You are Charged with Being Catholic.How do you plead?

Imagine if they were putting Catholics on trial for what they believe. This is not a too far fetched idea in some countries. Some might argue in light of the HHS mandate that we aren't that far from such a scene here in the US.

Here's a creative video that portrays that very notion, with a twist. When you finish watching the video, ask yourself "What would the judge decide in my case?"

The Altar Server

Two of our Acolytes next to Father Mathew and our two Deacons

Altar Boy
If you are like me, you served as an altar boy when you were young. I actually served all the way through my high school years. I remember enjoying to put on the cassock and the surplice (these are the black and white garments that look like the priest's); it made me feel "priestly." In fact, while I never formally discerned for the priesthood, serving as an altar boy gave me pause to think about the priesthood as a vocation (of course I didn't know at the time that was what I was doing).  I remember thinking that serving on the altar was serious stuff.

Fathers & Sons
I have very strong opinions about the need to get more young men and boys active as altar servers. I believe this is the training ground for future priests. The purpose of this post is not to criticize the relatively recent move to permit girls as altar servers. Instead, I am simply saying that it is an opportunity to give young men a glimpse into the possibility of the priesthood as a vocation. Countless priests have said their vocations began on the altar, serving as altar boys. I believe fathers have a responsibility of encouraging their boys to serve in this capacity. Two things we can focus on : 1) they will be serving God and their community and 2) they will belong to a special team. Boys like belonging to teams.

Altar Server Training
Perhaps one of the things that needs to happen in altar server programs is a careful focus on the formation of the altar servers. They need to know what and why they are doing what they are doing. Can you imagine how truly awestruck they will be when they really comprehend that they are on the altar when the bread and wine transform into the Body and Blood of Christ?

The following video from Kolbe1019 is a must see for altar servers and I dare say for anyone who serves on or near the altar.

Notre Dame: Not the Only Catholic Team on Prime Time

BCS Coach's Trophy, wikimedia commons

Notre Dame wasn't the only Catholic team on prime time television last night. (Ok, no jokes about them not showing up.) The team from Catholics Come Home had a prime time commercial spot during the second half of the game. Catholics Come Home is an apostolate of the new evangelization. They put together media resources (video and online) to help parishes and other Catholic groups (and individuals) bring home Catholics who have left the Church.

The ad ran earlier in the bowl season too. If you didn't catch it, here it is.

Today I Celebrate My Re-Birthday

Baptism of Christ, El Greco

It goes without saying that Baptism is a big deal and it should be treated as such. A few years ago I read an article on Catholic Culture that talked about the practice of celebrating Baptismal days like birthdays because they are our re-birth days. We now celebrate the anniversary of our re-birthdays. I recommend you do the same with your family. Treat your family member to their favorite meal, make them a cake and reflect on the readings from that day.  You can also use it as an opportunity to review the Church teaching on Baptism. I assure you that doing all of this will enrich your lives. In preparing for a talk I was going to give to RCIA a few years ago, I discovered I was baptized on the traditional Feast of the Epiphany, January 6th.  Now this feast day has even more personal meaning to me.

Take some time out in the next few days to discover the dates of your Baptism and those of your family.  Mark the date on your calendar and plan on celebrating. If you don't remember the date, I have a few recommendations. First, if you received your marriage certificate from you parish, they would have had to confirm your previous sacraments.  Additionally, you can contact the parish or diocese in which you were baptized. I was surprised that my old parish where I was confirmed had my records. This was fortunate since the church I was baptized in no longer exists. Even if that is the case, the diocese will have a record of the Baptism.

Joe Catholic Joins Catholic Dads

I am pleased to announced that Joe Catholic has joined the Catholic Dads Online network. Please take some time to visit their site and the new Catholic Dads' Blog Roll I have put on our site in the lower right column. I am working on few posts that will hopefully be published on their site.

Cool and exciting things are going to take place in 2013! Stay tuned...

How About a Resolution to Pray?

Retreat Resolutions
This is the time of year when most people make New Year's resolutions. How many of us seriously sit down and contemplate making spiritual resolutions? I had the fortune of attending a silent retreat at the Featherock Conference Center before Christmas and one of the things we were encouraged to do was make sound resolutions in improving our prayer lives. This of course presupposes that we had one. If you don't, begin.

I Don't Know How to Pray
I am reminded of the advice given by St. Josemaria to a young man who said he didn't know how to pray. He said, “You don't know how to pray? Put yourself in the presence of God, and as soon as you have said, ‘Lord, I don't know how to pray!’ You can be sure you've already begun.” (The Way, 90).

Prayer Advice from a Saint
More advice on praying from St. Josemaria:

There are countless ways of praying, as I have already told you. We children of God don’t need a method, an artificial system, to talk with our Father. Love is inventive, full of initiative. If we truly love, we will discover our own intimate paths to lead us to a continuous conversation with Our Lord… (Friends of God, 255) 

Book Recommendations 

• The Way, St. Josemaria Escriva
• Prayer Primer, Fr. Thomas Dubay
• Time for God, Fr. Jacques Philippe 

Finally, I would like to share a video from the folks over at Roman Catholic Spiritual Direction. Dan Burke has recently published a book on prayer entitled Navigating the Interior Life. I have not personally read it, but it is getting great reviews and the work he and Father John Bartunek do over there is great.

Mary, Mother of God

Theotokos Platytera, Elton Melon

 Today the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. This teaching is one of the four Marian Doctrines of the Catholic Church. The Catechism of the Catholic Church confirms the teaching by instructing, "that Mary is truly 'Mother of God' (Theotokos)." (CCC 495)

In 431, the Council of Ephesus confirmed Mary as Mother of God, Theotokos. This was proclaimed to answer a heresy denying Jesus’ dual nature as both human and divine. The Council declared:

"We confess, then, our Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, perfect God and perfect man, of a rational soul and a body, begotten before all ages from the Father in his Godhead, the same in the last days, for us and for our salvation, born of Mary the Virgin according to his humanity, one and the same consubstantial with the Father in Godhead and consubstantial with us in humanity, for a union of two natures took place. Therefore we confess one Christ, one Son, one Lord. According to this understanding of the unconfused union, we confess the holy Virgin to be the Mother of God because God the Word took flesh and became man and from his very conception united to himself the temple he took from her" (Formula of Union [A.D. 431]). 

Pope John Paul II explained the doctrine within the context of Vatican II and then expanded the Church's understanding of the doctrine in his 1987 encyclical, Redemptoris Mater:

4. The Second Vatican Council prepares us for this by presenting in its teaching the Mother of God in the mystery of Christ and of the Church. If it is true, as the Council itself proclaims,8 that "only in the mystery of the Incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light," then this principle must be applied in a very particular way to that exceptional "daughter of the human race," that extraordinary "woman" who became the Mother of Christ. Only in the mystery of Christ is her mystery fully made clear. Thus has the Church sought to interpret it from the very beginning: the mystery of the Incarnation has enabled her to penetrate and to make ever clearer the mystery of the Mother of the Incarnate Word. The Council of Ephesus (431) was of decisive importance in clarifying this, for during that Council, to the great joy of Christians, the truth of the divine motherhood of Mary was solemnly confirmed as a truth of the Church's faith. Mary is the Mother of God (= Theotókos), since by the power of the Holy Spirit she conceived in her virginal womb and brought into the world Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who is of one being with the Father.9 "The Son of God...born of the Virgin Mary...has truly been made one of us,"10has been made man. Thus, through the mystery of Christ, on the horizon of the Church's faith there shines in its fullness the mystery of his Mother. In turn, the dogma of the divine motherhood of Mary was for the Council of Ephesus and is for the Church like a seal upon the dogma of the Incarnation, in which the Word truly assumes human nature into the unity of his person, without canceling out that nature.

5. The Second Vatican Council, by presenting Mary in the mystery of Christ, also finds the path to a deeper understanding of the mystery of the Church. Mary, as the Mother of Christ, is in a particular way united with the Church, "which the Lord established as his own body."11 It is significant that the conciliar text places this truth about the Church as the Body of Christ (according to the teaching of the Pauline Letters) in close proximity to the truth that the Son of God "through the power of the Holy Spirit was born of the Virgin Mary." The reality of the Incarnation finds a sort of extension in the mystery of the Church-the Body of Christ. And one cannot think of the reality of the Incarnation without referring to Mary, the Mother of the Incarnate Word.

Mary is our Holy Mother too. Although He was on the verge of death, Christ called out to John from the cross, "Behold your mother!" (John 19:27). Furthermore, since Mary is the mother of Christ, who is head of the Church, she is also Mother of the Church.

I will conclude with this simple, logical syllogism: Jesus is God. Mary is the mother of Jesus. Therefore, Mary is the mother of God.