Is a recent poll of Catholics about the Real Presence reflective of Church teaching? By Deacon Bob Hunt My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we need to talk about the Eucharist. There has been lot of talk about the Eucharist over the last couple of years, with the Eucharistic …
To trust in the big things, we must start small
Let every moment of every day be a radical act of trusting completely in God By Claire Collins Trust in the Lord with all your heart…” (Proverbs 3:5). What does it mean to trust? If you’re like me, trust has been a hard concept to nail down. I’ve mostly seen …
Two keystones of Catholic moral tradition
They are the intrinsic dignity of the human person and the social nature of human life By Deacon Bob Hunt On April 2, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith published Dignitas Infinita, a declaration reaffirming the Church’s teaching on the intrinsic dignity of the human person and addressing …
The ending prayer of the Communion Rite
The Prayer After Communion offers a rich theology on the Eucharist’s transforming power By Father Randy Stice This column is the last of a three-part series on the three proper prayers of the Mass. In previous columns, I have discussed the Collect and the Prayer Over the Offerings, so in …
1
‘I just hate it when He talks like that’
A columnist hopes Christ’s words leave open room for a comeback when he makes mistakes By George Valadie A confession: the homily wasn’t speaking to me. So, I found myself leafing through the parish bulletin from this church we were visiting before also thumbing through their missalette, looking ahead to …
A child’s sacrament recalls another years ago
A grandson’s first Communion brings back memories and evokes prayers for the youth By George Valadie It was May 1961, so a good many of the details escape me now. But it was when my second-grade classmates and I received our first Holy Communion. It was the third of five …
The Bible is ‘the book of the Church’
It came from many sources but is ‘God’s Word for us today and for all generations’ By Deacon Bob Hunt Where did the Bible come from? The Bible is not a single book. It is a collection of many books, like a library. The word “bible” comes to us from …
Looking at the Prayer Over the Offerings
The language of sacrifice and offering or oblation is prominent in this second proper prayer By Father Randy Stice Last month, I began a three-part series on the proper prayers of the Mass: the Collect, the Prayer Over the Offerings, and the Prayer After Communion, beginning with the Collect. In …
If you are Catholic, the Mass is ‘what you do’
The Mass is where we are saved, the purpose for which Jesus came, and where Jesus is lifted up By Deacon Bob Hunt In one of the most profound Old Testament passages, the prophet Jeremiah speaks of the Lord establishing a new covenant with His people. “The days are coming, …
The Collect: the prayer that begins Mass
All such prayers share a common structure and can teach us who God is and what to pray for By Father Randy Stice Every Mass is provided with three orations (prayers) proclaimed by the priest: the Collect at the beginning of the Mass, the Prayer over the Offerings, and the …
‘Most everything’s working. It’s all good’
God would love to ‘climb out of bed, survey the universe,’ and think those words to Himself By George Valadie I’m not the weather fanatic my wife is, but I know this much: if our daughter in Little Rock gets hit by something crazy, odds are pretty good Chattanooga is …
1
A look at the table of God’s Word
As Pope Benedict XVI wrote, Word and Eucharist are so intimately ‘bound together’ By Father Randy Stice The Mass is a single act of worship composed of two parts: the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist. The Church calls these two parts the two tables, the …
