A Hole in My Heart

Shalom tidings Mar/Apr issue has published my conversion story: A Hole in My Heart. It's our tenth anniversary and I couldn't be happier to be in the bosom of Holy Mother Church. I feel as if my real life began 10 years ago, it's as if I were reawakened from a deep and deadly slumber all those many decades.

This beautiful Catholic magazine is a labor of love and they are looking for original pieces regarding all aspects of Catholicism. Take a look online to get a feel for it. I met a few of their people at the Catholic Writing Conference and it was such a joy. Until then, I'd not even known about them. This is what I love about writing conferences, the opportunity to get to know other writers and editors. I'm pitching some talks for this year so wish me luck!  

And speaking of conversions, I can't believe I've not shared Why I Am Catholic (and you should be too) by Brandon Vogt in more detail. I received an ARC a couple of years ago and this is one of the BEST books I've read because the author lays out not only the case for Christ, but also for Catholicism. He organizes his arguments around the three transcendentals: Truth, Goodness, Beauty. It's probably the one resource I recommend to most people who are looking for an explanation for my faith. I know lots and lots of Protestants in the South and they rightly wonder why we would do such a thing because from childhood they've been taught to only believe in the Bible, and here we are with our traditions. People forget that it's the Catholic Church that compiled the books of the Bible and our faith and traditions can be traced all the way back through the Church Fathers to the Apostles and Jesus Himself. But as the Venerable Ap. Fulton Sheen said, "There are not one hundred people in the United States who hate The Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they wrongly perceive the Catholic Church to be.”

Brandon Vogt does a good job of dispelling some of the misconceptions in a clear manner as well as elucidating some of the basic truths of Catholicism. He writes, "Most self-aware people know they fall way short of the Church's moral demands and could never close come to meeting them." He reminds us that "the Church exists for sinners...It isn't for the perfect but for the struggling...Every saint has a past, every sinner has a future." In the end, there are many reasons to love the Church, but the principal reason is that it's true. Tonight we celebrate!

Reading

I read so many good books but there's never enough time to mention them all. But with Christmas right around the corner and many looking for last-minute gifts I wanted share a few reviews. Perhaps you'll receive a gift card to splurge on yourself.

To Light a Fire on the Earth: Proclaiming the Gospel in a Secular Age by Bishop Robert Barron with John Allen Jr. is a book that shares many of Bishop Barron's personal stories of engaging people in discussions of faith. He emphasizes the need to lead with beauty, then goodness, and finally truth of the Catholic faith. Allen is a journalist who brings a framework to the many interviews and discussions Bishop Barron has given in his quest to re-evangelize the West. Still, I found the constant, "Barron says this... Barron says that... " a bit tedious. I loved Catholicism; it is the better book. And the video series is very beautiful, something to watch over and over. Bishop Barron has another series: The Pivotal Players that looks wonderful. Thanks to Blogging for Books for providing a review copy of To Light a Fire on the Earth.

 

I'm a sucker for immigration stories and Brooklyn by Colm Toibin was such a delight. Set in the 1950s, it portrays the journey of a young Irish woman, Eilis, who emigrates to Brooklyn to make a better life. Because Toibin spends a goodly chunk of the novel in Ireland itself, with colorful characters, you feel homesick with Eilis, her awareness of the sacrifices her family has made, and her blossoming. She meets an Italian fellow at a parish dance and their romance is so beautiful. A death in the family brings her home and now she faces the hardest choice--between the old and the new. How I wish I could write as simply and eloquently as Colm Toibin. This is the first book of his I've read, and only because I saw a trailer for the movie, and the screen adaptation looks beautiful.

You Don't Have to Say You Love Me by Sherman Alexie is a beautiful and raw memoir (and he sees that it's a partial anagram for mom noir) about the complicated relationship he had with his mother. A mix of prose and poetry, some so heartbreaking (Ancestry), you can't help but cry. I read this book at the same time my daughter was reading The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and I enjoyed our discussions on poverty and racism so very much. I found myself praying for his parents and for him too. May he find the peace and truth he's searching for.

Pandemonium--
Please remember,
As I weep
Inside
My verse,
That nearly every Indian kid
I knew
Had it worse.

Communion
We worship
the salmon
because we
eat salmon

Jungian
Even as I deny the idea of God,
The idea of God interrogates me.
Even as I pretend that my love
For my mother is conflicted,
It's my mother who, in my dreams,
Emerges from a door marked "adore"
An image so overtly self-subversive
That it drops me--laughing
And praying--to the floor.


Many people have problems with many aspects of Catholicism, from why women cannot be priests to why homosexuality is considered immoral. Christopher Sparks turned to Facebook to get the questions people have and then answered them in: How Can You Still Be Catholic? It's a wonderful little book and reminds me always by this quote by Ap. Fulton Sheen: “There are not one hundred people in the United States who hate The Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they wrongly perceive the Catholic Church to be.” I recommend this both for Catholics and non-Catholics because so many Catholics do not know why the Church teaches what she does.

Deep Conversion, Deep Prayer by Fr. Thomas Dubay is a most essential book for anybody interested in becoming a saint. He observes that more people turn away from evil to become good, but far fewer people go from good to better. He remarks on the extraordinary resistance we face in our journey towards holiness and he gives practical suggestions to combat moral mediocrity.

 

The Story of Holly and Ivy by Rumer Godden and Barbara Cooney is such a satisfying Christmas story. Three characters' lives that begin separately become entwined at the end. I love how the author captures the longings of each heart. 

Another one of my favorite picture books is Great Joy by Kate diCamillo, illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline. This story captures the love and compassion of a little girl for a monkey and the organ-grinder at Christmas. The sparse text and luminous illustrations convey it perfectly. I find myself holding my breath at the lines: "The world was quiet. Everyone waited." And tears fall when I turn the page. This is Christmas!

May these last couple of days before Christmas be filled with joy and peace as we await the coming of our blessed Lord Jesus in our hearts.

Marian Eucharistic Conference Notes: Part 2

Even though there were 400 people at this conference, the venue sold out, when Al Kresta spoke it was as if he were speaking personally to you. He spoke on Romans 12:2 Be Not Conformed To This World. This means, don't let the world dictate your agenda. 1 John 2:15 reiterates. Do not love the world or the things in it. World refers to the things under the sun, as ruled by Satan, money, sex, power. For the practical atheist, the world is the end of all things. In Ecclesiastes, the author evaluates life under the sun and comes to the conclusion that it is all vanity, ie meaningless. But we are meaning-seeking creatures. We are made for God and if we do not have Him, we fill our hearts with other things. We replace the love of Father God with lust of the flesh, pride of life. 

Lust of the flesh refers to finite, bodily life--food, sex, pleasure, comforts, carnality. Most advertisements aim at this. They manipulate you into thinking that having a certain product will give you what you need. But now advertisers are turning customers into true believers. They try to evoke feelings of transcendence, love, global community, etc. There are kids who now have emotional ties to Nike or Apple. Kresta shared the story of a 17-year-old who was murdered for his Nike shoes.

Pride of life refers to your own importance and ego. He focused it on info-tainment: information as entertainment. We got a little history of the news business. It's not just the reporting of public occurrences but the manufacturing of a product. The creator of a Boston newspaper said it's a commercial enterprise designed to hold an audience. Kresta gave the example of the missing plane. There was no news to report because the plane wasn't found but reporters were talking nonstop about it for 40 days and most of it was self-referential.

Christians are barely tolerated nowadays. There is common misconception that faith is a private matter and we should keep it to ourselves. In our lifetime, we've seen the collapse of Christian civilization, sometimes abetted by Christians. For ex.:

1. We ignore the Lord's Day. Pope Saint John Paul II thought it important enough to write an encyclical on this: Dies Domini. God's grace gives us what we need. We need to observe the Lord's Day.

2. Non Catholic Christians have redefined marriage. Once divorce became commonplace, it paved the way for homosexual marriage. Marriage has become something for adults to express their feelings. But the words of Christ can never be changed.

3. We adopt American emphasis on individualism. Sunday Mass attendance does not correlate to those who proclaim to be Catholic. Of the ones attending Sunday Mass, only 6-8% are engaged. JPII said that Catholics are baptized and sacramentalized but not evangelized. The new evangelization is driven by the laity, which is one of the fruits of Vatican II.

Kresta encourages us to proclaim the Gospel. Many people attribute "Preach the Gospel at all times; use words if necessary" to St. Francis but he never said it. We need words!!! Jesus preached and told stories. It was a life-changing announcement about the Kingdom of God. He is calling us to repent and to faith. This news is different than anything else. It's God coming down to us as a lowly Babe, who suffers and dies for us to save us from sin and death. His resurrection points to our eternal life with Him. The Gospel demands a response. It is obedience. He says, "Follow Me." Jesus should rule your life, your work, your leisure, your finances, your entertainment, your relationships, etc. Everything in life becomes secondary. What are you going to lose? Nothing! He has conquered death. So seek first the Kingdom of God and everything else will be added.

Be a saint! Leon Bly said, "The only tragedy is not to be a saint." Nothing impure shall enter heaven. We are perfected in Christ.

The question is, why are so many Catholics lukewarm? Why do they fall away? And Kresta thinks it's because they don't catch the vision of what God wants for their lives. Catholicism is transformative. It's not just a bunch of rules to follow, rather it gives a framework to live your life in a way that is pleasing to God. People looked at the earliest Christians and were amazed, "See how they love each other!" And there is no love without sacrifice, no resurrection without the crucifixion. The Kingdom of God is hidden behind suffering. It's the opposite of what the world tells you.

Patrick Madrid gave a wonderful lecture on apologetics: Answers to Lies Society Tells Us. He began by reminding us that apologetics isn't apologizing for being Catholic, but rather a defense. So what are these lies:

1. If it feels good, do it. This was a bumper sticker from the 60s and unfortunately many people follow this lie, giving rise to the Hollywood culture of using people. What does "good" mean? We know experientially that if it feels good doesn't necessarily mean it *is* good. Ex. eating a gallon of ice cream. Conversely, there are many things that don't feel good that are good for you. Ex. forgoing lunch to feed a hungry person. This can open a conversation about sacrifice vs. selfishness. 

2. Religion causes violence. I thought this was true but Madrid pointed that the historical data disagrees. Someone took the time to study this and catalogued 1,763 wars in The Encyclopedia of War. Of those, only 123 were of religious origins, which is 7%. Of those 7%, 50% were Muslim. I haven't checked this source but it's a far cry from religion causing violence. More people killed by atheist regimes.

3. Christianity is anti-science. As a scientist, I can say with great confidence how bogus that is. Copernicus, Mendel, Lemaitre, and the list goes on. Science is natural revelation but there isn't a telescope powerful enough to see God. There's physics and then there's metaphysics.

He answered these and many other lies. He gave a second, very sobering lecture on Global Aging. Because we live now in a culture of death caused by contraception and abortion, the natural pyramidal shape with the youngest at the bottom and the oldest at the top is slowly shifting so that we have fewer and fewer younger people to support the large numbers of older people. This is already leading to forced euthanasia because the right to die is turning into an obligation to die.

We are facing the possibility of extinction. The fertility rate is so far below replacement (2.1), it's causing huge problems in countries like Japan, Russia, and Western Europe. China has begun to recognize that their one-child policy was suicide so now they are encouraging women to have two children. But it might already be too late for them. Immigration and robots cannot solve these deep-seated problems.

We have to be the solution. God's command was to "be fruitful and multiply." We have to pray, live the faith. Don't contracept--it's a sin. Don't be afraid to speak the truth. Don't be afraid to suffer for the truth. He's a man of his word. He shared a beautiful story about going to a restaurant with his wife and newborn baby. The waitress asked if this was their first. Nope--'tis the 11th. There was a very negative reaction and then three waitresses came by to speak about their environmental impact. But Nancy, Patrick Madrid's wife, said, "children are a gift from God and being open to life has blessed our marriage." These simple words were the truth. When they were leaving the parking lot, the first waitress came running to them and thanked them for those words. She was going to change her ways.

Take a look at his books here: I believe Al Kresta's reversion to the Catholic Faith is in Surprised by Truth :)

   

Fr. Chris Alar gave a wonderful lecture on Catholicism. He was so funny, quizzing us on the faith, and teasing us when we got it wrong. I'd love to see him in a classroom because he is so lively and when I sum up his talk, I will not confess which points I got wrong :)

For 1,500 years the Church Fathers spoke and wrote extensively on Mary and the Eucharist. We only had the Catholic Church. It has the fullness of the truth. Think about it. Can you have thousands of different truths? No. All religions have a piece of the truth.

Jesus founded the Catholic Church. Peter is the rock. Would He not guide it for 1,500 years until Martin Luther's arrival? The reformation is not of God. Division is always from the evil one. He cited the founding members of various sects. For the Mormons, it's Joseph Smith; Baptists, John Smith; 7th Day Adventists, Ellen White; etc. It reminds me of this cartoon.

Only in the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church is there apostolic succession, meaning that every priest has had hands laid upon him that can be traced back to one of the 12 Apostles. It's the oldest running institution. Empires come and go, but we have the promise of Christ that the gates of hell will not prevail.

The Catholic Church is responsible for the formation of universities, hospitals, schools, charities. It has formed many saints.

It's true that the Catholic Church has had many bad priests, bishops, and even popes. But that's because they are human and subject to all the same temptations as everybody else. Being Catholic doesn't mean you're immune. The sex abuse scandal that broke in the 2000s hit the Church hard. But I was gratified to hear the statistics. Jenkins studied criminal records and found roughly 1% of Catholic priests guilty and that's 1% too many. Non-Catholic Christians 3%, Jewish 5%, Muslim 8%, public schools 9%. Statistically speaking, your kid is safest with a Catholic priest.

People say Catholics don't read the Bible. Every Sunday Mass has more Scripture than any Protestant service. Until fairly recent in Church history, 90% of the population was illiterate. They received the faith through tradition, hearing Mass. The Bible was written for the Mass. Mass predates the Bible. The Catholic Church guided by the Holy Spirit, decided what books would be in the Canon of Sacred Scripture. It's true that after the invention of the printing press the Catholic Church burned Bibles. They did so because some of them were heretical. Ex. Luther removed seven books from the Canon and added words. However in Rev 22:19 it warns that "if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from these things that are written in this book." This is pretty important stuff.

The Catholic Church has 3 legs: Scripture, Tradition, Magesterium, which is the teaching authority. We follow the Jewish tradition. After all, Jesus tells us that He didn't come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. Matt 5:17.

They chained Bibles to rocks to prevent stealing. It took a monk 3 years to copy a Bible. It was in Latin, not so nobody could read it, but because it was the language of the educated people. So if you read the Bible and accept it as authority, then you are accepting the authority of the Church.

On the forgiveness of sins. When I was an Episcopalean, I liked to say that we had a direct line to Jesus. And of course, we do. But Jesus gave us an organized religion and gave the power to His priests to absolve sins. So when you are contrite and confess your sins, the priest forgives by virtue of his ordination. When the priest forgives, Jesus forgives. You can be assured of this after you make your penance. You again have sanctifying grace. 

Fr. Chris spoke about many other things that even Catholics get wrong, like Marian dogmas, Crusades, salvation, relics, etc. but I wanted to share a couple of theological beauties without resorting to Part 3 (but maybe I should've).

Holy Matrimony and the family reflects the Trinitarian nature of God. We say, God is love. But to have love, you must have a lover (God/Husband) and a beloved (Son/Wife) and the love between them is so great, it results in a third Person (Holy Spirit/Child). And this is why it is insanity to think that two men or two women can marry.

The Church teaches that there is no salvation outside the Catholic Church. Christ's Body is the Church and vice versa. However, sitting in the front pew doesn't guarantee heaven, nor does being a pygmy in Africa mean he goes to hell. Judgment is dependent on what you know. The pygmy is judged according to natural law based on what he knows. But a Catholic who knows the Truth but does not accept it is judged by the higher standard. To whom much is given, much is expected. Lumen Gentium makes it clear how we will be judged. Those who are truly searching will find Jesus as their end. At this point Fr. Chris choked up because he is the godfather for a nephew who is now questioning and unbelieving and Fr. Chris is liable for the soul of his nephew. And so we pray for him.

So thankful to Michael for taking the time to go to this marvelous conference. Please note we are not worshipping Mary or the saints, but asking them to pray for us :) They had a relic of Saint Faustina, the saint who gave us the Divine Mercy Chaplet and this picture of Jesus. And thank you, dear readers, for sticking with me to the end. God bless you.

 

Today's Moment of Truth

Lee Strobel is one of my favorite authors (he's written many books on apologetics -- Case of Christ, Case for Faith, etc.) so when I saw TODAY'S MOMENT OF TRUTH, a devotional with a apologetic bent, I had to request a review copy. Strobel and Mittelberg ask questions that most non-believers ask: Where did the universe come from? Who designed the designer? How can you know Jesus is God? Was the tomb really empty? How can you believe in a Trinitarian God? If God is good and great, why is there evil in this world? And so many more.

They make a case succinctly, in just 2 pages for each question. They quote Scripture, reflect upon it using historical, scientific or Biblical facts, and end with a "Truth for Today." Their goal is not just to help those who are questioning Christianity to have some answers but for those of us who believe to increase our faith, which in turn gives us the armor to defend it.

A random example: Too Narrow?

Enter through the narrow gate. For the wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. Matt 7:13-14 

How can Jesus claim he's the only way to God? Mittelberg gives the example of landing a plane -- you really can land a plane anywhere, unless you prefer to stay alive. The narrow path in this case is the runway. "Similarly, there are many religious teachers, prophets and gurus. But only one came with the credentials to show he was the Son of God. Only One came to lay down his life as a ransom for his friends. Only One paid the penalty for our sins by dying in our place. Only One proved it all to be true by rising from the dead."

Truth for Today: "Sometimes truth is narrow. Are you willing to follow the One who said he alone was the way, the truth, the life?"

There are 180 devotions. I have not read them all, but I'm making my way through them and they are a delight to read and ponder. I am growing in my faith, which is what I always pray for. I highly recommend this book. It is beautifully designed with a ribbon to mark your place. My only quibble is that it doesn't have a topical index.

Thanks to BookLook for providing me with a review copy. I have posted this on Amazon as well.

And because I really like this video on having reasonable faith given that our universal constants are so finely tuned to promote life, I share it with you. Enjoy!

Marian Eucharistic Conference Part 4: Jimmy Swaggart Made Me Catholic!

I saved the most entertaining of all the lectures for last. And I knew it was going to be good when the title of the talk was: Jimmy Swaggart made me Catholic. Tim Staples outlines his journey into the last place he ever expected -- into the Catholic Church -- in this talk and because I want to know the full story, I bought his CD, except that it was sold out and so now I need to wait for it in the mail. Patience! Briefly, Tim Staples grew up a good Southern Baptist and came to the Lord when he was 10. He had such a fire for God, he wanted to be a preacher just like Billy Graham. He had an ardent desire to save Catholics because he thought they were crazy idolators and brain dead. But in his teen years he fell away from the faith and along with his brothers got into lots of trouble with the law. He was 18 when he listened to Jim Baker, Tammy Faye, Jimmy Swaggart, and even through the Budweiser fog he heard the word, “Jesus.” And he realized how much he needed Jesus in his life so he knelt and prayed. He went home (and not in handcuffs)! He did some research and saw that they were part of the Assembly of God church so he went. It was huge. Electric. And everybody was smiling and happy and welcoming.

Here he takes a little diversion and says the first time he went to Mass and knew he was going to see ordinary bread and wine changed into the Body and Blood of Christ, he thought he would burst. But all around the Catholics were ho-hum. He also wondered why they were so quiet and wanted to leave right after Mass instead of visit. His observations are not completely untrue. LOL. Too many of us take the miracle occurring on the Altar for granted, and think of His Body as a cracker. It's what hurts my heart the most. Actually, if you saw me at Mass sometimes, you'd think I was a sad tomato, but some of the psalms and Gospel stories touch my heart so deeply, I cannot help but shed tears of joy. My God loves me, a miserable sinner, so very much. 

Anyway, Tim experienced the love of Jesus here. Everybody invited him over for small home group Bible study. Tim says his desire to be a preacher was intensified even more. He read everything. But the problem was he had no high school diploma, no money, and no discipline. So he joined the Marines. And within two weeks he had enough discipline for all of us. He sought out every Assembly of God church wherever he was stationed and just exploded in his faith. He says, “Move over Jimmy; here comes Timmy!” And the end of his tour of duty, he served as a youth minister and after six months was voted unanimously to become a pastor. This was near his hometown too. It was perfect. But he had to turn it down.

Here’s why. Because in his last year as a Marine, he met Sgt. Matt Doula, a devout Catholic. And boy did Tim want to save him! They fought over doctrine. Tim recalls the first argument. He said, “Call no man father, and yet you Catholics are constantly calling your priests Father.” Usually most Catholics would sputter and go away. [Tim said, there must be a Code of Canon law 666 that says: Thou shalt not quote Scripture]. But Matt said, “Yes, that is true. But you do know there is more than one verse in the Bible, no?” Tim says that Matt took his Bible and proceeded to beat him with it metaphorically. He showed him not to take a single verse out of context but to look at verses and see how they fit. Scripture never contradicts. He quoted a number of verses showing that spiritual leaders are addressed as Father: Honor thy mother and father; Father Abraham; St. Paul becoming a spiritual father of Timothy, etc. What Jesus referred to earlier was in reference to not calling the emperor, God. It was about politics.

So you can imagine the year when Tim and Matt went back and forth about everything – praying to the saints, purgatory, transubstantiation, etc. If Matt didn’t know the answers, he’d go find them with the help of an Opus Dei priest. He gave Tim books to read. Tim read everything to find error and contradictions but could not. Catholicism made sense. After a year he thought he was losing his mind because he did not *want* to be Catholic. So as a last ditch effort to not becoming Catholic, he enrolled in the Jimmy Swaggart Bible school. But he began to argue with his professors. He found himself defending Catholic doctrine in his dorm room. he was schizophrenic. People asked him, “Are you becoming Catholic?” And he emphatically said, “NO!!!” Finally he was called into the office. Brother Andrew, an ex-Catholic, former priest, interrogated him. And Tim thought, he has 10 years of seminary training and I have so little. But after a couple of hours, Brother Andrew got mad at him and told him, “You are not going to be a Catholic. You ARE Catholic!” And with that he was dismissed from school.

A side note: Brother Andrew lost his faith in Catholics when he saw priests compromise the faith to support communism from the pulpit (Cuba, 1959). Tim Staples said: Don’t stop believing in Peter because of Judas. This is such an important point. The Catholic Church is a hospital for sinners. Don’t let bad Catholics shake your faith or steer you away from the teachings of the Church. A lot of kids leave the faith because they don’t know it or appreciate it. May we never take it for granted.  

Back to Tim’s conversion story. So he was no longer Protestant (the word itself means to protest against the Catholic Church) but he still didn’t want to be Catholic. In desperation, he asked a saint – Mary, “Is this true? Is the devil deceiving me? Help me find the Truth.” And she brought him home. Now his whole family is Catholic – his parents, his brothers (one is a priest), and of course, his wife and children. 

Behold, Your Mother

He didn’t actually cover Marian doctrines because that’s the purpose of the book but he showed us how Catholic doctrines are intimately tied with Mary, the most perfect creature God made.

Why did God create us? He doesn’t need us. And in fact, this creation of His will kill His Beloved Son. There is one reason: He loves us into existence. And he creates us free so that we can love him back. It’s an extravagant love. St. Augustine says, Love is to will the good of the other. St. Paul says, pour yourself out for others without thought for anything in heaven. And so Jesus humiliates Himself by becoming one of us. In the letter to the Philippians, St. Paul says, He emptied Himself to take the form of a slave. So not only does Jesus suffer and die for us, making the ultimate sacrifice, He further humiliates Himself by becoming Bread and Wine in the Eucharist. He loves us so that we may consume Him.

The Gospel of John focuses much on the divinity of Jesus and the Eucharist. Jesus performs a Eucharistic miracle by feeding the five thousand. The Apostles distribute the food. And people believed in Jesus. But when He says, “I am the Bread of Heaven” and “the Bread is my Flesh,” people are angry. How can this man give us his flesh to eat? This is one of the “hard” teachings of Christ (the other one is on the indissolubility of marriage). But Jesus doesn’t compromise and say, the bread is a symbol. No, He is even harsher, saying, “Unless you eat of the Flesh of Man, you have no life in you.” And many left. He didn’t try to chase after them. You have to believe this.

From the beginning of Christianity, there were heresies. Some thought that only the spirit is good and matter is evil, but that does not coincide with what God said in Genesis when He created the universe. He said, “It was good!” There were people who said Jesus did not have a body. But He most assuredly did! He was conceived in Mary’s womb. Still others said, Jesus is not divine, that he was conceived from normal sexual relations between Mary and Joseph. The Christ spirit came upon Him and left it on the Cross. So if there is no Incarnation (God made Flesh) then the Eucharist becomes a symbol. However, we know that both Mary and Joseph had taken perpetual vows of virginity, so Jesus is both fully human and fully divine. We do not have two gods, one of the Old Testament and one of the New. Nope, Catholicism is the fulfillment of Judaism. We know that Jewish people do not accept Jesus as the Messiah, but they are free not to.

Mary is the daughter of God, the Mother of Jesus (and therefore God), and the Spouse of the Holy Spirit. It’s hard to wrap all this around one’s head but in this is tied up the Trinitarian nature of God.

Anyway, check out Tim's books. He’s great. You can listen to him on Catholic Answers. He is very funny, very knowledgeable, and would make a fantastic tele-evangelist!!!! 


I loved this conference even though I was missing out on Charleston's YALLFest. I hope next year they're not on the same weekend. But if they are, you know where I'll be! Thanks for reading and sharing. Ciao meow!