The Catholic Church has answers! Now in one convenient post, here are some quotes and articles that talk about what the Church believes about Mary and why.
Fulton Sheen’s sun and moon analogy
Various saints’ quotations about Mary
Knowing Mary Through the Bible
Jesus Loves His Mother (And we should, too)
Devotion to the Blessed Virgin
How to Defend the Immaculate Conception
Any Friend of God’s Is a Friend of Mine
Luther, Calvin, and Scripture Honor Mary
Feast of the Immaculate Conception - Fulton Sheen
Queen Mother: A Biblical Theology of Mary’s Queenship (book)
Anonymous asked: I am having trouble really believing Jesus is in the Eucharist. I have that on and off belief whenever I go to mass or adoration. I have read the scripture and have heard testimonies of Jesus' real presence, but I still have trouble. How do we know it is truly Him? and how can I believe?
Anon, you’re not alone! Lots of people, including myself, have doubts or have had doubts about what we believe to be the pinnacle of our Catholic faith.
The Eucharist is the ultimate source of life for the soul, because in both species, it’s Jesus’ body and blood, soul and divinity. We know this because in the Gospel, Jesus referred to himself as the Bread of Life, He told us that if we don’t eat the flesh of the Son of Man, we will die, and He commanded us to “do this in memory of me:”
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.” (John 6: 35)
Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.” (John 6: 53-58)
While they were eating, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, and said, “Take it; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, and they all drank from it. He said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed for many.” (Mark 14: 22-24)
Then he took the bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which will be given for you; do this in memory of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which will be shed for you.” (Luke 22: 19-20)
As Catholics, we take all of these statements literally. We don’t believe the bread and wine are symbols of Jesus, we believe they actually are Jesus. And this is a tough bullet to bite! Why would the God of the Universe tell people to eat bread and drink wine (which was supposedly His body and blood) in Give us this day our daily bread” section of the Our Father. Says the Catechism #2387:
2837“Daily” (epiousios) occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. Taken in a temporal sense, this word is a pedagogical repetition of “this day,”128to confirm us in trust “without reservation.” Taken in the qualitative sense, it signifies what is necessary for life, and more broadly every good thing sufficient for subsistence.129Taken literally (epi-ousios: “super-essential”), it refers directly to the Bread of Life, the Body of Christ, the “medicine of immortality,” without which we have no life within us.130Finally in this connection, its heavenly meaning is evident: “this day” is the Day of the Lord, the day of the feast of the kingdom, anticipated in the Eucharist that is already the foretaste of the kingdom to come. For this reason it is fitting for the Eucharistic liturgy to be celebrated each day.
The Eucharist is our daily bread. The power belonging to this divine food makes it a bond of union. Its effect is then understood as unity, so that, gathered into his Body and made members of him, we may become what we receive. . . . This also is our daily bread: the readings you hear each day in church and the hymns you hear and sing. All these are necessities for our pilgrimage.131
The Father in heaven urges us, as children of heaven, to ask for the bread of heaven. [Christ] himself is the bread who, sown in the Virgin, raised up in the flesh, kneaded in the Passion, baked in the oven of the tomb, reserved in churches, brought to altars, furnishes the faithful each day with food from heaven.132
Taken literally, the Eucharist is our daily bread. But why bread? I think that Jesus chose bread because it’s something that’s accessible to everyone: everyone understands we need food to live, and every believer understands we need God to live, so why not combine the two? In the Eucharist, God takes a mere symbol of life (bread for a mortal body) and turns it into actual life (His body, given up for the immortal soul). Isn’t that neat?
All this information aside, it’s still tough to believe, especially when you’re at Mass and the incense is choking your lungs, there are screaming children at the back of the church, someone’s cell phone goes off, your nose itches, your knees hurt from kneeling because you got the pew that didn’t have the padding, ad infinitum. There are a ton of reasons as to why our “experience” of God (especially during the Eucharistic prayer and most especially during the Consecration—the highest part of the Mass) doesn’t always feel the same. I find that I “experience” the Eucharist better at youth rallies, retreats and other gatherings. Sure, we can have warm fuzzy feelings about the Eucharist when packed into a crowded gymnasium full of other young crazy people who are also on fire for Christ, but does the actual Eucharist itself change from a retreat setting to a boring, home parish setting? Of course not! Jesus makes Himself present at every valid Mass, regardless of who believes and what emotional circumstances they find themselves in. And that’s the beauty of the Catholic faith: God is present in the transubstantiated bread and wine even if we don’t believe it. It still happens no matter what!
There’s one miracle in particular that I want to focus on: The Miracle at Lanciano.
During Holy Mass, after the two-fold consecration, the host was changed into live Flesh and the wine was changed into live Blood, which coagulated into five globules, irregular and differing in shape and size.
…
[A]nalyses were conducted with absolute and unquestionable scientific precision and they were documented with a series of microscopic photographs.
These analyses sustained the following conclusions:
- The Flesh is real Flesh. The Blood is real Blood.
- The Flesh and the Blood belong to the human species.
- The Flesh consists of the muscular tissue of the heart.
So basically, a priest was doubting the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist (just like you!) and the accidents of the bread and wine actually turned into flesh and blood! It always gets me. I mean, I don’t think it would have happened unless God wanted to tell us that the transubstantiated bread actually is His body and the wine actually is His blood. It’s amazing, really.
Last question: “How can I believe?”
That’s a hard one to answer. I don’t think there’s anything you can do about it on your own. However, ask the Holy Spirit to give you a spirit of knowledge and understanding the next time you’re in Eucharistic Adoration! Sometimes, things just ‘click,’ and you say to yourself, “yeah. That’s the Body of Christ.” It’s happened to me a bunch of times.
I’ll be praying for you!!
-Olivier
PS: Here’s a list of Eucharistic Miracles
Anonymous asked: I was really hoping for an answer because I'm genuinely trying to understand. Please help me do so.
We are answering it, don’t worry. It just takes some time to get a thorough answer to your question. :)
-Justin
I had a thought…it’s a bit of a stretch so bear with me.
The other day I was watching “The Legend of Korra” with my little brother. For anyone who doesn’t know it’s the sequel series to “Avatar: The Last Airbender”. I don’t watch much TV so I’ve never really seen either show.
After watching a few episodes I realized the plot line. The Equalists want to rid benders of their abilities.
One character in particular stood out to me. That Soto guy who made the cars. He joined the Equalists because he didn’t like benders. He didn’t like benders because one firebender killed his wife. I sympathized with this guy a bit, it’s understandable that you’d be extremely upset after your wife dying. However I (and any other viewer of this show) thought “But you can’t blame all the benders for what one did!” Then I noticed in both Avatar and in The Legend of Korra, many firebenders had killed parents, and yet people watching this show understand “most benders are not like that”.
Which brings me to my point. I feel as though (despite it being fiction) this parallels the scandal surrounding the Catholic Church. If you replace the groups as such, maybe you can see where I’m coming from:
Benders= Priests
Soto (Equalists)= Media/Society
Fans of the show (people who know benders are good)= Catholic Laity
A small number of Priests did some terrible things and suddenly all Priests are bad. It’s the same mentality that Soto guy had, one bender did something bad and suddenly all benders are evil.
But the reality is, that just like we know that most benders in the show are good, so too are most Catholic Priests.
-Javi
Anonymous asked: Can God see hell and the people in it?
Like the rest of the universe and everyone in it, the souls in hell (presuming there are any) are held in existence by God’s act of the will, by His knowledge of them. So basically, yes. The Church teaches that a human soul will never wink out of existence, so even those people who reject God are still part of his knowledge and creative act of the will that holds them, and the rest of the universe, in existence.
Anonymous asked: The priesthood and/or Catholic Church do not have a pedophile problem. They have a child abuse problem. There is a difference. While it is true that the Church is probably no more prone to child abuse than any other organization that deals with children, the Church has taken so much heat for it because there are many known incidents where the abuse was covered up or otherwise not reported properly. Instead of turning in abusive priests, the Church often just shuffled them around.
Because common knowledge of the day taught by psychologists was that these priests could be ‘trained’ or ‘reformed’ out of it. The Church was trying to heal these priests. Had the Church known what we know today, it would have never happened. The Church was operating with the best psychiatric knowledge of time.
However, school districts which have a child abuse cover-up going on right now, don’t have that problem. Why aren’t they taking any heat?
Obviously, it’s not because of what the Church did that makes it take heat, but what the Church is. The Church is a bastion of objective morality, and in a relativist world, that makes it an easy scapegoat.
-Niko
Anonymous asked: How come the Church seems to be trying to distance itself from the whole "pedophile priests" thing? Has the Pope ever said anything at all on that topic? And how come Catholicism as a whole isn't speaking out and saying that what those men did is wrong, and trying to get them in trouble for what they did? It just seems to me like the Church is really trying to pretend that nothing ever happened.
Yes the Pope has spoken about this topic, and in no way is the Church trying to pretend this didn’t happen.
As Phillip and Olivier pointed out, because of the recent scandals, the Church has become so much more strict and secure about who can get involved in ministries. When I went on Mission Trip last year, I had to go to a 3 hour long Virtus training on child abuse where they talked about real cases involving Priests. Not only that but they send you emails to continue your training and you can’t continue in the ministry if you don’t stay up to date with them.
The Church is not trying to distance itself from the scandal but from the stereotype that has come about from it. We acknowledge the fact that these things have happened and the Church is dealing with them. But we want to distance ourselves from the stereotype because in reality the stereotype doesn’t exist as I explained in this post. The majority of Priests are good holy men, we can’t blame them all for something only a few did.
-Javi
Anonymous asked: Side question: Why is the priesthood having a problem with pedophilia?
The priesthood is having a problem with pedophilia in the same way that teachers, coaches, ministers, parents, imams, rabbis and other adult demographics are having a problem with pedophilia.
Pedophilia, as Javi pointed out, is not a Catholic problem. It’s more of a “original-sin-entered-the-world-and-now-we-have-to-deal-with-it” kind of problem.
The major difference between the Church and other organizations, however, is that we are doing our absolute hardest to prevent it from happening. I, for one, have seen the dramatic increase in the hoops you have to jump through in order to serve in youth ministry. I have to get a criminal record check, sign waivers, do screening with the diocese, etc… just so I can work with minors.
I hope this answers your question!
-Olivier
Phillip’s 2¢ -When I explain to priests that I am in application with my diocese for priestly formation and tell them everything that is involved with the process, 9 out of 10 reactions are along the lines of, “Wow, we never had to do all of that back when we applied.” The application process has definitely become much more complex, from fingerprints sent to the FBI and Dept. of Justice to full-blown psychological assessments. Undoubtedly inspired by the abuse of the past decades, the Catholic Church is making a concerted effort to screen applicants thoroughly before they begin seminary, let alone are ordained.
I agree with Olivier, though: this is not only a problem of the Catholic priesthood, this is a problem of fallen humanity.
Anonymous asked: If priests are as happy being celibate as you claim they are, then how come so many of them feel the need to molest young children? Do you think that child molesting is part of living a happy life?
No I don’t think molesting children is part of a “happy life”. I think it’s terrible what happens to children when they are abused and it hurts me when the Church is in these kinds of things. The truth is, the statement that “so many priests do it” is a lie. I acknowledge that there have been incidents, too many if you ask me, but one cannot hear of some rare cases and then assume all Priests are pedophiles. We need to pray for our clergy that they may continue on their path to become holy men of God.
Here’s some quick facts about the amount of Priests that have been involved.
-Philip Jenkins, is a professor of history and religious studies at Penn State University, and has written a book on the topic. He estimates that 2% of priests sexually abuse youths and children.
-Sylvia M. Demarest, a lawyer from Texas has been tracking accusations against priests since the the mid-1990s. By 1996, she had identified 1,100 priests who had been accused of molesting children. She predicts that when she updates the list, the total will exceed 1,500 names. This represents about2.5% of the approximately 60,000 men who have been active priests in the U.S. since 1984.
-Conservative columnist Ann Coulter claimed, without citing references, that there are only 55 “exposed abusers” in a population of 45,000 priests. This is an abuse rate of 0.12%.
-Various news services reported that 200 Roman Catholic priests in the Philippines have been investigated for “sexual misconduct and abuses” over the past two decades. That would represent almost 3% of the total population of about 7,000 priests. However, it appears that misconduct includes many offenses, from child abuse to rape to keeping adult mistresses..
- Cynthia Stewart’s “The Catholic Church: A brief popular history.”
-In England according to
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/may/16/catholic-church-vatican-letter-child-abuse
The percentage is less than half of one percent.
Also, it’s not only in the Catholic Church that these things happen. Nor has the Church completely dismissed these incidents. She is doing a lot to try and avoid scandals like these.
Here are some other links about the how child abuse is not specifically a Church problem:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BxH6nGH-o4&list=PLA86DD3F621629FFC&index=56&feature=plpp_video
http://old.post-gazette.com/forum/comm/20020303edjenk03p6.asp
http://www.themediareport.com/fast-facts/
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/08/24/opinion/main1933687.shtml
“Catholicism isn’t about a handful of priests, who don’t know what it means to be a Priest” -Matthew Kelly
-Javi
Anonymous asked: I have been praying the Rosary over and over for about a year now for the intwntion of my parents' deepening of the faith (they go to Mass but don't really care much about their faith) and I havent been seeing like any results and this disheartens me. Why isn't God granting me this? He surely knows I truly want it and that my intwntions are good. Please help.
Speaking as someone whose parents no longer practice the faith at all, I can definitely empathize with you. Oftentimes I feel like my prayers for my parents’ conversions go unheard.
However, we must remember that the Lord works in His own time, and not our own. Someone once told me that God answers prayers in three ways - “yes,” “no,” and “not right now.” Also, our parents are humans, too, and they have free will to choose God or go against Him. That factors in because they have to choose God out of their own free will; God will not force them to come to Him because He is not like that.
I encourage you to persevere in prayer and not relent in interceding for them. St. Monica and St. Augustine have really comforted me in prayer for my parents’ conversion, personally. The Divine Mercy chaplet is beautiful, as well.
I hope this helped. Keep the faith and stay strong. God will answer your prayers in the right and perfect timing.
Grace be with you.
+ Jordan