Category: Catechesis

Tough Religion and Evangelization
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Tough Religion and Evangelization

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by on Dec 14, 2012 in Catechesis, Columnists, Contraception & Abortion, Featured, History, Live in Christ
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Much has been said lately about how to do evangelization. I’ve contributed a bit to that myself. Now I begin to think that, instead of always stressing niceness, it might be good to give tough religion a try. That idea was inspired by a reading of Eric Metaxas’s biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Lutheran theologian [...]

Bl. Miguel Pro
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Images of Christ in the Modern Age

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by on Dec 12, 2012 in Catechesis, Featured, Live in Christ
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Now is as good a time as any to remind myself that the last couple centuries have not been all doom and gloom; that the saints of the Church are as numerous in the last few hundred years as they were in ancient and medieval times. Why do I say this?  Because I sometimes get [...]

Second Week of Advent: B.I.B.L.E. – Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth
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Second Week of Advent: B.I.B.L.E. – Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth

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by on Dec 10, 2012 in Catechesis, Columnists, Featured
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In 1979 I received my First Communion and, as a communion gift, my first Bible, The Illustrated Children’s Bible.  I cherished this present and the stories never left my memory, even after I lost the Bible, many years ago. The Word of God is eternal and omnipresent; it remains imprinted on our souls from our [...]

Reflections for Sunday, December 16, 2012
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Reflections for Sunday, December 16, 2012

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by on Dec 10, 2012 in Catechesis, Featured, Sunday Reflections
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Meditation and Questions for Reflection or Group Discussion (Zephaniah 3:14-18; (Psalm) Isaiah 12:2-6; Philippians 4:4-7; Luke 3:10-18) Advent, A Time of Thanksgiving and Rejoicing “The peace of God … will guard your hearts.” (Philippians 4:7) There was once a little town that was being harassed and pillaged by marauders. Good families were not able to [...]

Advent: A Season of Hope
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Advent: A Season of Hope

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by on Dec 09, 2012 in Catechesis, Columnists, Featured, Sunday Reflections
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Second Sunday of Advent Faith, hope, and love.  St. Paul, in I Corinthians 13:13, say these three are the bottom line.  They are called the theological virtues, the qualities that make us most like God. We hear plenty about faith and love.  But when is the last time you heard a rousing homily on hope?  [...]

Reflections for Sunday, December 9, 2012
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Reflections for Sunday, December 9, 2012

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by on Dec 05, 2012 in Catechesis, Sunday Reflections
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Meditation and Questions for Reflection or Group Discussion (Baruch 5:1-9; Psalm 126:1-6 ; Philippians 1:4-6,8-11; Luke 3:1-6) Advent, A Time to Allow God’s Word to Transform You “A voice of one crying out in the desert.” (Luke 3:4) Tiberius. Pilate. Herod. Philip. Lysanias. Annas. Caiaphas. These men ruled the secular and religious worlds at the [...]

First Week of Advent: From the Incarnation to the Parousia
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First Week of Advent: From the Incarnation to the Parousia

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by on Dec 03, 2012 in Catechesis, Columnists, Featured
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Wednesday, November 21.  I drove eleven hours through the Megalopolis of Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York City.  It was the day before Thanksgiving, the busiest traveling day of the year in the U.S.  Was I crazy?  Maybe, but a daylong drive through stop-and-go traffic was what I wanted to help prepare for Advent.  [...]

Advent: The Reason for the Season
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Advent: The Reason for the Season

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by on Dec 02, 2012 in Catechesis, Columnists, Featured, Sunday Reflections
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1st Sunday of Advent “Advent” is simply the Latin word for “coming.”  If we can manage to meditate on any “coming” in December besides the comings and goings of Christmas shopping, it would be Christ’s coming to Mary in a stable But the liturgy of the first three weeks of Advent speaks of another coming, [...]

Catholic Politics
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Catholic Politics

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by on Dec 01, 2012 in Catechesis, Columnists, Featured, Government & Politics
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The cardinal looked grim. “This is the situation now,” he said. “One political party is dangerous and the other is stupid.” Since that was said in a private chat, it wouldn’t be fair for me to name the speaker. But his comment expresses sentiments that probably are widely shared in the American hierarchy today, as [...]

Theology on the Tea Cups
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Theology on the Tea Cups

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by on Nov 30, 2012 in Catechesis, Featured
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“Forget about man-made religion, man!  Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ?” It is likely that we’ve all been on at least one side of that question, possibly both.  Before leaving Assemblies of God, I was one of the loudest and proudest when it came to purposefully shearing off anything that I decided [...]

Witnessing in the Here and Now
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Witnessing in the Here and Now

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by on Nov 26, 2012 in Catechesis, Featured, The Social Order
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Having offered my initial response to the election of 2012, I promised a more positive column, and that promise is easy to fulfill—Christ is risen, and faith in him is stronger than death. Although I missed living in the 1950′s by a hair’s breadth, that decades’s culture was long celebrated in movies, books, and music. [...]

Feast of Christ the King
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Feast of Christ the King

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by on Nov 25, 2012 in Catechesis, Columnists, Featured, Sunday Reflections
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34rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, From the dawn of civilization, kings have dreamed of possessing a world-wide dominion, a universal kingdom that would last forever.  Some have come close to conquering much of the known world: Alexander, Genghis Khan, Augustus Caesar, to name a few.  And some kingdoms have lasted a very long time, such [...]

Jesus Christ, King of the Universe
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Jesus Christ, King of the Universe

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by on Nov 24, 2012 in Catechesis, Columnists, Featured
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“Absolute power,” Lord Acton wrote, “corrupts absolutely.  Great men are almost always bad men.”   Good and bad can be a matter of degree, something that can be adjusted like the volume dial on a radio.  If power is relative then that it means different things to different people, and its abuse becomes a matter [...]

Reflections for Sunday, November 25, 2012
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Reflections for Sunday, November 25, 2012

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by on Nov 19, 2012 in Catechesis, Featured, Sunday Reflections
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Meditation and Questions for Reflection or Group Discussion (Daniel 7:13-14; Psalm 93:1-2,5; Revelation 1:5-8; John 18:33-37) Jesus Christ, King Over All Creation and Our King “Are you the King of the Jews?” (John 18:33) In honor of this great feast, let’s take some time to dwell on what it means that Jesus is King of [...]

Hasten the End
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Hasten the End

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by on Nov 18, 2012 in Catechesis, Columnists, Featured, Sunday Reflections
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33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B Whenever I lead a trip to the Holy Land, the question inevitably comes, “Will we visit Armageddon?’  This refers, of course, to the battlefield surrounding the ancient city of Megiddo where some think the final confrontation will take place before the end of the world (Rev 16:16).  Catholics [...]

The Word Made Fresh: the Second and Third Epistles of Saint John the Apostle
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The Word Made Fresh: the Second and Third Epistles of Saint John the Apostle

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by on Nov 16, 2012 in Catechesis, Columnists, Featured
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“Anyone who is so ‘progressive’ as not to remain in the teaching of the Christ does not have God” (2 John 9).   Saint John the Apostle wrote of progressivism in his second letter 1,900 years ago.  He directed his argument to the “lady elect and her children,” that is, to the community of believers who [...]

Re-imagining Shepherds
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Re-imagining Shepherds

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by on Nov 15, 2012 in Catechesis, Columnists, Contraception & Abortion, Featured, Law & Justice, Live in Christ, The Homosexual Agenda, The Social Order
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What comes to your mind when you hear the familiar Bible passage from Luke 2:8-10, where the angels appear to the shepherds to proclaim the birth of a savior and His peace? Do you picture cute, little, cherub-faced boys and girls? Do you imagine shepherds that look like those sappy Precious Moments figurines you see [...]

Reflections for Sunday, November 18, 2012
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Reflections for Sunday, November 18, 2012

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by on Nov 13, 2012 in Catechesis, Featured, Sunday Reflections
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Meditation and Questions for Reflection or Group Discussion (Daniel 12:1-3; Psalm 16:5,8-11; Hebrews 10:11-14,18; Mark 13:24-32) Preparing for Jesus Second Coming: Live Each Day As If It Were Your Last “Of that day or hour, no one knows.” (Mark 13:32) Let’s take a short quiz. The first question is a general one: what goals do [...]

Entering the Fullness of Faith
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Entering the Fullness of Faith

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by on Nov 12, 2012 in Catechesis, Featured, Live in Christ
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Suddenly the world isn’t what it used to be.  You notice that the way people talk is overwhelmingly vulgar, because now your ears are accustomed to the sweet song of Christ.  When the Lord’s name is taken in vain, you wince, or feel a pang in your heart.  When the Blessed Virgin is treated as [...]

The Widow’s Mite
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The Widow’s Mite

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by on Nov 11, 2012 in Catechesis, Columnists, Featured
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32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B The time lag between the two widows in this Sunday’s readings was considerable.  Lots of things change in 800 years. But one thing their two societies had in common–they didn’t offer social security, welfare, 401K’s, or pension plans.  With no husband to provide for them, both widows were [...]

Dedication of St. John Lateran
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Dedication of St. John Lateran

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by on Nov 09, 2012 in Catechesis, Columnists, Featured, History
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As a rebellious teenager, I thought that Catholics should stop wasting their money on expensive churches.  We ought to sell them all and buy food for the poor, I argued.Funny thing.  Jesus, who cared much for the poor, did not have this attitude.  As an adolescent, he yearned to spend time in Herod’s sumptuous Temple [...]

Reflections for Sunday, November 11, 2012
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Reflections for Sunday, November 11, 2012

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by on Nov 06, 2012 in Catechesis, Featured, Sunday Reflections
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Meditation and Questions for Reflection or Group Discussion (1 Kings 17:10-16; Psalm 146:7-10; Hebrews 9:24-28; Mark 12:38-44) The Extravagant Love of God “This poor widow put in more than all the other contributors.” (Mark 12:43) Today’s readings give us two illus­trations of extravagant love. First, we have the widow who cared for Elijah, and in [...]

All Soul’s Day
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All Soul’s Day

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by on Nov 01, 2012 in Catechesis, Columnists, Featured
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I’ll never forget that bleak January day when my father died.  It was very hard to believe in the resurrection as I watched the undertakers carry away his lifeless corpse in a body bag. But imagine this scene.  You are an unborn child who has lived in cozy but cramped quarters with your twin for [...]

Don’t Forget the “Of The’s”
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Don’t Forget the “Of The’s”

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by on Oct 30, 2012 in Catechesis, Featured, MyChurchParish.com
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Sometimes little things make a big difference. I saw this reminder in a child’s catechism book, and it has become something we repeat daily around here. Don’t forget the “of the’s.” It is not correct to say, “In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” Why is that so important? In the baptismal [...]

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