"A Humble Servant's Catholic Blog"

- " 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...

Many Christians come to face the question of whether it is okay to drink wine/alcohol. The Bible is clear that, while some wine drinking is good and approved by God, drunkenness is not. “Then he said, ‘Bring it to me, that I may eat of my son’s game and bless you.’ So, he brought it to him, and he ate; and he brought him wine, and he drank.” (Gen 27:25) “In the presence of the Lord your God, in the place that he will choose as a dwelling for his name, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, your wine, and your oil, as well as the firstlings of your herd and flock, so that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. But if, when the Lord your God has blessed you, the distance is so great that you are unable to transport it, because the place where the Lord your God will choose to set his name is too far away from you, then you may turn it into money. With the money secure in hand, go to the place that the Lord your God will choose; spend the money for whatever you wish – oxe...

A news story was released recently about a group of San Francisco Catholics petitioning to have Archbishop Cordileone ousted for creating “ an atmosphere of division and intolerance ”. You can read one of the covers of that story HERE for details. What I want to focus on are some of the complaints against the Archbishop. He is accused of setting “ a pastoral tone that is closer to persecution than evangelization ”. Evidence cited to support this is a morality clause that defines extra-marital sex and homosexual acts as “ gravely evil ”. The problem with the complaint, though, is that the Church has ALWAYS taught about grave evils, their dangers, the need to warn and rebuke our brothers about them, and that these specific acts are such (cff. 1Jn 1:19, 5:16; James 5:13-16, 19; Lev 19:17; Mt 7:5, 18:15-17; 1Cor 5:1-13; Gal 6:1-2; Lev 20:13; Rom 1:27; 1Cor 6:9-10; MT 5:28 ; etc.). Is it “ persecution ” to warn people about the gravity of certain sins? No. It’s an act of mercy to...

I entered into a discussion with a proponent of same-sex "Marriage" who believes that refusing to bake a same-sex wedding cake is bigotry and hypocrisy. The original discussion was about twice the length as what you will see here, as I removed our back-and-forth that got off-topic, the expletives, repetitive statements, and most of the more blatant unsupported assertions/presumptions. In a way, this could be a disservice because he made many false claims and used several deceptive tactics that Christians should know how to recognize and refute. But I've covered many of them before in other articles, so for the sake of brevity, and to keep it on topic, I edited out much of that. My words will appear in blue font , his in black. JM: Jesus regularly ate dinner with thieves and prostitutes, but you’re telling me it’s against your religion to bake a cake for a gay person? [ A dialog ensued with other people where he stated that a refusal to bake a cake for someone, ev...

I was discussing Penance, purgatory, and indulgences (among many other topics) with a friend, and the topic of temporal punishment came up. Temporal punishment happens to be closely linked to indulgences, which happen to be linked to the effects of Sacramental Penance, so it was only natural that it be next in line for discussion. In case you aren't familiar with what I'm talking about: " An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven ..." ( CCC 1471 , emphasis mine). Anyone not familiar with that might respond with, " Whoa! Hold up there on the 'temporal punishment'! What's that all about? " I'll explain what it's all about, but you can also get a good idea by reading the very short Catechism paragraphs 1471-1473, especially in light of the three paragraphs immediately preceding those, and 1478-79. ( HERE's that link.) Anyway, my friend actually read ...