem to have chosen a sibling or two […]

Haitian Bishop: 'Human Restoration' is Church's Top Priority
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Haitian Bishop: ‘Human Restoration’ is Church’s Top Priority

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by on Jun 19, 2015 in Featured, Those in Need
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By Antonia von Alten NEW YORK—Five years after Haiti’s devastating earthquake, the local Church has suffered a series of brazen attacks on Church properties. Between November 2015 and February of this year there were more than 20 robberies of religious communities, a bishop reported. In an interview with international Catholic charity Aid to the Church […]

Calls to Change Helms Amendment Not about Rape Victims
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Calls to Change Helms Amendment Not about Rape Victims

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by on Jun 18, 2015 in Contraception & Abortion, Featured, Those in Need
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Abortion advocates are exploiting victims of sexual violence in conflict to advance their own narrow agenda – opening up a new funding stream to international abortion groups and changing abortion laws in countries where restricted. Global humanitarian groups receive hundreds of millions of dollars to help the most vulnerable – many in areas of conflict […]

Distracted
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Distracted

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by on Jun 18, 2015 in Evangelization, Featured, Live in Christ, Marriage, Men, Parenting
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“Was daddy involved with us when we were little?” she asked. “Did he want to spend time with us?” I wondered why she was soliciting these questions although I guessed it had more to do with the fathers of the families that she worked for than her own father. As a young adult woman who […]

woman, prison
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The Gift of Mercy

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by on Jun 17, 2015 in Featured, Those in Need
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I’ve facilitated a women’s expressive writing class for almost five years now. My students have been an eclectic group. A small percentage of the students have been marginally literate, while some have their GED or high school diplomas, a few have technical or associate degrees, and others have a bachelor’s or master’s degree. They are […]

Reflections for Sunday, June 21, 2015
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Reflections for Sunday, June 21, 2015

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by on Jun 17, 2015 in Catechesis, Featured, Learn & Live the Faith, Sunday Reflections
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Meditation and Questions for Reflection or Group Discussion Mass Readings: 1st Reading: Job 38:1, 8-11 2nd Reading: 2 Corinthians 5:14-17 Responsorial: Psalm 107:23-26, 28-31 Gospel: Mark 4:34-41 Trusting the Lord in All Circumstances The wind ceased and there was great calm. (Mark 4:39) Several years ago, a United States Coast Guard cutter was in port […]

Traditionalists and Hard Realities
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Traditionalists and Hard Realities

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by on Jun 16, 2015 in Featured, Learn & Live the Faith
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For the average layman, much, if not the vast majority of discussions about Catholic traditionalists, Vatican II, and the Reform of the Reform, exists solely online and in the realm of the Catholic zeitgeist. Yet from time to time, we Americans are privy to a real-life disputes amongst the various factions of Catholics. All politics […]

Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, The Joy of the Gospel
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Front Row With Francis: How Families Deal With Illness

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by on Jun 15, 2015 in Catechesis, Featured, Learn & Live the Faith, The Shepherd's Voice
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On June 10th, the Pope’s Wednesday general audience continued his catecheses on the family, focusing on the theme of sickness and suffering. Man experiences his own fragility primarily in the family, first as a child and, then, as an elderly person.While family sickness presents obvious challenges, it can also be a source of quiet strength […]

Don't Fear the Reaping: The Parable of the Mustard Seed
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Don’t Fear the Reaping: The Parable of the Mustard Seed

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by on Jun 14, 2015 in Catechesis, Columnists, Featured, Learn & Live the Faith, Sunday Reflections
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Mk 4:26-34 It is the smallest of all seeds and becomes the largest of plants In his teachings Jesus frequently used parables. The word “parable” is derived from an ancient Greek word that means “comparison.” Parables are like brain-teasers: they compare differing realities and use one example to shed light on the deeper meaning of […]

Wounds
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Wounds

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by on Jun 11, 2015 in Featured, Live in Christ, Those in Need
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Having my phone fixed a few weeks ago, I had some spare time to walk around by myself in a shopping center I usually don’t patronize. I used to really enjoy shopping. It was a frequent pastime for me and my mom. Now, without her, the bloom is off the rose. Sometimes it’s only a […]

Answering Some Vital Questions
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Answering Some Vital Questions

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by on Jun 10, 2015 in Featured, Live in Christ, Music, On the Job
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Where do you go when it starts to rain? That and some related “musical questions” have been playing over and over in my mind for the last few months. They have made for some interesting soul-searching. For me, the self-examination began on the road. I have to take three business trips annually, all to Kansas […]

Reflections for Sunday, June 14, 2015
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Reflections for Sunday, June 14, 2015

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by on Jun 10, 2015 in Catechesis, Featured, Learn & Live the Faith, Sunday Reflections
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Meditation and Questions for Reflection or Group Discussion Mass Readings: 1st Reading Ezekiel 17:22-24 2nd Reading: Corinthians 5:6-10 Responsorial: Psalm 92:2-3, 13-16 2 Gospel: Mark 4:26-34 Allowing Jesus to Teach Us the Mysteries of the Kingdom To his own disciples he explained everything in private. (Mark 4:34) Jesus spent a lot of time explaining things […]

Bruce Jenner: What Does Love Demand? Part 2
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Bruce Jenner: What Does Love Demand? Part 2

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by on Jun 09, 2015 in Featured, Men, The Homosexual Agenda, Those in Need, Women
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In Part 1, we talked about how a person knows he’s transgendered. This is important, because we must ask ourselves if as a society we’re going to accept and accommodate individuals’ subjective realities, as we’re increasingly being asked to do with the transgendered. Reprinted with permission from CatholicSistas.com. Bruce Jenner says he’s a woman named […]

Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, The Joy of the Gospel
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Front Row With Francis: Marriage and Poverty

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by on Jun 09, 2015 in Catechesis, Featured, Learn & Live the Faith, The Shepherd's Voice
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Family bonds are the virtue of the family, and poverty is the family’s its most direct enemy. Yet it would be a serious error to mistake the problem with society’s material poverty as a solely material problem. “It is not just a matter of bread.” The family is a benefit to society even as it […]

Quantum Mechanics & the Real Presence--Which Reality Do We Believe?
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Quantum Mechanics & the Real Presence–Which Reality Do We Believe?

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by on Jun 08, 2015 in Catechesis, Featured, Science
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Of Miracles and Mysteries A little over 20 years ago, shortly after I had decided to enter the Church, I was being catechized by a very learned and wise priest (this was before the days of RCIA classes). As a physicist, I was struggling with the notion of transubstantiation — that by the action of […]

Luthers Today
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Luthers Today

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by on Jun 07, 2015 in Apologetics, Featured, History, The Homosexual Agenda
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From Germany yet again today rises the aroma of dissent. Whether this will ripen into schism or outright heresy will be clear after the conclusion of this fall’s Synod on the Family. Some modern-day princes of the German Church and numerous German bishops are, as did Martin Luther some centuries ago, attempting to heretically alter […]

Corpus Christi and the Letter to the Hebrews
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Corpus Christi and the Letter to the Hebrews

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by on Jun 05, 2015 in Catechesis, Columnists, Featured, Learn & Live the Faith, Sunday Reflections
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Heb 9:11-15 The blood of Christ will cleanse our consciences Among the writings that comprise the canon of the Christian Scriptures one work stands in a class by itself: the Epistle to the Hebrews. Each of the thirteen New Testament books is unique but Hebrews defies categorization. Is it a book, a letter, a sermon, […]

Christian Witness in an Unchristian World
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Christian Witness in an Unchristian World

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by on Jun 05, 2015 in Apologetics, Evangelization, Featured, Live in Christ
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My dictionary defines apologetics as a “systematic and logical defense of Christianity against its detractors and unbelievers” In 1 Peter 3.15, Christians are told to be ready to give a reason (apologia) for their hope in Christ. Apologetics can draw people to Christ as we read in the Book of Acts with Saint Peter on […]