2019

The Church’s call to feast and the Church’s command to fast are, at least in my world, two of her greatest gifts. When done rightly and done well, feasting and fasting bring the whole person—body and soul—into the liturgical rhythms of the Church. They make the liturgical seasons incarnate in our homes and communities. They also help form communities, uniting rich and poor, young and old, married and single in a common practice: eating . . . or not eating as the case may be.

There is no single “official” way of understanding how contraception violates the natural law.  Indeed, there are different, sometimes conflicting, theories held by Catholic scholars on this question. Assessing their differences would bring us far afield, but the mere fact of variation in approach is not an argument against the natural law, for all orthodox writers agree on the basic content.

In the United States, Canada, and most of Europe, young parents violate an unwritten taboo when they have a third or fourth child, drawing the gossipy stares and tsk-tsks of those whom one perceptive mom has called “the fertility police.” Usually it’s in the form of well-meant ribbing (“Hey, do you guys know what you’re doing?” “They have pills for that, you know,” and so on), but the barbs can be downright rude. Why is it anyone’s business? Parents might ask the joker, “Which of my kids would the world be better without?” 

In the Davidic kingdom, the mother of the king held an official position in the royal court, in which she shared in her son’s reign and served as an advocate for the people and a counselor for her son. The queen mother was also associated with two key Old Testament texts, bound up with Israel’s messianic hopes. The prophecy of Isaiah 7:14 involves the sign of a queen mother who will conceive and bear the future Davidic King, Immanuel.

One of the significant and most common misconceptions about Catholicism is that Catholics worship Mary. But Catholics worship only God; they do not worship Mary. Her whole mission and disposition as the mother of Jesus is to bring others into closer communion with her Son. She would be the most horrified if anyone were to worship her. However, the Church does hold a special honor for her because of who she is and her unique relationship with Christ. For a proper understanding, we need to make some important distinctions. 

Of all of the obstacles littering my path toward the Catholic Church, none loomed larger than Mary. She represented diversion from true devotion to Our Lord to a plastic (or ceramic or marble) substitute. She was only the box that held the Present; did it honor the Giver to play with the box and ignore the Gift? Depending on which Catholic friend I spoke to, I heard qualities attributed to her that bordered on divinity, including titles such as Queen of Heaven and Mother of God. How could I reconcile the love for Jesus which I shared in common with Catholic brothers and sisters with the antagonism I felt toward Mary, His mother?

At Mass, we encounter the mystery of Christ becoming truly present under the appearance of bread and wine. Even though the sacred species look exactly the same after the consecration as they did before the consecration, we know by faith that there’s a world of difference. Our Lord and Savior is truly present in our midst as our spiritual food. The change could not be more dramatic, nor more imperceptible.  

The most popular private devotion among Catholics may well be the Rosary, which is both a form of prayer and a specific sacramental that aids in prayer.
In saying the Rosary, we call to mind, one at a time, each of the mysteries as a focus of reflection. The series of prayers for each mystery begins with the recitation of the Our Father, followed by ten Hail Marys, ending with the Glory Be. This series is referred to as a decade because of the ten Hail Marys. After completion of the first decade, another mystery is called to mind, and the process of prayer continues.

What would it be like to encounter God unveiled, face-to-face? Oh, we might say piously, it would be so wonderful, so glorious, I cannot wait! Would it? Should you? Of course, God is glorious and wonderful as well as our greatest Good, so considered objectively we cannot but say “yes.”