The Eucharist: Scriptural, Historical, and Practical Perspective (by Danny Manthei)


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pulling Back on the Reins

Image
Have you ever felt like your life was in full gallop, heading in the right direction and with no obstacles in your way, only to suddenly have things screech to a halt? An image comes to mind of that picture of a person on what they think is their life journey, with nothing but the hill they climbed behind them, and the goal in front. Then a second picture shows a zoomed-out version, “God’s Plan” so it is called, with many more obstacles ahead, but the goal no less achievable. Have you ever been indignant about that sudden stillness, or the additional obstacles? We should be thankful for these times. These are times of reflection and assessment and can stop us from galloping over a cliff in some situations. I’ve got a real-life example for you. Things at work have been going great, and I truly believe it’s because I have been growing in my faith-life. I have an opportunity to go to Mass pretty much any morning that I want, and I have decided on a couple days per week in parti...
Read more

Predicting the End of the World

I had a prediction for the end of the world come to me a week or two before Christmas. It was a comment by a fellow named "E", nestled as a comment in one of my other articles, automatically flagged as spam. Now that his predicted end of the world has come and gone, I thought I'd offer feedback on what went wrong with the prediction. I visited with the person who sent the message, and it turns out that this was much more than just another " I have predicted the end of the world " preacher.  The person actually believes himself to be, not just a prophet, but THE prophet.  Because of this, and my suspicion that there are some psychological issues, I have removed his identifying information, which includes his websites. "E's" comment began with a call to attention: " You are part of a search and rescue for lost Catholics. Regular updates to the countdown to the Day of the Lord by the sign of the Son of Man in Heaven at : [ website link red...
Read more

More than Ever, The World Needs the Luminous Mysteries

Image
Using pebbles or beads as tangible prayer minders was nothing new by the 9th century, when Monks had begun making a daily or weekly recitation of all 150 Psalms.  It made perfect sense, then, when the lay faithful, who wanted a way to participate in this pious practice, yet had difficulty learning the Psalms due to various reasons (e.g., widespread illiteracy), instead recited 150 prayers daily or weekly and kept track of them by means of pebbles or beads.  Eventually this practice evolved into beads being strung together on a cord.  The daily prayers would typically be the "Pater Noster" (the Lord's Prayer, found in Lk 11:2-4 or Mt 6:9-13) or the "Ave [Gratia Plena]" (the "Hail, Full of Grace" found in Lk 1:28, 41-42).  Gradually, the second half of what we know today as the "Hail Mary" was added, reflecting Lk 1:43 and passages regarding praying for one another (e.g., James 5:16).  This recitation of prayers on beads would eventually evolve...
Read more

Did God Give us a Religion, or a Relationship?

I continue to see comments lately that pit “relationship” against “religion”, as though there’s a new trend with Christians trying to distance themselves from “rules” that they might be expected to follow. The latest I heard was " Religion gets you to church, but relationship helps you grow in your faith ".  Other examples are, “ Having a religion is against my relationship ”, or “ God gave me a relationship, not a religion to follow ”, or “ I have a personal relationship with Christ, I don’t need a religion’s rules to tell me what to do ”. There are various ways of saying it, but the main message is that “ Christ gave us a relationship with Him, not a religion to follow”, and it's an incredibly short-sighted and incorrect view of what Christ has given us.  The religion that Christ gave us to follow is a reflection of our relationship with Him .  "Religion", from the Latin "religio" means to  bind oneself  [to something]. In this case, our Christian ...
Read more

Why Ask Mary to Pray for Us?

Image
Why do Catholics, and other Christians who honor Christ's Mother, ask her to pray us? It's because we know she can help lead us to Christ like no other person can. In fact, everything about Mary magnifies God and points us to Christ. Mary is the most pure Virgin, conceived without sin. From the very first instant, she was made entirely immaculate by God, her Savior. Gloriously full of grace, she is the mother of our God, the Queen of Angels and of men. We humbly venerate her as the chosen mother of our Savior, Jesus Christ. The Prince of Peace and the Lord of Lords chose Mary, from among all other women that existed, or ever will exist, for the singular grace and honor of being His beloved mother. By the power of His Cross, He preserved her from all sin. Therefore, by His power and love, we have hope and bold confidence in her prayers for our holiness and salvation. We pray that her prayers will bring us to imitate her holiness and submission to Jesus and the Divine Wil...
Read more

On Immigrants Thirsty for Freedom

The post read, "If you break the law to get here, you will break the law while here.  Period." Then there was a link to a story about an illegal immigrant who had committed a horrible murder. My comment: "That's not true. You should talk to my Mexican family member. She has really opened my eyes. She was brought here illegally as a teenager, snuck in. It's a nice, warm, fuzzy idea that good people who want to come here in search of a better life should just put their name on a nice little list, and eventually it'll happen, but that's not how it works. If you lived in squallor with your children in a totally different world than anything we've ever dreamed of, you'd risk your life to change their future too. My family member was married to an American man for nine years. (Former Navy, by the way) who had never even been to Mexico. And she still couldn't get legal status. She worked hard for her family, AND paid taxes, even while she was ille...
Read more

A Hospital for Sinners

Image
- " If I touch the holy water font, it'll melt. " - " I better not go to confession because, if I enter the church, it may burn down! "   - " I'm just too 'dirty' to go before God right now...I need to clean up first. "   Whether they are an excuse to not go to church, or a genuine notion that someone actually has to 'get right with God' BEFORE they receive the Sacraments, these comments (paraphrased, but you are likely familiar with many variations of them) are wrong minded, backwards, and completely miss the purpose of the Sacraments.   You may have read in any number places, in any number of ways, that " the church is not a museum for saints; rather it is a hospital for sinners ".  And this is the truth of the matter.   We need not be "clean" in order to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation (i.e., going to confession).  Reconciliation is given to us by Christ for exactly that purpose...to reconcile us to Hi...
Read more