Ordinary Old Catholic Me

Keeping Focused to Keep the Faith

A bit more this week on the short story read last week. It was called "The Hint of An Explanation" by Graham Greene. This week I look at my reaction to the story and the urgent need to realize in the depths of body, mind and soul the nature of the Eucharist, the living Christ.

The Hint is All

We Catholics say we know that the Eucharist truly is God. But in a strange way "knowing" and "believing" are two separate realities. I know it is so. But I have to repeat, over and over, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief", because that unbelief crops up the moment after I have actually received Him. But there are Hints as to how absolutely the Supernatural Second Person of the Holy Trinity is surely there, and one day we will grasp it with total unswerving faith. 
Have you ever read the short story, "The Hint of an Explanation". It's power has gripped me again about the Power of God against Satan in the Gift of the Eucharist. 

Too Rigid to Be a Saint?

In these days of unclear teaching about clear truth, it is possible to say that a person on the road to publicly declared Sainthood might not be the culture's, including alas, the modernistic collaborative Catholic Culture's, cup of theology.  Suggesting that some persistent sin, as detailed in the Catechism, can lead to hell is considered too harsh, too "rigid". So is it possible that someone say, like the Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen, could find his public path to declared Sainthood a rough one. Something to consider on Ordinary Old Catholic Me.

Too Horrible to Be a Saint?

I am always grateful when someone poses a question that generates a podcast. I may not have the exact question right but as I understood it--are there some things done in the life of a saint murder for instance, that are so beyond the pale that it seems incongruous the person should be considered a Saint, someone we look to as a figure of holiness? I may not have found the best answer. But it is worth the tussle!

Navigating Evil and the End of the World

If you don't believe in God and His Plan and His hope for our Repentance and Cooperation in that Plan, then maybe you aren't worried about the End of the World. Me? I am worried plenty. Where will I stand when the Time comes? Where will you? There is a lot at stake. Do you see that we are in yet another potential time of the Anti-Christ? The idea for me, I realize is to worry less but to rely on God by preparing now in fervent and regular prayer that I will stand with Him while the Devil is confounding us and steering us toward evil by making it look like the good it is not. And that I will continue to stand with Him and welcome the Day of His Second Coming knowing that I have not abandoned His Truth.

Subordination Is What It Is All About

That letter to the Ephesians where Paul describes the relationship of a man and woman in marriage is a stumbling block to modern Catholics. And my thought today is that it ought not be.  That was how Christ saved us, by becoming subordinate to His Father and to a situation in which there was to be certain death. How then can we women act as if subordination to our husbands is beneath us. And the fact is that true love, that the man is supposed to provide to his wife, is to be completely about the other, his wife, true service and selflessness. And that too is the gift of subordination. 

Pray Even When You Don't Feel Like It

Some might say I seem to be an energetic, relatively happy person. Sometimes I am. But my core, alas, is more "gloomy Gus", the lifelong pessimist. And in a world that looks like it is going off the rails, I can't even find a spark of optimism of late, and I too often feel like running away, and leaving behind everything, including my faith. I don't even want to pray for everything looks too dark. But there it is. That's the crux. I must pray, especially when it seems impossible. Especially when I do not feel like it. I hope you take my advice this occasion. I hope I take my advice. 

Hope Against Hope

When we get to the.  .  .ahem. . . latter end of the stages of man, one notices more the reality that we all share. We lose the bloom of youth, and the status quo of middle age and start to decline, some ever so slightly, some more so, but if we live long enough, we see that no one is spared, not even the most successful of stars, or entrepreneurs, believers or non-believers. And no avoidance the material world can provide will distract us any longer. It is either meaningless or Meaning Exists. 

God Literally Within

What happens on the Altar during Mass is beyond profound. And yet, we are so casual in response to it, to Him. What do I see? What should I understand? What do I feel? It is really the key to eternal life. 

Thoughts While in a Less than Good Mood

You get the idea. But there is a solution. It is the Will of God. Ain't easy to follow it. I wish I were better at it. But we are all human, and fallen. And need God's Grace ever. Particularly in the celebration of the Mass.