This week daily Mass will be Mon to Friday 2pm and 9am Saturday.
Latest News
Q&A: Can we represent God the Father as an “old man”?
How does the commandment “YOU SHALL NOT MAKE FOR YOURSELF A GRAVEN IMAGE . . .” apply to images used in Christian art?
Religious worship is not directed to images in themselves, considered as mere things, but under their distinctive aspect as images leading us on to God incarnate. The movement toward the image does not terminate in it as image, but tends toward that whose image it is.”
St. Thomas Aquinas, STh II-II,81,3 ad 3.
An excellent reflection by an artist on this subject can be found here:
Should We Paint God the Father?
Another article explaining the misrepresentation/misunderstanding of the Catholic teaching by the Seventh Day Adventists can be found here:
Graven Images: Altering the Commandments?
In Exodus 20:3-6 God forbids making graven images to worship in idolatry but does not forbid the making of all religious images. This is easily provable since He COMMANDS that they be created.
Read the following:
Num 21:4-9;
Wis 16:5-14;
Ex 25:10-22;
1 Kings 6:23-28;
1 Kings 7:23-26;
and Jn 3:14-15.
Other sources or references for further study are:
St. Basil, De Spiritu Sancto 18,45: PG 32,149C
Council of Nicaea II: DS 601
Council of Trent: DS 1821-1825
CCT: Catechism of Council of Trent, Section: First Commandment
CCC: John Paul II’s Catechism of Catholic Church nn. 2129-2132 – though parts of this catechism contain error we refer to those parts that reflect normative Catholic teaching since this resource is more readily accessible to many of our readers.
Socialism and Catholicism in the Current Era
I was struck by the excellent quality of the article by William Kilpatrick on Pope Francis’s Socialist Agenda. It’s a disturbing “elephant in the room”. Those with even a basic understanding of the Church’s social teaching know that Socialism and Communism are condemned because they seek to place the state in the role proper to God.
For a variety of reasons the mainstream Church has embraced socialist ideas on the global, diocesan and many parish levels. One is more apt to find agreement with the pronouncements and projects of the United Nations then they are a concern with the First Commandment or the command to evangelize.
In Canada, a letter of congratulations was went to the radically pro-abortion Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau when his party was elected but the same courtesy was not done for his predecessor from the Conservative party. Go ahead, read that letter, the name of Jesus or God does not appear ONCE!
When a “catholic” Ted Kennedy or Pierre Trudeau or other public haters of Christ’s Law die they are feted and celebrated- a cardinal dressed in white presides over a grand funeral. Do you think that impacts their judgement one iota? Their ilk are given communion without a pause- is there no concern for their souls? Is it just optic or politics now?
Friends, the postmoderns, satanists, wicca, islamists, radical feminists, open border types, modernist Catholics, LGBT lobby, and socialists vote one way. Why? Some members of that group I’ve listed would kill others on the same list! What’s the common ground?
The common enemy is “The West”, Christendom and of Jesus Christ as understood as GOD. Fully God and Fully Human. (“Hippy Jesus” gets a pass apparently because he is mythical and harmless like santa or is regarded as a “prophet”.)
As Christians we care for the poor but we do not worship the poor.
We help them and one another voluntarily, not coerced or redistributed at the point of a gun figurative or literal.
You may also find these of interest:
Church Teaching On Socialism and Communism
Do “Leftys” incline Good?
Islam in the Lex Orandi of the Old Roman Martyrology
An important article by Peter Kwasniewski that speaks of the clarity of Traditional Catholicism as to our relationship with islam.
“Unlike Pope Francis, who co-signed with a Moslem leader a declaration that asserts, inter alia, that God wills a plurality of religions, St Peter Mavimenus spoke the truth with simplicity and fortitude.”
Read it here.
Lenten Fast and Exceptions
You are bound to whatever promise you make to God, though our diocese observes the following concerning Lent.
We are encouraged to fast throughout Lent. Everyday but Sunday is a FAST day meaning one big meal and two smaller meals. Liquids are ok throughout the day.
Every Lenten Friday, Ash Wednesday Ember days and Good Friday are also abstinence days (no meat, excepting fish and cold blooded animals). Sundays are free from dietary penance.
The following days are also diocesan feasts and are dispensed from the Fasts- you may also dispense from your Lenten promise depending on the nature of your promise (if you promised “Lord, I will do XYZ for the 40 days of Lent then keep that). These days are: 7th March (St Thomas Aquinas – just past), 17th March (St Patrick), 21st March St Benedict), 24th March (St Gabriel), 25th March (Annunciation), and 3rd April (Our Lady of Good Hope).