Real Catholic Blog

It’s funny how things work. Okay, let me stop myself: “how things work” — how very secular. You see how long hours in the pits can make you forget what’s important? Which is exactly why this little story is relevant. It’s not “things” at work. It’s the Holy Spirit, of course!

Yesterday, when I got home, there was a message from the new Friday captain at the Adoration Chapel I attend. Make that, had been attending. A unrelenting work schedule (for the most part) and, admittedly, some disorganization om my part, over the last several months had prohibited me from attending my Friday afternoon hour. But finally, some very much looked-forward-to light at the end of the tunnel is upon men, as the schedule is about to relax, and so I have look forward to rededicating myself to a 3:00 Friday hour of adoration. So, what perfect timing to get such a message!

Then, I get an e-mail from my local Legion of Mary friend. They are having a Mass, Rosary and a potluck brunch, but she left off the flyer attachment. There was enough information in the e-mail, but I replied and asked her to send the flyer anyway. In her reply, was the below quote. Wow! I guess something — not a thing, the Holy Spirit — is telling me something, huh?

Adore and visit Jesus abandoned and forsaken by men in His Sacrament of love. Man has time for everything except for visits to his Lord and God, who is waiting and longing for him in His tabernacle. The streets and houses of amusement are filled with people. The house of God is deserted.

- St. Peter Julian Eymard (1811 – 1868)

Oh, so very true. Just as in my case with work. We all need time to for perspective. Nothing gives us that than time alone with the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament at Adoration. Silence. The Rosary. Reading meditations or Scripture. Especially during Lent. It will do you good in many ways. Not the least among them, remembering from whence all things come.

Catholics Come Home posted the video below on its YouTube Channel. It’s entitled, “The Bible proves Catholic beliefs that most protestants deny.” Although it is short, it is powerful, and debunks a few of the primary objections some protestants have toward Catholicism.

Of course, the fact that Catholic teaching comes from the Bible (and not from “some old men in Rome”) should not come as a surprise to anyone. Still, some people (Catholic and protestant) have been conditioned to believe otherwise. But, the fact is, every teaching of the Catholic Church is grounded in Scripture. Otherwise, we could not be one, true, apostolic, universal church. As CCH explains, the video proves Catholic teachings, using Biblical passages, that most protestants deny, including: 

Peter was the first Pope, Jesus instituted the Sacrament of Confession, The Bible alone is not sufficient, and justification by faith and works.

It should be noted that Catholics do consider protestants our separated brothers and sisters. And anyone who is Baptized “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” and believes in Jesus Christ is considered a Christian. But it is within the Catholic faith that the fullness of God’s revealed truth is found.

This video is a great primer on apologetics. Always remember, everything we believe is the Truth and it is the Truth because it is directly from Scripture. 

Today is the Feast Day of Saint Pio Of Pietrelcina, commonly known as Padre Pio. Born Francesco Forgione in 1887 to a devout family in the village of Pietrelcina, Italy, in which devotion flourished among all of its residents, he knew as early as age five he wanted to give his life to God in the priestly ministry (read more at EWTN.com).

He entered the monastery as a young teenager, but only after his father moved to the United States to make enough money to pay for the private tutor he would need to bring his education up to the level where the monastery would accept him. This is an extraordinary act of love, not only to his son, but to God. So although much has been written about Padre Pio —his stigmata inspired hundreds of thousands of pilgrims to seek the sacraments from him and attend the Masses at which he presided — by believers and non, it his parents from whom I draw the lesson.

Both were illiterate (imagine being illiterate in your language, not to mention moving to a new country) but had memorized Scripture and Bible stories, taught them to their children, as well as the Rosary and all other prayers. Early on his parents instilled in the Faith in him and his siblings. Not only that, but they lost two children at birth — what devotion and love for God!

At Baptism, the parents are called to raise their child in the Faith; they are reminded that their child’s first teachers of the Faith. How many parents take this responsibility in more than a perfunctory way? Is it one more thing they slough off to Sunday school or even the Catholic school? I hope there is a renaissance of parenting in the Catholic tradition, where parents teach their children from the very earliest of ages how to pray and about the Church and Faith, who actively involve themselves in their children’s formation. Teaching rights and wrongs in a civil sense, which is what some parents reduced their moral responsibility to, is irrelevent without formation and a foundation.

Padre Pio heard God’s call through his formation from his parents.