Gina's notes

8 March (solo!)

• Memorial of St. John of God (1495–1550).
• Sunday Gospel: Parable of the Merciful Father.
• Prayers for the Dying.
• Thank Kathy Gallagher for being on the show last week.
• Pray for fathers and mothers who have had abortions.
• A former student of mine asks for prayers for himself as he returns to the practice of the Catholic faith.
• Danielle: "I work in a fast-food restaurant. We offer a special discount on Wednesdays as well as Fridays during Lent. How did Wednesdays came to be a secondary day of fast and abstinence during Lent?"
• Give a shout out to Scott about his question from last week about eating meat on Fridays during Lent because he is following a prescribed diet. His pastor can give him a dispensation from the obligation to fast and abstain on Fridays during Lent.
• Betty from Cheektowaga via e-mail: What is the significance of Benedict changing his shoes? Why do press reports about his retirement mention it so often?

[http://jimmyakin.com/2013/02/how-reliable-is-the-st-malachy-prophecy.html "How Reliable Is the St. Malachy Prophecy?"]

Different sicknesses require different treatments.  I am allergic to penicillin.  It's fine for most of the world, but it would kill me.  Some of the sayings of Jesus and the saints are exactly what most people need to hear, but preaching perfectionism to perfectionists is deadly to them.

Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio

If the "not in the Bible" rule had been in place for the OT, there never could be a NT; if no NT, no "Bible."

The NT does not say "the canon is closed."  Neither does the OT.

:; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_orientem ''Wikipedia,'' "Ad orientem."]

:: A letter of 25 September 2000 from the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments treats the phrase "which is desirable wherever possible" as referring to the requirement that altars be built apart from the wall, not to the celebration of Mass facing the people, while "it reaffirms that the position toward the assembly seems more convenient inasmuch as it makes communication easier ... without excluding, however, the other possibility."
[http://www.unavox.it/doc26.htm English translation of Letter of protocol number 2036/00/L and date 25 September 2000]
 
 
:; [http://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/the-mass/general-instruction-of-the-roman-missal/girm-chapter-5.cfm GIRM, #299]

:: The altar should be built separate from the wall, in such a way that it is possible to walk around it easily and that Mass can be celebrated at it facing the people, which is desirable wherever possible. Moreover, the altar should occupy a place where it is truly the center toward which the attention of the whole congregation of the faithful naturally turns.[115] The altar should usually be fixed and dedicated.

:: 303. In building new churches, it is preferable for a single altar to be erected, one that in the gathering of the faithful will signify the one Christ and the one Eucharist of the Church.

In already existing churches, however, when the old altar is so positioned that it makes the people’s participation difficult but cannot be moved without damage to artistic value, another fixed altar, skillfully made and properly dedicated, should be erected and the sacred rites celebrated on it alone. In order that the attention of the faithful not be distracted from the new altar, the old altar should not be decorated in any special way.

[http://zephyrinus-zephyrinus.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-seven-pilgrim-churches-of-rome.html ''Wikipedia,'' "The Seven Pilgrim Churches Of Rome."]

Questions from the Chesterterrorists

• Is it OK for a priest to wear street clothes when exposing the Blessed Sacrament for adoration or when celebrating Benediction?
• Could a priest celebrate Mass ad orientem throughout the canon of the Mass using the Mass of Paul VI in English? Or would the priest need the bishop's permission to do so?
• What does the Church think about the rise of the Roman Empire? We know from history that the Romans defeated Carthage in the west and the Greeks in the east, thus turning the Mediterranean Sea into a "Roman lake." Did God allow Rome to become so large and successful just so that Jesus could topple it?
• The gospels tell us that many people recognized Jesus' glory at his birth--the shepherds, the magi, and Anna and Simeon in the Temple. Why then did the people of Nazareth not know that He was Son of God?
• Did Herod Antipas know that Jesus was the person whom his father, Herod the Great, tried to kill? If so, why did he send Jesus back to Pilot?
• Where did the apostles dwell for the 40 days before Pentecost?
• What do you say to the claim that the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was not sexual, but rather a sin against the norms of hospitality?
• Did God know ahead of time that Peter would deny Jesus three times?

Recent questions

Why trust the New Testament?

Anonymous from Buffalo: Someone recently asked you how the authenticity of the sayings of Jesus could be verified. Your answer was that they cannot be verified according to modern standards of scholarship. So, if the sayings of Jesus in the New Testament cannot be verified against objective sources, why should anyone trust the gospels? How did the Church identify authentic gospels? On what grounds did it falsify other gospels?

Catholic vs. Christian

• Ryan from e-mail: I had a debate with somebody who thought there was a difference between a Catholic and a Christian. To me, that sounds like saying there is a difference between a Car and a Ford Vehicle. My feeling is that Christianity would have had to come before the Catholic Church since Catholicism is a denomination of Christianity. Am I right or wrong about this?

Catholicism

Protestant rejection of Tradition

• John Z. from Facebook: Why do so many of our protestant brothers and sisters reject tradition? It is as though they center their teaching on fragments from St. Paul's letters. I have listened to a lot of Pastors, and they never seem to preach on the Gospel passages that command us to express our faith in good works. In Matthew 25, for example, Jesus separates the sheep and the goats according to things they did or did not do for the least of His brethren.

Praying for ourselves

• From a Facebook friend:

- Is it "right" to ask for a real miracle for oneself or is it the epitome of selfishness?

- What is the best way to pray and how often? I've been locked in virtually the same words and number of times a day for decades. Will God understand, or forgive me, if I change the wording, or the frequency?

Catholic Children's Bible

• For parents: The Catholic Children's Bible by St. Mary's Press.

Calling the Pope "Father"

• From a friend of a friend via e-mail: "Is calling the Pope 'Holy Father' officially described in doctrine of the Church, or is it something which one could disagree with while remaining Catholic?"

Titles of the Pope.

Vegan Questions

• From Wake Up:

1. I learned in Catholic church that God is called the most merciful being, so why would He create sentient beings who are intelligent, can feel pain, and become frightened, as humans do, only to have them tortured horribly by humans?
2. Did God say that He created animals for humans to consume?
3. How would we feel if we were forcibly and repeatedly impregnated - to be blunt, raped? If, the babies we carried for nine months were torn from us so that the milk meant for them would be sold? If we were hooked up to milking machines until we were "spent," then shipped off to slaughter when we became too sick or too weak to be financially valuable?
4. The Catholic church teaches their followers to oppose abortion because it is a mortal sin to kill, yet they teach their followers to brutally kill animals to satisfy the followers' taste buds. I wonder, as they teach them to kill one living being (an animal), how Catholic leaders expect them not to kill another living being (a fetus)?
5. Humans have been trying to explore other planets to find living beings. What would we think if one day powerful beings from another planet placed us in crates so small that we cannot turn around for our entire of lives in order to harvest our eggs, milked us, raped us, took our babies away from us for their own food, and treated us with all the same cruel methods with which we are treating animals today?
6. I learned in Catholic church that arrogance is the most basic cause of every sin. I wonder if you consciously, ethically, morally, humanely think that we should continue to treat animals with no mercy, no compassion as we have been doing for so long?
7. I wonder how the Catholic church can teach their followers to do the right things in this life in order to find peace in heaven in the next life, yet create a hell on earth for animals by teaching their followers to torture animals for the followers' greed?

Soteriology

• Zach from Amherst: How does the death of Jesus make reparation for our sins? Does God just want us to be content in not knowing exactly why He wills what He does, but just know that He wills it?

Atonement

Consolation and Desolation

• Patricia from Facebook: Father my friend would like a definition of what a consolation would be, or an experience of such.

Fr. Walter Ciszek, SJ

• Suellen Ann from Facebook: I just saw a beautiful documentary on EWTN about Fr. Walter Ciszek, a Jesuit who was held captive in Siberia for 15 years. Could you talk a little bit about his life and works?

Walter Ciszek, SJ

Jewish roots of Catholic liturgy

• John from Facebook: Is the tradition of having a sequence of annual feasts rooted in the Church's Jewish heritage?

Jewish Liturgical Year

Catholic understanding of marriage

• Nicole from e-mail: I spoke w/a 20-something co-worker regarding male/female complementarity one day when she mentioned that people who don't accept "same-sex marriage" are bigots. She listened to me kindly but did not accept the idea that opposite genders go together because of procreation. Her immediate answer was, "well, the couple can use IVF." I find that many younger people have a utilitarian point of view - the end justifies the means. How can I present the Church's teaching on marriage and the natural law in the most effective fashion?

Ordination of Women and Priestly Celibacy

Amy from e-mail: I recently spoke with some women friends about the ordination of women and allowing priests to marry. They claimed that these two issues are founded on human law rather than divine law, and then argued that because some day there will not be enough priests to serve the people, other options must be discussed. Are these issues open to discussion?

Year of Faith Website

• David M. from Rochester: Here is the Vatican’s website for the year of faith: www.annusfidei.va.

Common Bible includes "Apocrypha"

John W. from e-mail: I was very surprised this afternoon when you quoted Tobit 4:8 on giving. You said, "The Protestants don’t have Tobit in their Bible." Here in Canada, or at least Toronto, we DO! We also have Judith, Wisdom, Baruch, 1&2 Maccabees, and the other Deuterocanonical Books in the pew Bibles of at least our local Anglican and Presbyterian churches, and probably in the local United Church too. The pew Bibles are the “New Revised Standard Version (with Apocrypha).” These are logical developments based on Vatican II, which began fifty years ago, and the first Anglican-Roman Catholic Common Declaration and the establishment of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission forty-six years ago. Most Protestant churches are also using the Revised Common Lectionary. Is this just a Canadian thing?

- Apocrypha in Common Bible.

Lives of Saints for Young Children

Veronica from Ithaca made some extra suggestions: Good books for God's children.

Psychology and Catholicism

• John from Facebook: At the school I work, they are doing workshops on motivation and learning. They presented a workshop on William Glasser's "choice theory," which seems to me to advocate faith but no God. When the Church provides counsel through Catholic Charities or even through a priest, how does it merge psychology and faith?

The Gospel of Jesus' Wife

What does the Church think about the Coptic fragment that people are calling "The Gospel of Jesus' Wife"?

Godly Gynecology; Pregnancy Support Services

• Melissa from Kenmore, New York: "A friend of a friend of mine was told for decades that she had a thyroid problem that would prevent her from becoming pregnant. The doctors were wrong. When she began to gain weight because of a pregnancy, her doctor just adjusted her medication, thinking that her weight gain was due to thyroid problems, not a pregnancy. This was a devastating situation for her, as she ended up having an abortion. Many women who opt for abortion are not FOR abortion in and of itself. Many just do not have the support of the father or their family, and do not know who would help them cope with an unplanned child at the time of birth. Could you list some resources women in such a situation can turn to?"

Pacifism required?

• Anonymous: Why do some candidates who are pro life still support violence via wars, detainment, and the like? Why can't being pro life mean being more vigilant in ending wars through diplomatic talks rather than continuing what seems an endless fight in another country? Our military wants to come home. Does war ever make any sense?"

- Just War Theory.

Feeling guilty after Confession

• Anonymous: "I have a hard time forgiving myself, even after I confess a sin in confession. Is that also a sin?"

Prayer request

• "Just wanted to say thanks for the prayers. I know that you prayed that I can get back with my wife. It really isn't possible. I don't know what is going on with her. She has started a lot of problems, and she is hanging around with violent people. I don't want to keep her from seeing her daughter. Yet at the same time I fear what she may do. I am fearful for my daughter as well as my own as well as my family's lives. Please pray for me. I am so scared."

Interceding for Sinners

• Anonymous: "What is the consequence if someone who is not Catholic receives the Eucharist in ignorance. Besides educating them, is there a penance one can do for them?"

What should I do when I see others sin?

Forgiveness Prayer.

Spiritual Warfare

• John Z. from Facebook re: spiritual warfare.

• Can people be used by demons to try and fight and create turmoil and strife?
• Are there angels and demons duking it out fighting for our souls?
• Also, I saw on a blog where a guy said to look in the Old Testament as to how many people Satan killed vs God. He claims that Satan only killed ten and God killed thousands. So, in his view, the whole Christian idea of God is false, and Satan got a raw deal.

How to Create Extra Pages

There are two ways to make more pages for yourself. Well, three, I guess. The first two require being logged in.

1. Search for the title of the page you want to create. When the search fails, click on the red link to create the page.

2. Put the name of the new page you want to create in double square brackets on a current page. When you save the page, the name of the page you are about to create will appear in red.

Here is a red link; if you click on it, you may choose to create the page: Gina's test page.

3. Ask me to create the page(s) for you.

After you have created a page, putting the name of the page in double square brackets makes a blue link to the page. So, for example, I have been working on the book of Jonah for a few days.

To create an external link, use just one pair of square brackets:

Year of Faith

This does depend on a space between the URL and the text that is shown to the reader.

You can link to an existing page using double square brackets and a pipe: This is an active link to my old show preparation page. None of the words you see here in blue are the name of the page. The real name of the page is hidden from view.