My Catholic Life

When I lived in Tennessee I did not have a car to get to work. My job was about 1 ½ miles from were I lived so I walked there almost every day. Rain or shine, cold and snow, I never missed a scheduled day in 2 ½ years. Now and then somebody I knew would stop and give me a ride. On occasion my manager would leave the store and come and get me if the weather was really bad. Mostly I walked. Even on my days off, to go shopping, do my laundry or go to the bank, I would walk. I usually spent the time as I walked praying, conversing with the Lord and joining my footsteps to the footsteps of the Lord as he walked this earth. A good part of the walk to work was on an uphill grade but some parts were easier than others. I started out walking through the park across the street from my apartment which was relatively flat. After the park I had a choice. There was an extremely steep hill a couple of blocks long and then there was the way that was just a little longer but sloped at a much easie...

The lips of an adulteress drip with honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil; but in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, as sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death, to the nether world her steps attain; lest you see before you the road to life, her paths will ramble, you know not where. Pr 5:3-6 When most people hear the word adultery they think of the sex thing. That a married person went out and had sex with someone other than their spouse. It does happen that way. In the bible adultery is used to describe the unfaithfulness of the people of God. It’s synonyms are unfaithfulness, disloyalty, infidelity, falseness, treachery, betrayal, deceitfulness, faithlessness, breaking faith. When you have experienced the impact of adultery you come to the realization that the sex thing was the end result but the real thing was something else and that it doesn’t occur just within marriage. It doesn’t come about through sex, it comes about through words. Unfaithfulness is when s...

The Eucharist. We talk about transubstantiation. We talk about matter, form, substance and species. When you come right down to it, though, you just have to say that it is a miracle. How else does bread and wine become the very body and blood, soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ except that it is a miracle? We cannot perceive it with our senses. At the consecration there is no thunderclap, no voice from heaven, no heavenly rays of light. Now and then there have been some astounding, miraculous manifestations of Eucharistic phenomenon where it takes on the appearance of flesh and blood, or there is emanating light etc. At any given Mass on any given day, however, appearance is not what we can rely on. In what, then, do we place our confidence that bread and wine become the body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ? In the fact that Jesus said so. Jesus said it, we take him at his word and we believe it. For what else is the basis of Christianity except that we believe w...