Tag Archives: catholic

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Thank you!

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Mary playing with Jesus

Dear Love Being Catholic friends,

My mission is to help you grow deeper in your love for Christ, His Church, and our Blessed Mother, while at the same time give you some easy-to-understand answers to questions you might have been asked by others about our faith. Through the grace of God, this blog and my Facebook page combined now have over 160,000 friends and are reaching several million people around the world each month.

It takes many hours to research, write and maintain this site, and any support is appreciated! If you’re enjoying this blog, and it has been a blessing to you, please consider supporting it with even a modest donation – every little bit helps.

If you have donated already, I thank you wholeheartedly for making all of this possible. Thank you all for your support and your prayers. Please know that you are all in my prayers as well, and I appreciate each one of you!. ❤

To make a secure donation visit: https://lovebeingcatholic.com/donate/

In Christ,
Liz

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The Catholic Mass

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Mass

The Mass is the most important and sacred act of worship in the Catholic Church.

The Mass incorporates the Bible (Sacred Scripture), prayer, sacrifice, hymns, symbols, gestures, sacred food for the soul, and directions on how to live a Catholic life — all in one ceremony. Through time and space, we connect with the original Last Supper.

The Church teaches that the Mass is the re-presentation of the sacrifice of Calvary. This is misunderstood by many who claim that the Mass is a re-crucifixion of Christ. It is not. Jesus Christ celebrated the first Mass with His disciples at the Last Supper, the night before He died. He commanded His disciples, “Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19). The celebration of the Mass then became the main form of worship in the early Church, (2000 years ago) as a reenactment of the Last Supper, as Christ had commanded.

Each and every Mass since commemorates Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross through the Holy Eucharist. Because the Mass “re-presents” (makes present) the sacrifice on Calvary, Catholics all around the world join together to be made present in Christ’s timeless sacrifice for our sins. There is something fascinating about continuing to celebrate the same Mass—instituted by Christ and practiced by the early Church. Study Church history and see how the early Christians celebrated Mass, and you will see it is the same as how Catholics celebrate it today.

Attending Mass is not just an obligation, it’s a privilege. God knows we need it, and it is His gift to us. Mass should be the highlight of our week. We should look forward to going, and when we don’t, it’s a reminder that we need to work harder to more fully understand the reality of what happens at Mass. If you are a Catholic, you are supposed to go to Mass every week, and on Holy Days of Obligation. If you don’t understand the Mass, or are bored, and are looking for better “entertainment” – then pray for understanding.
(Check out Scott Hahn’s book titled “The Lamb’s Supper” – simply beautiful!)

We don’t go to Mass to be entertained, or demand that the priest’s homily be exciting, or if it isn’t we aren’t going back. Some priests are more gifted with amazing homilies. Some are not. Pray for them all and go to Mass regardless..If you’re looking for great entertainment every week, your priorities are all wrong. Go whether you feel like going or not. Love is much more than feelings. (You feed your children every day out of love for them, whether you feel like making it or not.) Going to Mass is good for your eternal soul.

It’s human and natural to forget, want to sleep in, take it for granted, or become numb to it, but we have to continually work to overcome that trap. The devil is real and loves it when you stay home. At Mass we are being offered the greatest gift God has to offer – the source and summit of our Faith, Jesus Christ Himself in the Eucharist.

Learn your faith. Ask questions, study, read the Bible, and learn what it means to be a Catholic Christian. So many Catholics stopped learning about their faith after their Confirmation. They left and joined mega churches which drew teens in, who then brought their parents in because of the exciting bands, great coffee, rock-star personalities, and a pulpit center stage rather than an altar. They have thrown out the sacred and holy – you won’t even find a cross in many of them – but you will have fun and be entertained. Many have replaced the sacred and the holy with elaborate light shows, re-branding of Christianity and enticing marketing campaigns. When you don’t understand your faith, or the Mass, it’s easy to leave it for someplace else that is exciting and sprinkles in just enough truth to make it sound believeable.

Some of the most passionate Catholics today are those who converted to Catholicism as an adult, and understand the meaning of the Mass and the Eucharist. So many of us were not taught our faith when we were young, but are now re-discovering the truth and beauty of it as adults. Learn your faith and learn why we do what we do. Don’t be tempted to leave the church founded by Jesus Christ for better entertainment, and if you have, please come back.

At Mass we get down on our knees to humble ourselves before our King. It’s not about “us” remember. We go for Him. We understand the importance of the sacred and the holy, and how truth and beauty draw us closer to God, so that we can bring His love to others. We need God, though so many in our world today tell you not to worry about what God thinks of you, but only how you treat and love each other. Of course Jesus wants us to love one another – we love and serve the lonely, the poor, the disabled, those in prison, the immigrants, men, women and children around the world, but we also love and care what our loving God thinks of us, and we worship Him as Jesus instructed us to do 2000 years ago.

When we receive the Eucharist, we truly, physically receive the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ, of God Himself – at every Mass. If you’re looking for a personal relationships with Jesus Christ, you can’t get any more personal than when you receive Him in the Eucharist. The Eucharist is the source and summit of our Catholic faith. Christ is truly present in the Eucharist with or without a dynamic homily.

Notice how it is the altar that is front and center at a Mass, not the pulpit or a personality. Notice how when the priest and deacon enter and leave Mass, they bow down and kiss the altar. They aren’t kissing a pulpit.

The Mass is a sacrifice. We go to Mass to worship God, hear His holy word in the Liturgy of the Word, and receive Christ’s body, blood, soul and divinity in the Eucharist. An inspiring homily and beautiful music absolutely add to the beauty of the Mass, but even without these things, Christ is truly present in the Eucharist. That alone should make you want to never skip Mass, be there on time, not leave early without a good reason, and thank God for this wonderful gift.

Read, study, seek more understanding, and most of all, pray that you will come to a better appreciation and love for this most beautiful gift that Jesus Christ instituted at the Last supper 2000 years ago. God loves you. Please go.

Wishing you all a beautiful Sunday!

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. . . and the name of that boat was Love

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boat

“And I saw a river over which every soul must pass to reach the Kingdom of Heaven, and the name of that river was suffering … and then I saw a boat which carried souls across the river, and the name of that boat was Love”   Saint John of the Cross

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Morning Prayer

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Mary in blue

In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ I will begin this day.

I thank you, Lord, for having preserved me during the night. I will do my best to make all I do today pleasing to You and in accordance with Your will. My dear mother Mary, watch over me this day. My Guardian Angel, take care of me. St. Joseph and all you saints of God, pray for me
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O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer You my prayers, works, joys and sufferings of this day for all the intentions of Your Sacred Heart, in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world, in reparation for my sins, for the intentions of all my relatives and friends, and in particular for the intentions of the Holy Father.

I wish to gain all the indulgences attached to the prayers I shall say and the good works I shall perform this day. Amen.

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Why Catholics do not believe in Sola Scriptura

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why

Why do Catholics believe that the Bible alone (Sola Scriptura) is NOT the sole rule of faith?

Catholics accept the Bible as an authority in matters of faith because it is God’s inspired Word. However, we do not believe it to be the only rule of faith.

Did you know that Sola Scriptura was unheard of before the Reformation, which was in the 16th century? (Hundreds of years after Christ was crucified.) Sola Scriptura is not biblical, it is not historical, and it is not logical. The doctrine of Sola Scripture is not even found in Scripture. In fact, the Bible tells us that we need more than just the Bible alone, for it says that not everything Jesus said and did is recorded in Holy Scripture. (John 21:25) and that we must hold fast to oral tradition – the “preached” Word of God. (1 Cor 11:2; 1 Pet 1:25.)

The Bible tells us that Jesus left us a Church with divine authority to govern in His name. (Matthew 16:13-20, 18:18, Luke 10:16). Christ also promised that the Church would last until the end of time. (Matthew 16:18, 28:19-20, John14:16). The Bible also tells us that Sacred Tradition is to be followed alongside Sacred Scripture. (2 Thess 2:15, 3:6).

Jesus left us a Church 2000 years ago to teach, govern and sanctify in His name until the end of time. The Bible clearly tells us that it is the Church that is the “pillar and bulwark of the truth.” (1 Timothy 3:15):

“But if I should be delayed, you should know how to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of truth.”

Papal authority also has strong support in Scripture, and can be traced back historically. Peter was appointed the first Pope by Christ Himself – he was given the “Keys to the Kingdom of Heaven.” To no one else does Christ give this ruling power. The popes as Christ’s vicars are the visible heads of Christ’s Church while, of course, Christ is the invisible and supreme head.( On another note – for those who think Peter was not infallible, why do they accept his two letters (found in the Bible) as inspired, infallible?)

Leaving the Bible up for personal interpretation leads to thousands of different interpretations of Scripture. Think about the U.S. Constitution – – an authority (the Supreme Court) was established to guard, guarantee and officially interpret the Constitution. Without it there would be chaos and endless divisions as everyone would be acting as their own authority, interpreting it to fit their own agendas and lives. Remember, just because you can quote or make up your own interpretation of scripture, it doesn’t mean you are interpreting it correctly. Even the devil quoted scripture and used it to promote evil. Anyone today can take words from scripture and justify just about anything today to fit their own agendas or justify any behavior. Misinterpretation of Scripture can result in selective acceptance of the truths contained there. Without an authority (the Magisterium) to help us interpret scripture, scripture could be interpreted with having opposite meanings. God is a God of order, not disorder. Truth (God) does not contradict Himself.

Where did the Bible come from? It didn’t just fall out of the sky. And how do we know what books belong in the Bible?

It was the authority of the Catholic Church, in the fourth century, that determined which books were inspired and belonged in the Bible. Think about it. The Bible does not have an inspired table of contents. This list of inspired books is an essential religious truth not contained in the Bible. Therefore, at least one essential religious truth – the contents of the Bible – is found “outside” the Bible.

Jesus left us the Church, which came before the Bible. How did people learn about Jesus after he was crucified, but before the Bible was put together by Catholics in the fourth century? Oral tradition. We trust the Church, established by Jesus Christ, to tell us what books belong in the Bible, and assure us that everything in it is inspired.

Many people, including many Protestant pastors, have converted to Catholicism on the issue of authority. Today there is one Catholic Church, yet over 30,000 different Protestant denominations, which started breaking away from the church during the Reformation – hundreds of years after the Bible was compiled.

Among all the Christian churches, only the Catholic Church has existed since the time of Jesus. Every other Christian church is an offshoot of the Catholic Church. The Eastern Orthodox churches broke away from unity with the pope in 1054. The Protestant churches were established during the Reformation, which began in 1517. Most of today’s Protestant churches are actually offshoots of the original Protestant offshoots, each with their own man made traditions and various interpretations of the Bible.

Only the Catholic Church existed in the tenth century, in the fifth century, and in the first century, faithfully teaching the doctrines given by Christ to the apostles, omitting nothing. The line of popes can be traced back, in unbroken succession, to Peter himself. This is unequaled by any institution in history. Even the oldest government is new compared to the papacy, and the churches to which door-to-door missionaries belong are young compared to the Catholic Church. Many of these churches began as recently as the nineteenth or twentieth centuries. None of them can claim to be the Church Jesus established.

In Matthew 16:18, Jesus creates and builds His Church (not “churches”) on Peter, the Rock. Even hell can’t stop the everlasting existence of His Church. “And I say to you, that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.” Jesus left us a Church, giving our first Pope, Saint Peter, the “keys to His kingdom” (keys are a symbol of authority) to be the leader of His Church. In the following verse 19, Jesus gives Peter the keys to the kingdom:

“And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound, even in heaven. And whatever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed, even in heaven.”

Despite humans messing things up at times, the Catholic Church was founded by Christ, and will FOREVER be guided by the Holy Spirit until the end of time, as quoted in scripture:

“I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. John 16:12-13

Jesus would not have left His church without an authority to guide us in Truth. The Catholic Church existed long before the Bible. The Bible is the product of the Catholic Church. Catholic popes and bishops decided what books belonged in the Bible in the 4th century. This is why Catholics do not believe that the Bible is the sole rule of faith for Christians (Sola Scriptura), but rather, as mentioned above, “the Church is the pillar and foundation of the truth” as it says in I Timothy 3:15.

The deposit of faith given the Church by Jesus Christ includes both Holy Tradition and Holy Scripture. The Gospel is both God’s unwritten and written word, not, rather, simply the written word only. As Pope Benedict observed, “Ultimately, it is the living Tradition of the Church which makes us adequately understand sacred Scripture as the word of God” (Verbum Domini, 17-18).

To trust the Bible is to trust the authority of the Catholic Church.

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Morning Prayer

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Love

In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ I will begin this day.

I thank you, Lord, for having preserved me during the night. I will do my best to make all I do today pleasing to You and in accordance with Your will. My dear mother Mary, watch over me this day. My Guardian Angel, take care of me. St. Joseph and all you saints of God, pray for me.

O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer You my prayers, works, joys and sufferings of this day for all the intentions of Your Sacred Heart, in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world, in reparation for my sins, for the intentions of all my relatives and friends, and in particular for the intentions of the Holy Father.

I wish to gain all the indulgences attached to the prayers I shall say and the good works I shall perform this day. Amen.

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“O Sacrament Most Holy! O Sacrament Divine”

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Sacrament most holy\

“O Sacrament most holy! O Sacrament divine! All praise and all thanksgiving, be every moment Thine!”

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JMJ

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JMJ

When my mother was in Catholic school, the nuns taught her to write “JMJ” on top of all of her school papers. It stands for “Jesus, Mary and Joseph”. Writing this is a form of prayer in which she offered all that she did in school to Jesus and the Holy Family. The practice encouraged devotion to the holy family, and imitation and aspiration to their life and holiness.

If you’ve ever seen Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s show, “Life is worth living”, you will see how he always wrote “JMJ” at the top of his blackboard when he used it for illustration during his show.

There are many other similar acronyms, which are a form of prayer, such as AMDG – ‘Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam’ – ‘to the greater glory of God’, or AJPM – Ad Jesum per Mariam” – ‘to Jesus through Mary’.

Before you begin an activity (Homework, studying, paying the bills, etc.. . ), it’s a great idea to write down the acronym as you make a small prayer and invocation for assistance. Your actions are in effect offered to heaven and you are reminded to keep God in mind at all times, whatever work you happen to be doing.

Did any of you learn this as a child? I think it is so beautiful!

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Mary – Ark of the New Covenant

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ark

Catholics call Mary the “Ark of the New Covenant” Here are some scriptural references from both the Old and New Testament that help you to see why we give Mary this title. Notice how events in the Old Testament foreshadows (prefigures) events in the New Testament.

Think about this – in the Old Testament it mentions the three items that were placed in the Ark:

1. The 10 Commandments ~ which represents the word;
2 The manna that fell from Heaven, which represents the bread; and
3. The rod of Aaron (who represented the high priest)

In the New Testament, Mary carried in her womb the following three:

1. Jesus, who is the Word of God in flesh.
2. Jesus – the true bread from Heaven
3. Jesus – the true High Priest

In the Old Testament, the Ark of the Covenant, overshadowed by the Spirit of God, was the instrument through which God came to dwell among men; in the New Testament, Mary, overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, is the instrument through which God came to dwell among men. She is the Ark of the New Covenant.(Ex 25:11-21) made to hold the living Word of God: a holy tabernacle made not of the purest gold, but of the purest flesh.

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Hail Mary

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Mary Queen of Peace

Hail Mary,
Full of Grace,
The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit
of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary,
Mother of God,
pray for us sinners now,
and at the hour of death.
Amen.