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July 4, 2011 Monday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time  Reading 1Responsorial PsalmGospel Reading 1Gn 28:10-22aJacob departed from Beer-sheba and proceeded toward Haran.When he came upon a certain shrine, as the sun had already set,he stopped there for the night.Taking one of the stones at the shrine, he put it under his headand lay down to sleep at that spot.Then he had a dream: a stairway rested on the ground,with its top reaching to the heavens;and God’s messengers were going up and down on it.And there was the LORD standing beside him and saying:“I, the LORD, am the God of...

ICEL’s Executive Director: New Missal Translation ‘Long Overdue’by Shawn Tribe I am grateful to have had the following article pointed out to me yesterday: ICEL’s Executive Director: New Missal Translation ‘Long Overdue’. An excerpt: Although Catholics have become accustomed to the current translation of the Roman missal and some may wonder why a new one is being introduced, Msgr. Andrew Wadsworth, who is executive director of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy — which prepared the forthcoming translation that debuts in Catholic churches in the U.S. on the First Sunday of Advent — says it was high time...

What Does GIRM 160 for the USA Really Say? Posted on 24 June 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf  When the new English translation of the Roman Missal is released, it will sport a new translation of the GIRM, the General Institution/Instruction of the Roman Missal.There are, of course, adaptations for the USA and other Anglophone regions.As it happens, the Congregation for Divine Worship has … tweaked some items.  I am sure this was to harmonize the language of the GIRM with the language of the rest of the Roman Missal.  However, tweaks may have been tweaked for other reasons.For example,...

Featured Term (selected at random):INSCRIPTIONS Writings or crude incisions made on the walls and tombs of the catacombs expressing the beliefs of the early Christians. These inscriptions show the people's faith in eternal life and resurrection of the dead, in purgatory, and in the joys of heaven. The word "bury" was unknown. The dead were deposited in faith, left for a time to rise on the last day. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

The Early Church Fathers on the Scriptures   Every page of the Bible is a hymn to Christby Augustine, c. 354-430 You have heard the account of the two disciples who met the Lord on the road to Emmaus and yet did not recognize him.  When he met them, they had lost all hope of the redemption that is in Christ, they were convinced that the Master was dead like any other man, they did not realize that Jesus inasmuch as he is Son of God was still alive.  According to them he had left this life without being able...

Featured Term (selected at random):TENDENCY Any inclination or disposition that, in human beings, becomes a desire. It is either an attraction to some specific good or an aversion from some specific evil. Natural tendencies are inborn and are really one's natural powers or faculties seeking expression. Supeernatural tendencies are the graces divinely conferred to incline the will to the practice of virtue beyond the capacity of the native will, or of virtue known only on divine faith. Both natural and supernatural tendencies may be either conscious, also called elicited, when a person actually experiences his striving toward a good or...

June 21, 2011Memorial of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, religious Reading 1Responsorial PsalmGospel Reading 1Gn 13:2, 5-18Abram was very rich in livestock, silver, and gold.Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents,so that the land could not support them if they stayed together;their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together.There were quarrels between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestockand those of Lot’s.(At this time the Canaanites and the Perizziteswere occupying the land.)So Abram said to Lot:“Let there be no strife between you and me,or between your herdsmen and mine, for we are kinsmen.Is not the whole land...

Priests of the Domestic Church: A Father's Day Homily | Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers | Ignatius Insight In the days before global positioning systems, Mapquest, and Google Earth, men were stereotyped as reluctant to ask for directions. You know the scene: a couple is driving somewhere and, unable to find their destination, the wife turns to her husband and says, "Honey, maybe we should stop and ask for directions." The husband, dismayed that his wife would dare challenge his sense of direction, stubbornly says, "I know where I'm going!" This would go on and on until they eventually found the...

June 20, 2011Monday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1Responsorial PsalmGospel Reading 1Gn 12:1-9The LORD said to Abram:“Go forth from the land of your kinsfolkand from your father’s house to a land that I will show you.“I will make of you a great nation,and I will bless you;I will make your name great,so that you will be a blessing.I will bless those who bless youand curse those who curse you.All the communities of the earthshall find blessing in you.”Abram went as the LORD directed him, and Lot went with him.Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.Abram took...

Gregory Nazianzen: Hold Fast to the Confession of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit Saturday, Jun 18 2011 Gregory Nazianzen and PATRISTIC baptism, Christ, contemplation, God, Holy Spirit, illumination, Trinity markarmitage 8:29 am Before all else, I beg you…hold fast to the confession of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.[...] I give you to share, and to defend all your life, the one Godhead and power, found in the Three in unity, and comprising the Three separately, not unequal in substance or nature, neither increased nor diminished by superiorities or inferiorities; in every respect equal, in...

Featured Term (selected at random):KERYGMATIC THEOLOGY The science of theology which stresses the functional use of sacred doctrine in preaching, contrasted with a more academic or speculative study of religious truths. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Featured Term (selected at random):WAR Conflict of armed force in which one nation or part of a nation seeks to impose its will on another nation or part of a nation. The basic premise of war is that every right is coercible. Thus a state has the right to use force if necessary to defend just rights or to exact reparation for the violation of rights by another state. Another premise is that since no supernational organization exists with the capacity of enforcing its just decisions, with acceptance by all nations, the right of coercibility can be exercised directly by...

June 17, 2011Friday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1Responsorial PsalmGospel Reading 12 Cor 11:18, 21-30Brothers and sisters:Since many boast according to the flesh, I too will boast.To my shame I say that we were too weak!But what anyone dares to boast of (I am speaking in foolishness)I also dare.Are they Hebrews? So am I.Are they children of Israel? So am I.Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I.Are they ministers of Christ? (I am talking like an insane person).I am still more, with far greater labors,far more imprisonments, far worse beatings,and numerous brushes with death.Five times at the...

Featured Term (selected at random):ROMAN PRIMACY The supreme and full power of jurisdiction possessed by divine right by the Bishop of Rome over the whole Church in matters of faith and in matters pertaining to the discipline and government of the Church spread throughout the world. This power is not merely symbolic but real and truly episcopal; it is ordinary in belonging to the office; it is immediate and not dependent on any other human authority; and it affects each and every church, each and every pastor, and every single one of the faithful. All items in this dictionary are...

Featured Term (selected at random):ANTE CHRISTUM Before Christ; sometimes abbreviated A.C. as the equivalent of B.C. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Featured Term (selected at random):GREGORIAN SACRAMENTARY A liturgical book attributed to Pope St. Gregory I, sometimes called the Sacramentary of Adrian I. It contains the original text and numerous additions made by various scribes. The sacramentary has three parts: 1. the Ordinary of the Mass; 2. the Propers of the Mass for the year beginning with Christmas Eve, but with no Masses for the Sundays after Epiphany and Pentecost; and 3. the ritual prayers for ordinations. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

“Something’s Lost and Must Be Found!” Praying to St. Anthony of Padua By: Mitch Finley St. Anthony of Padua was a great Franciscan preacher from the Middle Ages, but he is most remembered as the finder of lost or stolen objects. Even today stories are told by people who recover lost articles following prayer for the intercession of St. Anthony. The reason for invoking St. Anthony’s help stems from an incident in the saint’s life. Anthony had a book of psalms that he cherished. Any book before the invention of the printing press was of great value, but this...

Featured Term (selected at random):JOANNA The wife of the chief steward in the household of Herod Antipas (Luke 8:3). She was converted by Jesus and was one of the women who followed him and his apostles as they traveled from town to town preaching. She was one of the three women who went to the tomb on Easter morning to anoint the body and heard the angels announce that Jesus had risen from the dead (Luke 24:1-11). (Etym. Greek ioana, from Hebrew yochanan, Yahweh is gracious.) All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, ©...

Featured Term (selected at random):ROYAL VETO The right claimed by some rulers to reject nominees to Catholic episcopal sees that were not acceptable to the civil government. While the Holy See has never recognized the right on principle, it has more than once permitted the exercise of the veto in order to avoid greater evil. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

June 7, 2011Tuesday of the Seventh Week of Easter Reading 1Responsorial PsalmGospel Reading 1Acts 20:17-27From Miletus Paul had the presbytersof the Church at Ephesus summoned. When they came to him, he addressed them,“You know how I lived among youthe whole time from the day I first came to the province of Asia.I served the Lord with all humilityand with the tears and trials that came to mebecause of the plots of the Jews,and I did not at all shrink from telling youwhat was for your benefit,or from teaching you in public or in your homes.I earnestly bore witness for both Jews...