Author Archive for Kevin M. Tierney

Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, The Joy of the Gospel
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Front Row With Francis: What is Wisdom?

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by on Apr 11, 2014 in Catechesis, Featured, Learn & Live the Faith, The Shepherd's Voice
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Continuing with his back to basics approach to catechesis, the Holy Father used this week’s general audience to begin a new series of reflections, this time on the gifts of the Spirit. When you ask people what the gifts of the Spirit are, you frequently hear such things as speaking in tongues, prophesy, healing, etc. […]

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

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by on Apr 04, 2014 in Catechesis, Featured, Learn & Live the Faith, The Shepherd's Voice
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In Wednesday’s general audience, the Holy Father wraps up his series on the sacraments by covering that of Holy Matrimony.  It is fitting he saved the sacrament for last, because in the end, matrimony is what we are all called to.  Even if we choose the religious life, we are called to nuptial union with […]

Why We Need to Think Liturgically
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Why We Need to Think Liturgically

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by on Apr 01, 2014 in Catechesis, Featured, Learn & Live the Faith, MyChurchParish.com
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What is the best way to teach the faith?  This is a question that has been on the mind of many thinkers lately, especially in light of what Ralph Martin calls the “institutional collapse” in American Catholicism.  This question should be considered anew in light of recent research into the behavior of young Catholics in […]

Become Holy This Lent by Being Yourself
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Become Holy This Lent by Being Yourself

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by on Mar 11, 2014 in Catechesis, Featured, Learn & Live the Faith, Live in Christ, MyChurchParish.com
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When Catholics talk about Lent, we usually talk about what we are going to change in our lives.  We view our lives as deficient, and in order to improve them, we must either subtract (give something up) or add (take on extra prayers, devotions, etc) to our lives to grow in holiness.  This has been […]

Reform of the Reform 2.0?
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Reform of the Reform 2.0?

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by on Mar 06, 2014 in Catechesis, Featured, Learn & Live the Faith, Live in Christ, MyChurchParish.com
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Over the past two weeks, the “reform of the reform” has found its way in the news, and in a lot of discussion within the Catholic commentariat.  It all started when Fr. Thomas Kocik, one of the leading lights of the reform of the reform, wrote an article stating that the current reform movement was […]

Our Lenten Journey
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Our Lenten Journey

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by on Mar 04, 2014 in Catechesis, Featured, Learn & Live the Faith, Live in Christ
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As we begin our Lenten season tomorrow (our Eastern brethren began it yesterday), we Catholics are given the opportunity to once again discover the key to spiritual growth, and to once again correct our vices and imperfections we have accumulated since last Lent. In many Catholic circles today, Lent is viewed simply as “what food […]

Is Traditionalism a Fad?
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Is Traditionalism a Fad?

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by on Feb 24, 2014 in Catechesis, Featured, Learn & Live the Faith
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In comments that became controversial the instant they were reported, the traditionalist weblog Rorate Caeli gave us the following translation from Vatican Radio: [Abp. Jan Graubner speaks:] When we were discussing those who are fond of the ancient liturgy and wish to return to it, it was evident that the Pope speaks with great affection, attention, and […]

The Bad Evangelist Club: How NOT to Refute Sola Scriptura
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The Bad Evangelist Club: How NOT to Refute Sola Scriptura

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by on Feb 19, 2014 in Apologetics, Featured, Learn & Live the Faith, MyChurchParish.com
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When discussing the arguments against Sola Scriptura, we Catholics have a lot of strong arguments.  Here at The Bad Evangelist Club, we help you to avoid bad arguments like the one below so the good ones have more credibility. The Argument Any debate around Sola Scriptura will focus on 2 Timothy 3:14-17, which goes as […]

How Shepherds Smell Like Their Sheep
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How Shepherds Smell Like Their Sheep

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by on Feb 10, 2014 in Catechesis, Featured, Learn & Live the Faith, MyChurchParish.com
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One of the phrases people quote about Pope Francis is his exhortation that “shepherds must smell like their sheep.”  If you ask ten people what this means, you will likely get ten different answers.  Nobody can agree upon what it means, but everyone can agree it is something important.  I believe that as always, the […]

Saint Pope Pius X
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St. Pius X and the Church of Nice

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by on Jan 31, 2014 in Featured, Learn & Live the Faith, MyChurchParish.com
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In today’s polarized Church, we like to label that which we don’t like.  We need to tell people we are the pure, and they are the impure.  A lot of Catholics do this by labeling those they disagreed with “radical traditionalists” or “radtrad”, even though more often than not these Catholics were faithful Catholics in […]

Why Priests Should Celebrate the Extraordinary Form
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Why Priests Should Celebrate the Extraordinary Form

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by on Jan 21, 2014 in Featured, Learn & Live the Faith, MyChurchParish.com, Vocations
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One of the things I enjoy the most about my job here is interacting with priests.  It’s really humbling to know that some of the guys who instruct the souls from the pulpit every Sunday work with me on publishing their next column, or even read my columns and take some of the advice.  Lay […]

Why Ad Orientem? Part I
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Why Ad Orientem? Part I

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by on Jan 15, 2014 in Catechesis, Featured, Learn & Live the Faith
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A frequent refrain to those who love traditional liturgical piety is that our piety, while nice and beautiful, is no longer culturally relevant.  They tell us it is near impossible to teach today’s generation with these bygone customs.  One of the customs they believe this applies to most is the issue of saying Mass ad […]

Consider Christ
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Consider Christ

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by on Dec 25, 2013 in Evangelization, Featured, Live in Christ
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With today’s writing I want to speak to an audience I don’t normally speak to.  We “smart” Catholics like to look down on those who don’t do things the way we do.  We look down on those who aren’t there with us every Sunday at Mass.  This is the audience I’d like to speak to. […]

The Link Between Catechesis and Liturgy
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The Link Between Catechesis and Liturgy

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by on Dec 20, 2013 in Catechesis, Featured, MyChurchParish.com
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From time to time in various debates about the liturgy, the principle of lex orandi lex credendi surfaces.  While the Latin might be a little off putting, the Catechism of the Catholic Church defines the concept as follows:  When the Church celebrates the sacraments, she confesses the faith received from the apostles – whence the ancient […]

Why Aren't They Preaching About What I Think is Important?
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Why Aren’t They Preaching About What I Think is Important?

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by on Dec 10, 2013 in Catechesis, Featured, Live in Christ, MyChurchParish.com
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Catholics tend to have a love/hate relationship with the concept of a homily.  In Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis laments how everyone suffers when it comes to the homily.  The priest suffers because he has to give it, and the laity suffers having to listen.  This can be made worse by the fact that preachers can have […]

Why You Should Receive Communion Kneeling and on the Tongue
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Why You Should Receive Communion Kneeling and on the Tongue

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by on Nov 15, 2013 in Apologetics, Catechesis, Featured, MyChurchParish.com
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In the 13 years I have been a practicing Catholic, I have been a traditionalist all but two of them.  As a result, I have received communion on the tongue and kneeling for eleven years.  I’ve also found that the way we traditionalists receive communion is something that many Catholics outside of the Extraordinary Form […]

Hitting the Streets with St. Paul Street Evangelization: An Interview
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Hitting the Streets with St. Paul Street Evangelization: An Interview

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by on Nov 08, 2013 in Evangelization, Featured, Interviews, Learn & Live the Faith
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Over the past month I have been in contact with Mr. Adam Janke of the organization St.Paul Street Evangelization as part of a new series where we interview ministries and apostolates worthy of recognition.  If anyone would like to be interviewed (or you know someone who should be interviewed) please contact me. Kevin Tierney:  What […]

A Wicked Generation Seeks a Sign: Catholics and Private Revelation
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A Wicked Generation Seeks a Sign: Catholics and Private Revelation

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by on Nov 01, 2013 in Catechesis, Featured, Live in Christ, MyChurchParish.com
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Have you heard about how everything will be okay in this world once the Pope consecrates Russia to Mary’s Immaculate Heart, as stated by Our Lady of Fatima?  Have you heard the latest revelation from Medjugorje?    Maybe you wonder what the person calling themselves Maria Divine Mercy is saying.  One thing is for sure:  We […]

Taking the Bible Seriously
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Taking the Bible Seriously

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by on Oct 24, 2013 in Apologetics, Catechesis, Featured, MyChurchParish.com
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I remember during my dating days wanting to start a Bible study with a girl I was dating.  She liked the idea, but asked “which commentary are we going to use in studying the Bible?”  Puzzled, I said we wouldn’t be.  We would just talk over the phone/in person about various Bible verses, what they […]

Traditionalist, not Utopian
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Traditionalist, not Utopian

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by on Oct 16, 2013 in Catechesis, Featured, MyChurchParish.com
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Sometimes I think we traditionalists get far to caught up in the details of this or that crisis in the Church today that we forget why we are fighting. We become very much like the dystopians of the Old Testament. We aren’t fighting to restore some golden age. We are fighting to reach the golden age promised to the faithful in Heaven. If we can use the things of this world and this present age to reach that point, then even better.

Traditionalists and the Incarnation
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Traditionalists and the Incarnation

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by on Oct 08, 2013 in Apologetics, Catechesis, Featured, MyChurchParish.com
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In a previous article, I outlined my belief that one of the greatest dangers facing Catholicism today is a lack of belief in the doctrine of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ.  This lack of belief stems from failing to appreciate the wide-ranging conclusions from such an event.  I pointed out how this problem has led […]

Proselytism, Conversion, and Other "Solemn Nonsense"
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Proselytism, Conversion, and Other “Solemn Nonsense”

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by on Oct 04, 2013 in Apologetics, Catechesis, Featured, MyChurchParish.com
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In my previous column, we examined how the words of Pope Francis found echo in Pope Leo XIII.  A lot of Catholics were also “scandalized” by another statement from Pope Francis.  When an atheist asked if the point of their meeting was to convert him, the Holy Father Stated: Proselytism is solemn nonsense, it makes […]

Jesus Didn't Found a Religion?
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Jesus Didn’t Found a Religion?

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by on Sep 30, 2013 in Apologetics, Catechesis, Featured, MyChurchParish.com
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In dialogues with Non-Catholics, most of the subjects you discuss won’t get you that far.  Instead, they will frequently tell you something along these lines.  “Jesus Christ didn’t found a religion, he founded a Church.  That Church is based upon confessing Christ as your Savior.  Catholics add to this and to the Bible with their […]