Why is the Protestant Bible Missing Several Books?
This is by Joel Peters. It is taken from Twenty One Reasons to Reject Sola Scriptura. One historical fact which proves extremely convenient for the Protestant is the fact that the canon of the Bible – the authoritative list of exactly which books are part of inspired Scripture – was not settled and fixed until the end of the 4th century. Until that time, there was much disagreement over which Biblical writings were considered inspired and Apostolic in origin. The Biblical canon varied from place to place: Some lists contained books that were later defined as non-canonical, while other lists failed to include books which were later defined as canonical. For [...]
Modesty Part II: Theology
Nota Bene: My last blog post showed that modesty is actually a means of cultural empowerment for women, not a means of making them overly-subservient. Ladies, if you're going to have thin-skin reading the still-binding modesty-norms of the Catholic Church, please re-read part I to understand that this blog is not about oppression but freedom (cf Gal 5:1) One summer evening, a couple years before I knew I would ever live in Florida, I was passing through the city of St. Augustine, south of Jacksonville. That evening, I went in to pray at North America's first Cathedral. It is stunningly beautiful. Later, I came outside the Cathedral to find the small [...]
Modesty Part I: Sociology
Before jumping into the tough topic of modesty, I want to set the stage in a sociological manner. Let's consider romance in any culture, be it Catholic or pagan. It is universally accepted in every culture's romance that the person least-invested in the relationship is the one with the most control. Imagine two 20 year olds approaching engagement in any civilized country today or two hundred years ago. It is always the one who is least "in-love" who controls the advance of this relationshiop. The one most in-love (be it the man or the woman) wants to get married. The lover less "in-love" maintains the veto power in moving forward, [...]
St. Mary of Egypt (Written Text)
Here, I’m sharing what I believe to be the greatest ancient account of God’s forgiveness and transformative mercy. It is about a female sex-addict become a canonized saint, St. Mary of Egypt, and it is my favorite short biography of any saint outside the Bible. The following events are promised to be true by its author, St. Zosima. His account takes place in the 4th century, in the deserts of both Egypt and Jordan... The Life of Our Holy Mother, St Mary of Egypt By St Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, 4th century "It is good to hide the secret of a king, but it is glorious to reveal and preach the [...]
Doctrine: Why We Can’t Crack
A young priest with whom I was once a seminarian is now on Facebook like me. About a year ago, he posted the account of how he asked an old priest if young priests would save the Church. The old priest said “No, Jesus will save His Church,” or something like that. Of course, this post had a ton of “likes.” For one, it seemed so humble for a young priest to admit that we young priests would not “save” the Church. Secondly, it tapped our modern Catholic desire to prove to Protestants that we only look to for Jesus for salvation. Both are true, and I have no problem [...]
The Priest and Our Lady
I was staring at the Eucharist in my private chapel, and I marvelled at how the Eucharist came from me. And the Eucharist is Jesus. And Jesus is God. So...God came from me? I immediately knew there was something wrong about in my thinking. It was this: The Eucharist did not come from me. The best preposition is probably “through.” That is, the Eucharist came through me. The Catholic Church uses the verb to confect as seen in Canon Law: "Can. 900 §1. The minister who is able to confect the sacrament of the Eucharist in the person of Christ is a validly ordained priest alone.” This verb comes from [...]
The Last Jedi and the Priesthood
The Prequels Towards the end of our first year in seminary, we were required to take a 30-day silent-retreat based on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. It was the summer of 2005, and we seminarians arrived in Omaha for a month off the grid. We were taken about 45 miles northeast of Omaha to a forest in Iowa, where we would pray along the Nishnabotna River for 30 days in silence. Every day would include four to five hours of meditation on the Gospels (Ignatian mental prayer) as well as daily Mass, Rosary, Divine Office and manual labor. The Spiritual Exercises are truly that: Exercises, not a [...]
Padre’s Platinum List
People have been asking me for my favorite books in one single blog post. Here's a short "best-of" list. NB: I hesitantly use Amazon Prime as it does not fulfill Catholic social teaching on subsidiarity. Thus, I'm not going to hyperlink these books. You will have to do your own research to find them. That way, you can use whatever market you want. How to Pray Conversation with Christ by Fr. Rohrbach Best book on Mary The World's First Love by Archbishop Fulton Sheen Best histories of the Catholic Church The History of Christendom by Warren Carroll (long at six volumes coming to about 5,000 pages) Triumph (short, coming to [...]
Lead Us Not Into Temptation
There has recently been some debate on the last line of the Our Father: And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.—Matthew 6:13 Should the Our Father read "lead us not into temptation" as it has always been translated or the modern "let us not fall into temptation"? Let's look at the Greek. The Greek of Matthew 6:13a is καὶ μὴ εἰσενέγκῃς ἡμᾶς εἰς πειρασμόν. Word-by-word, it is καὶ (and) μὴ (not) εἰσενέγκῃς (to bring/lead) ἡμᾶς (us) εἰς (into) πειρασμόν (temptation.)—Matthew 6:13 Notice that the verb εἰσενέγκῃς (pronounced ace-in-egg-ace) is the active verb translated as bring or lead. On the other hand, the whole idea of "let us not fall [...]
Trent on the Holy Eucharist
"Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery."—St. Luke 16:18 "For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself."—1 Cor 11:29 "For no crime is there heavier punishment to be feared from God than for the unholy or irreligious use of the Eucharist."—Council of Trent, Chapter 6 on the Eucharist The Nine Ways of Being an Accessory to Another's Sin: By counsel By command By consent By provocation By praise or flattery By concealment By partaking By silence By defense of the ill done