Question: What is the source and summit of the work of the Catholic Church?
Answer: The Eucharist (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1324)
Question: what was the Sacrament instituted right before Christ’s passion?
Answer: The Eucharist (Luke 22: 14-20)
Bonus question: What was the sacrament instituted right after Christ’s resurrection?
Answer: Reconciliation (John 20:23)
Check our the stats on these two sacraments regarding World Youth Day. In case anyone is unsure what the whole thing is about. THIS is what it’s about. Christ in the world - calling us to repentance and communion with Him.
Australian officials report that the Sunday-morning Mass at Randwick on July 20 saw the largest single gathering of people in the country’s history. An estimated 400,000 people joined in the congregation as Pope Benedict presided at the closing Mass of WYD.
Earlier, at a Saturday-evening prayer vigil, about 200,000 young people joined the Holy Father in silent prayer before the Eucharist after Benediction. The Blessed Sacrament was exposed for 24-hour veneration in a tent maintained by the Missionaries of Charity at one side of the racetrack venue. The tent remained crowded, with prayerful pilgrims coming and going throughout the night.
WYD organizers had set up 250 locations around Sydney for young people to receive the sacrament of reconciliation, and recruited priests to hear confessions in a number of different languages. Long lines formed for confession, noted Msgr. Marc Caron, who organized that aspect of the WYD project. He reported that over 1,000 priests were busy hearing confessions at a time to accommodate the young pilgrims.
Nintendo Co Ltd sold 666,000 units of its Wii video game console in the United States in June, becoming the country’s best-selling video game console, the company said on Thursday, citing figures from market research firm NPD.
I am wondering why they didn’t report 665,000 or more than 660,000 or even the exact number (clearly 666,000 is too round). It kind of makes you wonder about these insidious devices. I just think it’s kind of interesting. I mean, who is delighted when we are all glued to the idiot boxes interacting with bazillions of pixels and bytes rather than flesh and blood people.
Well, got to go - I’m absolutely hooked on a new PlayStation game, I don’t have time to talk.
In a Canberra Times article, John Herron, an Australian senator lays out the Catholic landscape for the Pope. This landscape is broader than simply Australia and is succinctly put, so I share it here (emphasis mine).
John Herron has been a very public Catholic all his life, as a senator for 11 years, as a Howard government Aboriginal affairs minister, and as the ambassador to Ireland and the Holy See.
He advised the Pope there were five types of Catholics in Australia. There were relapsing Catholics, who returned to the faith when stressed; and nominal Catholics, the tick-the-census-box types. There were anti-Catholic Catholics, baptised but who hate Catholicism (”There are a lot of them around,” the Pope told Herron), and smorgasbord Catholics, who take bits they like and leave those they don’t (the Pope called them “cafe Catholics”).
And then, Herron told the Pope, there are practising Catholics. “Like you and me.”
You gotta love this. In hearing all of the negative from many of the MSM outlets in Australia it is pleasant to here this one (and others that are not protester obsessed). It makes me wonder how many anti-Catholic Catholics and smorgasbord Catholics work for the ABC or the Melbourne Herald Sun or some of the other outlets.
It’s about 85 degrees where I am today, though it feels hotter. I wish I was down in Newport Beach where I took this picture. It’s supposed to be 79 degrees there today, and with that cool Pacific to dive into, it would be a sweet place to be. Hope you are enjoying your summer and are staying cool.
I was praying as I was driving the other day. It was in a back road on a hill with a beautiful view. I am not sure why the pavement at the edge of the road drew my attention, besides the obvious reason of staying away from the edge, but it did. I noticed the pebbly nooks and cranny in the asphalt next to the powdery dirt with the smooth yellow of a flower from a manicured yard next to the red bricked driveway leading to someone’s home. Over the edge of the hill I could see the the variety of trees in the narrow valley below and on the hills across the valley - eucalyptus, oak, pine as well as others. Where there were no trees I could see the long dry chaparral in the golden brown it wears during the hot summers in Southern California. A mere months ago, the fields were a vibrant yellow from the wild mustard together with the green the chaparral dons in winter and spring. The attached picture was from that springtime.
The beauty of nature never ceases to impact me, but that is not what drew my attention. It was the texture of being, It was the tangibility of it all; the grainy texture of the dirt, the roughness of the gravel, the brittleness of the brush. The sheer being of it all. I think I was given a reminder about the tremendous gift of being. The fact that this physical world is a gift that we so often don’t recognize because we are to busy living in it. God has bestowed on man a unique gift of being in both body and spirit. This physical world, and our physical being is good and a marvel to behold.
One of the things that I like about Catholicism is that the sacraments given to us by Christ (Eucharist, Baptism, Confirmation, Confession, Matrimony, Holy Orders, and Anointing of the Sick) all incorporate physical as well as spiritual. Our sacramentals as well, holy water, scapulars, candles, incense, bells, etc. also incorporate appeal to the whole man. Christ came to us bodily and engages with all of our senses - we are not disembodied spirits, but are grounded in this beautiful world created for us by God.
When you have a moment, sit back and appreciate the texture of being. It is a gift.
Obama’s pro-abortion views are so extreme that, while an Illinois state senator, he refused to vote for a bill for three years that would have protected babies born alive after an abortion. The Infant Born Alive Act was passed in that state only after he left the senate.
A Minnesota professor and science blogger has said he will personally desecrate the Eucharist and publish photos of the desecration on the internet if any of his readers acquire a consecrated Host and mail it to him. “I’ll show you sacrilege, gladly, and with much fanfare,” he has written.Paul Zachary Myers, an associate professor of biology at the University of Minnesota at Morris, made the threat while commenting on a University of Central Florida incident in which a student senator stole and held hostage a consecrated Host from a June 29 Mass.
I wonder if he knows (or cares) that people have given their life in defense of the Eucharist; that there are so many of us today who would do the same. I wonder if he knows (or cares) that priests have risked everything and even given their lives in bringing the Eucharist to people under persecution. Or if he knows that our priests have made given to our Church their very lives so as to confect the Eucharist?
Does he really mean to dehumanize each of us who believes in th real presence?
Is he really willing to spit in the face of Christ?
As someone who has raised his hand as an enemy, we should pray for him.
O God, the Lord of all
your Son commanded us to love our enemies
and to pray for them.
Lead us from prejudice to truth;
deliver us from hatred, cruelty and revenge;
and enable us to stand before you,
reconciled through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
At first this seems shocking. How could anyone with a shred of decency condone the treatment of human beings in this way. They you remember that performing abortions is a clear indication of your level of “decency.” Abortion corrupts the souls of those who perform them, those who defend them, those who promote them and even those who receive them. This on top of literally destroying a human life.
Human Life International is asking for prayers in response to the “vile attacks” in Vienna, Austria, against pro-life demonstrators by assailants who are being paid to harass them by the owners of abortion clinics. Pro-life demonstrators who are sidewalk counseling outside the clinics have been sexually assaulted, and some of the attacks have been captured on video.
The Planned Parenthood Action Fund, the political arm of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, has endorsed presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama, citing his 100 percent pro-abortion rating. The presidential endorsement is only the organization’s second in its history.
John Kerry was the first candidate they endorsed.
Here are some facts about this abomination that wants to turn the US into an Obama-nation :
Obama received a 100 percent rating from the Planned Parenthood Action Fund.
Obama is co-sponsor of the Freedom of Choice Act.This is an act that would nullify all legislation that seeks to limit abortions.
Obama wants to increase government sponsored birth control.
Obama is opposed to the Mexico City policy which prevents organizations from promoting abortion in foreign countries with US tax dollars..
Obama promotes sex education to children as young as kindergarten.
In contrast, Sen. John McCain is persona non grata from the same group with the honor of getting a 0% from them. Further, Senator McCain has publicly stated his desire to overturn Roe v Wade.
Abortion is the single greatest evil that our society has ever perpetrated. Evil is the only way to describe the murder of millions and millions children. A vote for Obama is a vote to prolong this evil.
The French Revolution is often held up as part of the fruit of the “enlightenment,” and indeed it is. But this is not something that should necessarily be celebrated. During the revolution Catholicism came under direct persecution within the nation often called the first daughter of the Church. Today we celebrate some of those who gave their lives in fidelity to Christ against this rather un-enlightened revolution.
The martyrs of Orange lived in the eighteenth century, They were thirty-two nuns. During the French Revolution, these sisters, from different religious orders, were jailed in Orange, France. There were sixteen Ursuline sisters, thirteen Sisters Adorers of the Blessed Sacrament, two Bernardine sisters and one Benedictine sister.
While the French Revolution raged, these nuns were told that they had to take an oath of loyalty to the leaders of the Revolution. The sisters believed that the oath was against God and the Church. Each refused to sign it and were taken to the Orange jail. Some of the sisters had lived in the same convents before they came to jail. Others did not know any of the sisters until they met in prison. The nuns formed a community in that dark, damp room. They prayed together at particular times during the day. They cheered up and consoled each other and bonded as the early persecuted Christian Church had. On July 6, the first sister was taken to trial and condemned to the guillotine. She never returned. Every day another sister, some days two sisters, were taken. No one knew who would be next. The group diminished in size, but the remaining sisters prayed especially for those who would die that day. Then they would sing a hymn of praise to God called the Te Deum.
By the end of July, 1794, thirty-two sisters had been condemned by the people’s court at Orange, France. Thirty-two sisters were martyrs. When the French Revolution was over, the judges of Orange were convicted for what they had done. The thirty-two sisters called the martyrs of Orange were declared “blessed” by Pope Pius XI in 1925.
Lord Jesus, present in the Most Blessed Sacrament,
and living perpetually among us through Your Priests,
grant that the words of Your Priests may be only Your words,
that their gestures be only Your gestures,
and that their lives be a true reflection of Your life.
Grant that they may be men who speak to God on behalf of His people,
and speak to His people of God.
Grant that they be courageous in service,
serving the Church as she asks to be served.
Grant that they may be men who witness to eternity in our time,
travelling on the paths of history in Your steps,
and doing good for all.
Grant that they may be faithful to their commitments,
zealous in their vocation and mission,
clear mirrors of their own identity,
and living the joy of the gift they have received.
We pray that Your Holy Mother, Mary,
present throughout Your life,
may be ever present in the life of Your Priests.
