Saint of the Day for August 23: St. Rose of Lima
August 23, 2023Mary’s Queenship Hailed by Fulton Sheen and Friends, by Joseph Pronechen
August 23, 2023
By Fr. Shenan J. Boquet, Human Life International, August 21, 2023
Father Shenan J. Boquet was ordained in 1993 and is a priest of the Houma-Thibodaux Roman Catholic Diocese in Louisiana, his home state, where he served before joining HLI as its President in August 2011. …
The word “culture” has an interesting history. At the root of the word is the Latin word “cultus.” This is the Latin term from which we derive the word “cult.”
“Cult” is a word that has negative connotations. It suggests a group of wide-eyed, fanatical followers of a dangerous belief system created by a cult leader. However, the Latin word cultus has a much broader meaning. Originally, the term had a close connection to farming. It referred to the process of fostering or promoting growth. Here, you can think of the word “cultivate,” which comes from the same root. In the same way that a famer cultivates a field, so also a culture cultivates a people.
Importantly, however, the word also refers to the established religious practices of a people. As one Latin dictionary says, some of the meanings of the Latin term cultus are “worship, devotion/observance; form of worship.” …
