The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains holy days of obligation this way:
On Sundays and other holy days of obligation, the faithful are to refrain from engaging in work or activities that hinder the worship owed to God, the joy proper to the Lord's Day, the performance of the works of mercy, and the appropriate relaxation of mind and body.
Family needs or important...
Sometimes we can mistake our familiarity with a term or phrase with our understanding of it. If you're not terribly sure what is meant by the Kingdom of God, then keep reading.
Did you know that the phrase, “Kingdom of God” occurs 122 times in the New Testament?
Did you know that 99 of these occurrences are found in the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke)?
Did you know that 90 of those 99 occurrences come from the mouth of Jesus?
Yeah, me neither. That was...
The claim is often made by “Jesus mythers” that the story of Christ and the liturgical practices of Christians are nothing more than rehashed ancient paganism. The writings of early Christian apologist Justin Martyr are often quoted by mythicists to illustrate how Christians were aware of these parallels and did their best to defend themselves from pagan objetions.
In particular, mythers use one quote from Justin to prove that early Christians plagiarized their liturgical celebration...
Just as listening at doors carries its own punishment, so does Googling yourself: Sometimes you find out things people say about you that you'd rather not know. Nonetheless, in my line of work, it is a recurring necessity. If someone comes to me concerned about how an apologetics answer I've published has been received by the public, oftentimes I must use Google to find out what occurred.
Last week, the need again arose. While scrolling through the search results on Google, I found...
Over the past few months I have been struck by the number of times Pope Francis has reminded us of the indivisible relationship and union between Christ and his Church. On several of these instances he has quoted a passage that I have become familiar with over the years. It is taken from Pope Paul VI’s Apostolic Exhortation, On Evangelization in the Modern World:
There is thus a profound link between Christ, the Church and evangelization. During the period of the...
"Over their food and over their drink they render God thanks."
