Portsmouth Roman Catholic

This is good sound Catholic Theology.   Every parish should give it priority in an age when there sense of sin no longer exists in many parts of the Church.

It was unfortunate, to be sure, that he constantly referred to the eucharistic host as a "wafer," "consecrated" or not. However, the distinction between a "wafer" and a "host," that some letter-writers were quick to insist upon, would be lost on non-Catholics (the  Globe reporter himself is not a Christian), and indeed on most Catholics as well. The constant use of the word "wafer" did lead some readers to conclude that the practice of eucharistic adoration is nothing less than a form of idolatry. How else explain why someone would sit or kneel hour after hour in adoration of a simple "wafer"?  It was also unfortunate that Paulson described the Catholic belief in the Real Presence (a technical theological and doctrinal term that did not appear in the story) as a "literal" transformation of bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus during Mass. The transformation (the medieval word was "transubstantiat...

The practice of eucharistic adoration began in the 12th century, when the Real Presence of Christ was widely rejected by heretics or misunderstood by poorly educated Catholics. The church saw eucharistic adoration as a way of reaffirming its faith in the Real Presence and of promoting renewed devotion to it. However, as time went on, eucharistic devotions, including adoration, drifted further and further away from their liturgical grounding in the Mass itself. Notwithstanding Pope Benedict XVI's personal endorsement of eucharistic adoration and the sporadic restoration of the practice in the archdiocese of Boston and elsewhere, it is difficult to speak favorably about the devotion today. Now that most Catholics are literate and even well-educated, the Mass is in the language of the people (i.e, the vernacular), and its rituals are relatively easy to understand and follow, there is little or no need for extraneous eucharistic devotions. The Mass itself provides all that a Cat...

So now we know why so many Tabernacles were removed from the Altars.   Because we should be more intelligent.

The above is a picture of me in the Slipper Chappell at Walsingham praying before the statue of Our Lady of Walsingham.   Walsingham was once the National Shrine of Our Lady in England and thousands travelled there not just from all over England but from the Continent of Europe.   It was King Richard II who because of the love and dedication that English people had for Our Lady, especially Our Lady of Walsingham who first dedicated England as the Dowry of Mary.   The Reformation led to King Henry VIII destroying all shrines to Our Lady in England.   As a young man married to Catherine of Aragon he had longed for a son, but when his wife gave birth to one he would travel to shrines like Walsingham to give thanks, only to find the boy had died when he returned home.    His love for Mary turned to a terrible hate. The Abbey was destroyed and the Slipper Chappell was turned to many uses until an inquisitive lady noticed that the barn, one of its uses, was...

I was in my mid twenties when 'Humanae Vitae' was published.   For months before I was being told by Protestants and Catholics that the Church was going to allow contraception.   Not that this meant anything because the use of contraceptives was already being used by many Catholic couples.   An approval by the Church would have brought them some satisfaction.   Yet I knew it would not happen.  There was a view that contraception was something new, a challenge for the Church in the modern world, but this was not so.  Contraception goes back to long before Christ came on earth and indeed the practice of contraception was one of the challenges of the early Church.   I remember when the 'no' verdict came through, there was a great gathering of 'men' on the steps of Westminster Cathedral who were protesting against the decision and many priests came to their defence, they did hot say the teaching was wrong but for the first time used the phrase that Catholi...

53. Especially on Sundays and feasts of obligation there is to be restored, after the Gospel and the homily, "the common prayer" or "the prayer of the faithful." By this prayer, in which the people are to take part, intercession will be made for holy Church, for the civil authorities, for those oppressed by various needs, for all mankind, and for the salvation of the entire world [ 39 ]. 54. In Masses which are celebrated with the people, a suitable place may be allotted to their mother tongue. This is to apply in the first place to the readings and "the common prayer," but also, as local conditions may warrant, to those parts which pertain to the people, according to the norm laid down in Art. 36 of this Constitution. Nevertheless steps should be taken so that the faithful may also be able to say or to sing together in Latin those parts of the Ordinary of the Mass which pertain to them.  And wherever a more extended use of the mother tongue within ...

The Fathers Know Best is the book by Jimmy Akin that I have been consulting in my study of the Early Church.   Jimmy was a Protestant Minister who by giving a more in depth study of the early Church found to its surprise that it was very Catholic and so converted to the Catholic Church.   As I studied the Mass Jimmy quoted a Protestant scholar J.N.D Kelly who had this to say about the Mass in the early Church. ..the Eucharist was regarded as the distinctively Christian Sacrifice......Malachi's prediction (1.10-11) that the Lord would reject  Jewish sacrifices and instead would have a 'pure offering' made to him by the Gentiles in every place was seized upon by Christians as a prophecy of the Eucharist.    Didache indeed actually applies the term   thus or sacrifice to the Eucharist. It was natural for early Christians to think of the Eucharist as a sacrifice.  The fulfillment of prophecy demanded a solemn Christian offering, and the rite itself was...