Catholic Church

By Doug Mainwaring, LifeSiteNews - In an amazing moment caught on camera at the end of a press conference where the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives explained that she and her colleagues will soon begin drafting articles of impeachment, Nancy Pelosi lashed out at a reporter who had asked, “Do you hate the President, Madam Speaker?”… “I was raised in a Catholic house. We don’t hate anybody,” claimed Pelosi, still wagging her finger. “Not anybody in the world.”

By Austin Ruse, Crisis Magazine - (Our pastor) published a lovely column about the “functional and sacramental purposes” of the altar rail. “It distinguishes between the sanctuary and the nave and the priest from the people. It harkens back to the Jewish understanding of the Holy of Holies where the people are invited to confidently step up to the very edge of the Holy of Holies in reverence.” Without an altar rail, he wrote, “the people approach the Communion station and, after receiving Communion, hurriedly depart. A panoramic devotional view of a beautiful sanctuary, like the splendor of decorations adorning a wedding feast, is thus unlikely. The reception of Communion is individualistic, not communal.”

By Msgr. Charles Pope - Continuing a look at lesser-known Advent Hymns, we come to the marvelous and sweeping hymn Veni Redemptor Gentium (Come Thou Redeemer of the Nations), written by St. Ambrose in the 4th century. It is more widely known by the title “Come Thou Redeemer of the Earth.” Sadly, it is not often sung in Catholic parishes today. Most Catholics I’ve asked have never even heard of it… One of the beautiful things about the ancient Latin hymns is how richly theological they are. Not content to merely describe an event, they give sweeping theological vision and delve into its more hidden mysteries.

By Julie Onderko, Catholic Exchange - The Blessed Virgin Mary is all things to God: she is a daughter of faith to God the Father; she is the spouse of the Holy Spirit; and she is the Mother of Jesus. In that sense, we can accurately say in the words of the Council of Ephesus that she is the Mother of God. But even with her favored relationship with the Trinity, her obvious spiritual superiority, Mary needed Joseph… There has never been a married couple in all of history with a more important mission than the Blessed Virgin Mary and her husband, Joseph of Nazareth. They had a child to raise, and this was no ordinary child. He was God incarnate…