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MEDITATION Jesus said: “I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever, and the bread that I will give is My Flesh, for the life of the world.” The Jews disliked this speech; they began to question and dispute the Master’s words. But Jesus answeredthem still more forcefully: “Amen, amen, I say unto you, except you eat the Flesh of the Son of man and drink His Blood, you shall not have life in you” (John 6:51-54). These are definitive words which leave no room for doubt; if...

SOLEMNITY OF THE BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST - CORPUS CHRISTI JOHN 6:51-58 Friends, in today’s Gospel Jesus promises eternal life to those who eat his Flesh and drink his Blood. Many of the Church Fathers characterized the Eucharist as food that effectively immortalizes those who consume it. They understood that if Christ is really present in the Eucharistic elements, the one who eats and drinks the Lord’s Body and Blood becomes configured to Christ in a far more than metaphorical way. The Eucharist Christifies and hence eternalizes. If the Eucharist were no more than a symbol, this kind of...

Bishops are keeping sacraments suspended indefinitely and allowing Washington churches to be treated differently than other establishments in terms of opening. Washington state Catholic leaders would rather stick it to the president than let him defend their right to celebrate Mass. Following President Donald TrumpÂ’s direction on Friday for states to allow houses of worship to reopened and to declare public worship as essential, Gov. Jay Inslee immediately thumbed his nose, and Washington bishops quickly follow suit.In a disappointing response, the bishops demonstrated that rather than stand up for their flock and acknowledge the presidentÂ’s commitment to religious freedom, they...

Thursday of the Fourth Week of Easter John 13:16-20 Friends, in today’s Gospel Jesus announces his betrayal just after transforming bread and wine into his Body and Blood. It is of great moment that, immediately after this extraordinary event, Jesus speaks of treachery: “The one who ate my food has raised his heel against me.” In the biblical reading, God’s desires have been, from the beginning, opposed. Consistently, human beings have preferred the isolation of sin to the festivity of the sacred meal. Theologians call this tendency the mysterium iniquitatis (the mystery of evil), for there is no rational ground...

Encouraging message about reopening Catholic Churches in Oregon/Archdiocese of Portland. Recommendation as well as some restrictions are still in place. Possibility of more Masses with 25 parishioners at each Mass.

Cardinal Robert Sarah In this exclusive interview with the Daily Compass, the Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments intervenes on the subject of “take away” Communion and on the “negotiations” underway to guarantee its taken with the correct precautions. No compromise, “the Eucharist is a gift we receive from God and we must receive it in a dignified way. We are not at the supermarket.” “No-one has the right to prevent a priest from hearing Confession and giving Communion.” “ There is a rule and this must be respected, the faithful are...

MEMORIAL OF SAINT ATHANASIUS JOHN 6:60-69 Friends, in today’s Gospel we learn that many disciples left the Lord because he said they had no life unless they were to eat his flesh and drink his blood. Why has the gift of the Eucharist been, from the beginning, a source of contention? Why have we, from Jesus’ time to the present day, been fighting over it? Shouldn’t it be the source of our unity and deepest joy? Well, yes. But we can’t overlook the fact that it has always divided—just as Jesus himself divided people: "Whoever is not with me is...

Friday of the Third Week of Easter John 6:52-59 Friends, in today’s Gospel Jesus declares that "unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood, you do not have life within you." The talk that Jesus gave concerning the sacrament of his Body and Blood was quite literally revolting. It is a rather remarkable understatement when John writes, "The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’" So what does Jesus do when confronted with this objection? One would think that he would offer a metaphorical or...

Thursday of the Third Week of Easter John 6:44-51 Friends, in today’s Gospel Jesus declares, "I am the living bread that came down from heaven." The bread is referred to as living. Bread is good, but it’s not alive. Instead, when we take it in, and it is turned by our bodies into fat or muscle or bone, then it comes alive. But it is just the opposite with the living bread of Christ. This we take in and we become alive in a way that we were not before. And this is why Jesus says that he is bread...

Tuesday of the Third Week of Easter John 6:30-35 Friends, in today’s Gospel a crowd whom Jesus fed among the five thousand challenges him. As is often the case in the John, a skeptical question opens toward deeper understanding: "So they said to him, ‘What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? . . . Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness.’" They were appealing to the miracle by which Yahweh fed the children of Israel during their forty years in the desert. But Jesus wants them to understand...

Monday of the Third Week of Easter John 6:22-29 Friends, in today’s Gospel the crowd that experienced the miracle of the loaves pursues Jesus to see more wonders. They finally track him down in the synagogue in the lakeside town of Capharnaum. When they ask Jesus how he had got there ahead of them, the Lord chides them: "Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life." Ordinary...

John 6:1-15 Friends, today’s Gospel tells of the feeding of the five thousand, which is a type of the Mass. Jesus is interested not only in instructing the crowds but also in feeding them. Copying this rhythm, the Mass moves from the Liturgy of the Word to the Liturgy of the Eucharist. The disciples supply a poor pittance—five barley loaves and two fish. Jesus makes the customary Eucharistic moves in regard to the bread: taking, giving thanks, and distributing. And everyone is fed. During the sacred liturgy, the priest, on behalf of the people, offers to God a small pittance:...

Staff photo by Wyatt Massey The Very Reverend J. David Carter, far right, of the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul holds a monstrance to bless a family on April 8 while Fr. Valentin Iurochkin shakes incense from a thurible. The priests made home visits the past week to bring encouragement to families who could not attend in-person worship services because of COVID-19 concerns. In an effort to encourage Chattanooga's faithful through the ongoing global pandemic and its economic fallout, the Very Rev. J. David Carter of the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul visited people at their homes...

For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, (1 Tim. 2:5) There is no way to adequately explain priesthood without reference to mediation. A priest is a mediator between God and Man. From time to time over the years, I have had the verse from 1 Timothy pointed out to me with the argument that there cannot be any mediator other than Christ, and, thus, there cannot be any such thing as a “priest” within the Church. Sometimes the argument becomes even more pointed: I do not need to go to a...

The saints tell us that the Catholic Church is the soul of the world. Above all what sustains the Church is the Most Holy Eucharist (Vat. II: LG 11; CCC 1324). Even though the great majority of the baptized Catholics have lost their faith in the Eucharist, Satan knows very well what the Eucharist is and that it is the Eucharist above all which “restrains” Satan (2Thess 2:3-4). Satan already deprived the Protestants of the Eucharist 400 years ago, just as Satan did for many disciples of Jesus (Jn 6:66) 2000 years ago. Thus we are finally quickly arriving to...

Bishops from the U.S. and Mexico held a highly political Mass at the border separating their two countries on Saturday morning, insisting in a statement that “there is no ‘us’ and ‘them.’”....... Last month, Bishop Seitz wrote a searing “pastoral letter” denouncing President Trump’s border wall as a “monument to hate” and a symbol of exclusion and racism. “Borders, in the spirit of the Eucharist, exist not to separate and divide, but to identify and complement one another.” “The wall deepens racially charged perceptions of how we understand the border as well as Mexicans and migrants. It extends racist talk...

The bishop’s 2,100-word teaching document, titled “The Real Presence,” was released Sept. 16, six weeks after the publication of a Pew Research Center study showing that a majority of Catholics in the United States do not believe that the bread and wine used at Mass become the body and blood of Christ.

Some Catholics may argue that Bishop Thomas Paprocki has politicized the Eucharist, while others may argue that his action last week is long overdue. The Illinois state legislature passed their Reproductive Health Act last week, which declares abortion to be a “fundamental right” and removes all restrictions on it. Paprocki, the head of the diocese of Springfield, responded by barring two Catholic legislators who sponsored the bill from communion — until they confess their sin and repent of it: “In accord with canon 915 of the Code of Canon Law…Illinois Senate President John Cullerton and Speaker of the House...

Full title: "He excluded from the altar all who had perpetrated crime or formed evil resolutions" — A 5th century account of participation in Holy Communion There is an interesting passage in the Ecclesiastical History of Sozomen, written about AD 445, regarding two priest-monks in Egypt. These two, Dioscorus and Eulogius, appear as part of a list of holy men who flourished during the reign of the emperor Valens (AD 364-378) who “devoted themselves to a life of philosophy.” (Note that when Sozomen says, “philosophy”, he means ascetic Christian theology.) For each holy man on the list, Sozomen provides a...

Pro-life Catholics who wish Catholic Church leaders would step up and deny communion to leading politicians who support abortion are getting good news today. One Catholic bishop is denying communion to pro-abortion Democrat Dick Durbin, a top Democrat in the Senate who has long supported and promoted abortion. Durbin joined other Democrats to block a bill banning abortions after 20 weeks. Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois says Durbin is “cooperating in evil” and persisting in “manifest grave sin” because of his abortion advocacy and must therefore “not be admitted to Holy Communion until he repents of his sin.”...