Our Lady's Lamp

In class today, the teacher, Mrs. D, made a comparison that I'd never thought of before. God communicates to us like the old pen pals did. Back in the time of the World Wars, many people wrote long letters to each other, and they fell in love even across the sea. Through these letters, they poured their hearts out and decided that, yes, they were willing to spend their lives together based solely on this interaction. They never met each other, they didn't have several friends in common who could vouch for them, they accepted the words on the pages, and they married.  In many ways, that is how God communicates with us. He gives us glimpses of himself, most especially in the Scriptures and creation. He writes His love for us through the pages and trees. These letters tell us who He is, give us little anecdotes to see His personality, and tell us how serious He is about our relationship. He pours His Heart out upon these pages, begging us to recognize this love and sincerity....

"My Lord and My God!" It's an entreaty, words of adoration, a cry of the heart. But first, it is a title - a name. The first time it is used in the New Testament is when Thomas - Doubting Thomas - drops to his knees before Jesus and recognizes the pierced man before him not just as his Teacher, nt just as the Christ, not just as the Son of God but as "My Lord and My God!" Thomas is usually best known for his refusal to accept Christ's resurrection based on the testimony of all his friends and fellow disciples. He says he has to see proof - the wounds that killed Him. He has a week to ponder their testimony, and then Jesus comes, and instead of saying just "I believe it's you!" He instead becomes a vessel through which the Spirit reveals more about Jesus and becomes a source of revelation, of clarification, of insight: He cries out "My Lord and My God." No longer is Jesus just this Teacher, just their Rabbi, just the Messiah and So...

You know what one of the amazing things about God is? Even though He has a Glorious Throne in Heaven, though He has countless souls who are much holier than I, though He has the angels who can actually see Him in all of His Glory, He still wants to come to me. He desires that my heart be a throne for Him. My heart is unworthy. It's little, in has the splinters of sin, and yet, my Jesus, the God who created the world, who breathed life into me wants to come and be enthroned on my little splintered chair.   I was pondering this at mass tonight, and, you know, it was humbling. Not just that He would want to come to little ol' me, but because I really have nothing much to offer Him. My heart is tiny compared to this world, but it is where Jesus wants to dwell. Despite it's littleness, He cherishes the haven only I can offer. He wants to, as St. Therese reminds us, "find another heaven, the heaven of our soul in which He loves to dwell." He doesn't mind that ...

"Why is this night different from every other night?" the youngest child at a Passover celebration asks. He or she is then answered by being told that this night is the night that God delivered His people from slavery through miraculous deeds. Jews celebrating the Passover did not simply recall what happened all those years ago. Rather, they re-membered themselves to their forefathers, placing themselves back in time. While they were not in Egypt physically, they were in Egypt spiritually. They were partaking of the mystery of their redemption in the format put forth by God through his faithful (and sometimes not so faithful) servant Moses. Is it any wonder then that Jesus chose this week, so rich with meaning, to be the last week He shared with His Apostles before His passion? Is it any wonder that He chose to take the Passover meal and show them how it too was being perfected in the New Covenant? Christ came as the passover lamb , His blood was shed for our sins and co...

“Unless you become like little children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven .” That verse in Matthew gave me so much grief for so long. I mean, the rest of scripture talks about us putting on armor and fighting evil spirits, about setting examples, and about not clinging to milk in our faith but instead becoming adults and eating “real food.” Especially being someone who has always taken pride in being told I am more mature than most people my age and knowing that I’ve been gifted with many different gifts and talents that tend toward leadership, I never was able to reconcile the idea of being a child with myself. So, in many ways, I ignored the verse and focused on the other verses that I did relate better to. But one day, when I felt like I had absolutely nothing left to give to God, when I felt like everything I wanted to do was being blockaded, like I was unable to do anything at all that would ever be of merit to the Kingdom, I looked up at the cross and just said, “I ca...

This is an article I wrote for my Church's "newsletter" called the Messenger. It had to be really short, so I apologize for how abbreviated it is. I may, at some point, elaborate on one of more of the sections later. ~~~~~ We are all fighting a battle. We are the church militant. We fight against the forces of evil daily. We are in a constant battle, and, on our own, it would be impossible. But we are no more alone than were the Israelites in Exodus 17. Moses realized that while his arms were raised, the favor of the Lord shone upon the Israelites, and they could not be defeated. Likewise, we have the priests who offer – on our behalf and that of the whole world – the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. But, like Moses, our priests tire, as does the army. But like the Israelites, we should not despair, for we are not left alone. We have people to help hold up our priests’ arms so that we can better fight our fight, fueled by the Eucharist – those who consecrate themselve...

Because I have been asked many times, I decided to write a blog post about what the Catholic Church teaches about the Eucharist - Holy Communion. I give this one disclaimer: I am only a human, and some mysteries can never be fully understood by the human mind (The Incarnation, the Trinity, the Virgin Birth, to name a few....), and this is definitely one of them. Like the Incarnation, this mystery asks us to take a leap of faith. And as with explaining all mysteries, sometimes difficulties arise in choosing the proper terms. This is also not comprehensive - that would take several volumes! So please, ask questions if you have them! If I can't answer them right off, I will go find the answer. What We Believe As Catholics, we believe and profess to be truth that when we celebrate the mass, the bread and the wine offered become the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. This is a mystery called Transubstantiation. (In English, that just means that two...

Scriptural Evidence From Our Savior's Lips First, we turn to John's gospel, and we see Jesus feeding the five thousand. Here, he took a finite amount and multiplied it exponentially. He fed the people's bodies, then retreated across the Sea of Galilee. The next day, however, they found him, and Jesus said that they followed because they ate of the bread and were filled, but he warns them not to work for bread of the world but the bread of life that fills. The people ask for that bread always and ask for a sign, after all, the Israelites in the desert got manna. Jesus replies by saying, Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to use, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of Heaven. For the Bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Lord, always give us this bread.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me w...

Paul's Testament to the True Presence After Jesus ascended into heaven, we see the beginning of organized religion that differs greatly from the Jews. Peter, Paul, James, John and Luke (among others) are called upon to defend and define ideals of the faith, to guide and instruct the new believers. When writing to the Corinthians, Paul uses similar language to that of Christ that allows for little misconception about the nature of the bread and wine used at communion. “ The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body for we will all partake of the one loaf.” - 1 Corinthians 10:16-17 The “cup of blessing” is the blessed cup that is “done in remembrance.” The “cup of blessing” was also one of the cups of wine at the passover meal, the one that corresponds with the cup blessed at the Lord's Supper. Thi...

Tracing the Doctrine Throughout History: The Early Church to Now But how do we know that's actually what the early church taught? How do we know this isn't just a teaching that emerged in the middle ages and has been taught erroneously since then and it wasn't until the Reformation that people began to speak out against this treasonous, blasphemous doctrine? Well, let's take a walk through history and see who preached which doctrines when. The Early Church Ignatius of Antioch wrote in 110 AD to Rome and Smyrna, and his admonitions to both respectively are listed below. "I have no taste for corruptible food nor for the pleasures of this life. I desire the bread of God, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, who was of the seed of David; and for drink I desire his blood, which is love incorruptible" "Take note of those who hold heterodox opinions on the grace of Jesus Christ which has come to us, and see how contrary their opinions are to the mind of ...

Why Does it Matter? Most of us would agree that we must be “born again” because Jesus said so, though He only used those words twice. Why then do we not take Christ literally when He says, many times, that we must eat His flesh? Paul also reiterates this fact, as do all the early apologists and early church writers. Unfortunately, this is not an area where we can “agree to disagree.” We can disagree, but we cannot ever think we can both be right. One of us is right, one of us is wrong. Either that is Jesus upon the altar as has been professed since the First Century, or Christians have been idolaters until the reformation. Therefore, until the reformation, no true Christians were around, and even then, only one or two got it right. Either the same Church that put together the cannon of the New Testament (since we all agree on the NT books that were put together by the Early Church Councils) was a blaspheming idolater, or that is Jesus upon the altar. Either the Church was guided ...