Parents, Your Role in Catholic Education is Critical!

The home is the first school!

Fr. Hardon used to say that Catholic home schooling families were the monasteries of modern times. Why did he say that? Because education in the secular world is so corrupted that if real learning is to be kept alive the "schools" must be found elsewhere.

The Church teaches that parents are the primary educators of their children, and this is nowhere more true than in the parents' responsibility for the religious education in the home. As a long-time catechist, I can testify to the absolute truth that a CCD teacher cannot in one hour a week effectively instruct children in the faith. If the children's primary exposure to doctrine is in the after-school program that is continuously interrupted by weather, use of the building for other purposes, holiday performances, etc. the child will be a donkey in Catholic truth. The voice in the Church classroom will be drowned out by the much louder voices in the culture: TV, YouTube, sports and other activities, social media, etc. There's no contest. The world wins!

Tell Us Something We Don't Know, Pope Emeritus Benedict.

Pope Emeritus Benedict breaks silence: speaks of ‘deep crisis’ facing Church post-Vatican II

Two big problems according to the former pope:

1) People go to hell, (Somebody tell Bishop Robert Barron!) but modern Catholics have lost the sense of sin and the necessity of baptism for salvation. "Without this attentiveness to salvation, the Faith loses its foundation," Pope Benedict says. 

2) Because of the "evolution" of the dogma, "Outside the Church there is no salvation," which has essentially been dumped since Vatican II, the Church has lost its missionary zeal. In Pope Benedict's words, “any motivation for a future missionary commitment was removed.” (Amen to that. I'm okay; you're okay; we're all okay!)

Bishop Loverde Ignites Controversy Over Faith Requirement

I've been delinquent in not recognizing Bishop Loverde's action to require catechists to sign an oath of fidelity. It occurred several months ago. I was waiting to see if the same requirement would be levied on the adult teaching groups such as the Continuing Christian Development Institute which is notorious for featuring well-known dissenters as teachers. Writing a letter to ask Bishop Loverde about that is on my to-do list. Please pray for him. One of the reasons the adults teaching the kids are off-base is because their instruction is. Which comes first after all...the chicken or the egg? Scrambled chicken brains = scrambled eggs.

Do You Want to Leave Me Too?

Today's gospel is from John chapter 6, the teaching on the Holy Eucharist, the "Bread of Life." Jesus' meaning is unmistakable for those "with eyes to see and ears to hear." Only by ignoring what He says, can anyone believe that He is speaking in symbolic terms.

Say a prayer to the Holy Spirit and listen to His words:

"I myself am the living bread come down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread he shall live forever; the bread I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world.... [At this point the Jews begin to murmur and quarrel about His meaning so He reaffirms it.] Let me solemnly assure you, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you."

Does this sound like symbolic language? Jesus goes on becoming more and more explicit, "He who feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has life eternal, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood real drink. The man who feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him....Unlike your ancestors who ate and died nonetheless, the man who feeds on this bread shall live forever."

One must be willfully disbelieving to think this language is talking about a symbolic meal. How can that be? Many disciples left Him because of his insistence that His "flesh is real food" and His "blood is real drink." Why would they leave if He was speaking symbolically? And why do so many Christians believe this misinterpretation when their own common sense should speak the truth to their hearts?

Jesus was not a liar. When He says He is the Messiah Christians believe Him. When He says He is the Son of God; they believe Him. Why don't they believe His profession that "My flesh is real food?"

This is the essence of the Catholic doctrine of the REAL PRESENCE and it is the meaning of the daily bread we beg from God in the Our Father. God loves us so much that He remains with us today on the earth in every tabernacle in the world and He comes down from heaven at the Consecration of every Catholic Mass. He invites us to become part of His mystical body by eating His flesh and drinking His blood so that we might become more united to Him and "live forever."

When He showed His wounds to Thomas the week after His resurrection Jesus said, "Be not disbelieving, but believe." Today He calls all men in the same way to have faith in His Real Presence on the earth. Won't you respond as Thomas did? "My Lord and My God."

"If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts."