Category: +Religion

Chapel Veils, Understanding Scripture, Tithing and Debt, and More!

In this episode of Catholic Answers Live (July 12, 2012), I take on the following questions:

  • What is the history of chapel veils? Why did women stop wearing them?
  • What is the best resource for helping Catholics understand Scripture?
  • If I have a lot of debt, should I still tithe 10%? How do we know when to stop tithing and start paying our debts?
  • Do you think the laity’s attitude toward the priest is still that he is a member of the community, or do people just go to him for the sacraments and then ignore him?
  • What must I do to be saved?
  • In The Passion of the Christ, Satan asks, “How can one man bear the full burden of sin?” — how do Catholics address this question?
  • Where can I find proof that the Bible comes from the Catholic Church?
  • What can I do to help my daughter who is dating a Muslim stay strong in her faith?
  • How long does the sacrament of the anointing of the sick last? Can you receive it more than once?
  • What resource do you recommend for information about the permanent diaconate?
  • Is it disrespectful to refrain from bowing during the Nicene Creed and from striking your breast during the Penitential Rite?
  • My 24-year-old son always talks about the Vatican’s “corrupt” police force — can you tell me anything about this?
  • If I enter into the Catholic Church with a lot of spiritual “baggage,” will that be taken care of before I join, or do I bring it to confession after I become Catholic?

Click the “Play” icon to listen!

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Can You Pour out the Precious Blood?

When the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ at Mass, the change is permanent. It remains so long as the appearances of bread and wine do.

This has implications for how we treat the consecrated elements after Mass is over. Hosts that remain are stored in a Tabernacle, but what about the Precious Blood?

It cannot normally be reserved (the only exception being when it will be taken to the sick, and then special precautions have to be taken to keep it from spilling).

If there is a quantity of the Precious Blood left and it cannot be reserved, what are you supposed to do?

Pouring the Precious Blood into a Sacrarium?

Some have suggested pouring it out–not out on the ground or down an ordinary drain but down a special kind of sink known as a sacrarium.

Sacraria are typically found in the sacristy of a church, and they differ from an ordinary sink in a crucial respect: Instead of draining into the local sewer system, they drain down into the earth.

Sacraria are used for a variety of purposes, including these:

  1. To dispose of ashes from objects that have been blessed and then destroyed by fire
  2. To dispose of the water that has been used to wash the altar linens
  3. To dispose of water that has been used to dissolve small particles of the host
  4. To dispose of water that has been used to clean up places where the Precious Blood has spilled

Except for the first example, which deals with the ashes of former blessed objects, the other examples cited deal with water that is known to have or may have come into contact with the consecrated elements (since small particles of the host might be on the altar linens).

Given that, can you use the sacrarium to dispose of the Precious Blood itself? After all, it’s not like you’re pouring it into the sewer. You would be pouring it into something specially intended to deal with the remains of sacred things, right? So can you do this?

No. You can’t.

Throwing Away the Consecrated Species

It’s one thing to pour water into the sacrarium, even if that water has been used to dissolve the consecrated species. In that case, the appearances of bread and wine no longer remain, and so the Real Presence does not remain, either. It is another thing entirely to use it to throw away the consecrated species themselves.

According to the Code of Canon Law,

Canon 1367  A person who throws away the consecrated species or who takes them or retains them for a sacrilegious purpose incurs an automatic (latae sententiae) excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See; if a cleric, he can be punished with another penalty including dismissal from the clerical state.

 This offense is one of those graviora delicta (graver offenses) that is reserved to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, as noted in the instruction Redemptoinis Sacramentum, which provides:

[172.] Graviora delicta against the sanctity of the Most August Sacrifice and Sacrament of the Eucharist are to be handled in accordance with the ‘Norms concerning graviora delicta reserved to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’, namely:

a) taking away or retaining the consecrated species for sacrilegious ends, or the throwing them away;

Pouring the Precious Blood into a sacrarium counts as throwing away the consecrated species, and so it cannot be done.

It Is Explicitly Forbidden

Recently I was questioned on this point by a member of the Secret Information Club, who had gotten the communique I send to members on the worst liturgical abuses (the graviora delicta). Citing the section where I said one can’t pour the Precious Blood into a sacrarium, the member wrote:

I believe you may have an error regarding the pouring of the Precious Blood.  It’s forbidden to pour it down the sewer system, not the other way around.

I understand that people have been given incorrect information on this in some parishes, and there is a difference between a sacrarium and a sink that drains into the sewer system, but the point remains. In fact, pouring the Precious Blood into a sacrarium is explicitly forbidden in Remptionis Sacramentum, which provides:

[107.] In accordance with what is laid down by the canons, “one who throws away the consecrated species or takes them away or keeps them for a sacrilegious purpose, incurs a latae sententiae [automatic] excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See; a cleric, moreover, may be punished by another penalty, not excluding dismissal from the clerical state”.

To be regarded as pertaining to this case is any action that is voluntarily and gravely disrespectful of the sacred species.

Anyone, therefore, who acts contrary to these norms, for example casting the sacred species into the sacrarium or in an unworthy place or on the ground, incurs the penalties laid down. 

The good news, for anyone who has done this innocently not knowing that they shouldn’t, is that the excommunication does not apply to them (CIC 1323, no. 2).

But the rule remains: No pouring the Precious Blood down a sacrarium.

What You Are Supposed to Do

The actual answer is that any remaining amount of the Precious Blood should be consumed. Section 107 of Redemptionis Sacramentum continues:

Furthermore all will remember that once the distribution of Holy Communion during the celebration of Mass has been completed, the prescriptions of the Roman Missal are to be observed, and in particular, whatever may remain of the Blood of Christ must be entirely and immediately consumed by the Priest or by another minister, according to the norms, while the consecrated hosts that are left are to be consumed by the Priest at the altar or carried to the place for the reservation of the Eucharist.

Want to Learn More?

This is precisely the kind of thing I cover in my Secret Information Club mailings. If you’re not already a member, you can learn more at www.SecretInfoClub.com or sign up using this form:

Be sure to email me at jimmy@secretinfoclub.com if you have any trouble.

The Weekly Benedict: 8 July, 2012

This  version of The Weekly Benedict covers material released in the last week from 26 June – 1 July 2012  (subscribe here; get as an eBook version for your Kindle, iPod, iPad, Nook, or other eBook reader):

Angelus

General Audience

Speeches

Final Solution? Infant Circumcision Outlawed In Germany!

Sometimes today you encounter stories that are truly jaw-dropping, like this one being reported by the Washington Post.

Headlined, “The Crime of Circumcision,” it deals with a ruling issued by a judge in Germany that prohibits Jews from circumcizing their baby boys:

A district judge in Cologne, Germany, recently ruled that ritual circumcision is a crime, violating “the fundamental right of the child to bodily integrity,” which outweighs other parental and religious rights. “This change runs counter to the interests of the child,” the court concluded, “who can decide his religious affiliation himself later in life.”

Circumcision is a rite central to the Jewish faith and is, in fact, the rite by which a male becomes part of the Jewish community.

The circumcision of infants is also expressly commanded by Jewish law, which requires the circumcision of baby boys on the eighth day after birth.

Unsurprisingly, the decision is being condemened by religious folks:

German religious figures from all the Abrahamic faiths criticized the Cologne ruling, with particular outrage expressed by Jewish leaders. ­Dieter Graumann, head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, called it “outrageous and insensitive” and warned that a general application of the decision would “coldbloodedly force Judaism into illegality.”

KEEP READING.

The Weekly Benedict: 1 July, 2012

This  version of The Weekly Benedict covers material released in the last week from 20 June – 29 June 2012  (subscribe here; get as an eBook version for your Kindle, iPod, iPad, Nook, or other eBook reader):

Angelus

General Audience

Homilies

Why Are There Unicorns in the Bible?

If you read some older English translations of the Bible, like the Catholic Douay-Rheims (pub. 1609) or the Protestant King James (pub. 1611) you come across some passages that seem a bit mysterious. For example in the Douay-Rheims, in Psalms 91:11 we read:

But my horn shall be exalted like that of the unicorn.

In the equivalent verse in the King James (Ps. 92:10) we read:

But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn.

In reading such passages, you might think, what on earth does that mean? In these cases, the horn is being used as a symbol of strength or vigor. The Psalmist is saying that thanks to God, I’m going to be given a lot of strength and vigor, so praise God.

Fine, but what’s this stuff about unicorns? I, mean does this mean unicorns are real?

In this video we go to the heart of the matter and reveals the startling truth about what the Bible might be referring to in these passages.

We also look at how the word “unicorn” got into these passages in the first place and what ancient but real creature the translators may have been referring to. (Unless you’ve heard this before, it can come as a real surprise.

Here’s the video!

If you’re reading this by email, click here to view the video.

By the way, if you haven’t joined the Secret Information Club, there’s lots of cool stuff waiting for you for FREE. You should click here to learn more or use this form to sign up:

If you have any difficulty, just email me at jimmy@secretinfoclub.com.

I’ve also got a transcript of the unicorn episode that you can read:

And you can listen to or download the audio podcast version. (Just click the “Play” icon to listen.)

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The Church Year: June 30, 2012

NOTE: The Church Year is moving to its own web site, which will enable it to grow an audience that is specifically interested in the kind of information it presents. The new website is www.LiturgicalDay.com. Visit there for the full story and to sign up to receive it by email every day starting July 1!

Today is Saturday of the 12th week of Ordinary Time. The liturgical color is green.

In the Extraordinary Form, this is the season after Pentecost, and the liturgical color for today is red.

 

Saints & Celebrations:

On June 30, in the Ordinary Form, we celebrate the First martyrs of the Holy Roman Church. It is an optional memorial.

In the Extraordinary Form, we celebrate St. Paul, apostle. It is a Class III day.

In the Extraordinary Form, we also celebrate St. Peter, apostle. This celebration is a commemoration.

If you’d like to learn more about the First Martyrs of the Holy Roman Church, you can click here.

If you’d like to learn more about St. Paul, you can click here.

If you’d like to learn more about St. Peter, you can click here.

For information about other saints, blesseds, and feasts celebrated today, you can click here.

 

Readings:

To see today’s readings in the Ordinary Form, you can click here.

Or you can click play to listen to them:

 

Devotional Information:

According to the Holy See’s Directory on Popular Piety:

176. The Christological titles associated with the Redeemer are particularly associated with the mystery of the Blood of Christ: Christ has redeemed us from an ancient slavery by his most precious and innocent Blood (cf. 1 Pt 1, 19) and “purifies us of sin” (1 John 1, 17);High Priest “of all blessings to come” since Christ “has entered the sanctuary once and for all, taking with him not the blood of goats and bull calves, but his own blood, having won an eternal redemption for us”; faithful Witness vindicating the blood of the martyrs (cf Ap 6, 10) “who were slain on account of the word of God, for witnessing to it” (cf. Aps 6, 9); of King, who as God, “reigns from the wood of the Cross”, which is adorned with the purple of his own Blood; Spouse and Lamb of God in whose Blood the members of the Church -the Bride- have washed their garments (cf. Ap 7, 14; Eph 5, 25-27).

The Church Year: June 29, 2012

NOTE: The Church Year is going to be moving to its own web site, which will enable it to grow an audience that is specifically interested in the kind of information it presents. The new website is www.LiturgicalDay.com. Visit there for the full story and to sign up to receive it by email every day starting July 1!

Today is Friday of the 12th week of Ordinary Time. The liturgical color is red.

In some parts of the world (like England and Wales but not the United States or Canada), this is a holy day of obligation (St.s Peter and Paul, Apostles). If you live in a place where it is a holy day of obligation, be sure to go to Mass if you didn’t go yesterday evening.

In the Extraordinary Form, this is the season after Pentecost.

 

Saints & Celebrations:

On June 29, in both the Ordinary and the Extraordinary Form, we celebrate St.s Peter and Paul, apostles. In the Ordinary Form, it is a solemnity, and in the Extraordinary Form, it is a Class I day.

If you’d like to learn more about St.s Peter and Paul, you can click here.

For information about other saints, blesseds, and feasts celebrated today, you can click here.

 

Readings:

To see today’s readings in the Ordinary Form, you can click here.

Or you can click play to listen to them:

 

Devotional Information:

We will now begin a brief series looking at devotion to the Precious Blood of Christ. According to the Holy See’s Directory on Popular Piety:

The Most Precious Blood of Christ

175. Biblical revelation, both in its figurative stage in the Old Testament and in its perfect and fulfilled stage in the New Testament, connects blood very closely with life, and authentically with death, exodus and the Pasch, with the priesthood and sacrificial worship, with redemption and the covenant.

The Old Testament figures associated with blood and its redemptive significance are fulfilled perfectly in Christ, especially in his Passion, Death and Resurrection. Thus the mystery of the Blood of Christ is to be found at the very centre of the faith and of our salvation.

The mystery of the Saving Blood of Christ recalls and refers to:

  • the Incarnation of the Word (cf. John 1, 14) and Christ’s becoming a member of the people of the Old Testament through circumcision (Lk 2,21);
  • the Biblical image of the Lamb abounds with implication: “The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1,29), in which Isaiah’s Suffering Servant image (Is 53) is also to be found, carries upon himself the sins of mankind (cf Is 53, 4-5); the “Paschal Lamb”, symbol of Israel’s redemption (cf. At 8, 31-35; 1 Cor 5, 7; 1 Pet 1, 18-20);
  • the “chalice of the passion” of which Jesus spoke in allusion to his imminent redemptive death, when he asked the sons of Zebede: “Can you drink this chalice that I must drink?” (Mt 20, 22; cf Mk 10, 38) and the chalice of the agony in the garden of olives (cf Lk 22, 42-43) which was accompanied by th Lord’s sweating blood (cf. Lk 22, 44);
  • the Eucharistic chalice, under the form of wine, contains the Blood of the New Covenant poured out for the remission of sins; is a memorial of the Lord’s Pasch (1 Cor 11, 25); and the drink of salvation according to the Lord’s own words: “he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood shall have life eternal and I shall raise him up on the last day” (John 6, 54);
  • the event of the Lord’s death, since by pouring out his Blood on the Cross, Christ reconciled heaven and earth (cf Col 1, 20);
  • the lance which transfixed the immolated Lamb, from whose open side flowed blood and water (cf John 19, 34), a sign of the redemption that had been achieved, and of the sacramental life of the Church -blood and water, Baptism and Eucharist-, symbol of the Church born from the side of Christ dying on the Cross.

What Can St. Catherine Teach Us About Purgatory?

As someone who came to the Catholic faith from Evangelicalism, one of the doctrines that I had to deal with was purgatory.

Upon starting work as an apologist, I had to dig even deeper into the subject, and I discovered that over the course of time it has been understood in different ways.

One of my early helps in understanding the doctrine was the thought of St. Catherine of Genoa, whose thought on the subject as presented in the Treatise on Purgatory and the Dialogues Between the Body and the Soul have proved increasingly influential over time. In particular, elements of it have played a role in the thought of Joseph Ratzinger (back before he was pope) and in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

I was therefore delighted when I read Pope Benedict’s general audience on St. Catherine of Genoa, in which he touches on her contribution to this subject.

He begins by noting that, although she did have a profound mystical experience connected with her conversion, she did not have revelations about the souls in purgatory. He states:

It is important to note that Catherine, in her mystical experience, never received specific revelations on purgatory or on the souls being purified there. Yet, in the writings inspired by our Saint, purgatory is a central element and the description of it has characteristics that were original in her time [General Audience, Jan. 12, 2011].

One of the original things about St. Catherine’s thought on purgatory concerned the way it tended to be envisioned as a place:

The first original passage concerns the “place” of the purification of souls. In her day it was depicted mainly using images linked to space: a certain space was conceived of in which purgatory was supposed to be located.

Catherine, however, did not see purgatory as a scene in the bowels of the earth: for her it is not an exterior but rather an interior fire. This is purgatory: an inner fire.

She also understood the fire of purgatory differently than some other:

The Saint speaks of the Soul’s journey of purification on the way to full communion with God, starting from her own experience of profound sorrow for the sins committed, in comparison with God’s infinite love (cf. Vita Mirabile, 171v).

We heard of the moment of conversion when Catherine suddenly became aware of God’s goodness, of the infinite distance of her own life from this goodness and of a burning fire within her. And this is the fire that purifies, the interior fire of purgatory. Here too is an original feature in comparison with the thought of her time.

Furthermore:

In fact, she does not start with the afterlife in order to recount the torments of purgatory — as was the custom in her time and perhaps still is today — and then to point out the way to purification or conversion. Rather our Saint begins with the inner experience of her own life on the way to Eternity.

“The soul”, Catherine says, “presents itself to God still bound to the desires and suffering that derive from sin and this makes it impossible for it to enjoy the beatific vision of God”. Catherine asserts that God is so pure and holy that a soul stained by sin cannot be in the presence of the divine majesty (cf. Vita Mirabile, 177r).

Pope Benedict then makes an observation that goes straight to the heart:

We too feel how distant we are, how full we are of so many things that we cannot see God. The soul is aware of the immense love and perfect justice of God and consequently suffers for having failed to respond in a correct and perfect way to this love; and love for God itself becomes a flame, love itself cleanses it from the residue of sin.

Pope Benedict has more to say about St. Catherine’s teaching on purgatory, and on her life in general, but I’ll let you read that for yourself.

In summary, he says:

With her life St Catherine teaches us that the more we love God and enter into intimacy with him in prayer the more he makes himself known to us, setting our hearts on fire with his love.

I’ve been working on a special mailing for the Secret Information Club where I “interview” John Paul II on the subject of purgatory. In the interview, I pose questions, and the answers are taken from his writing. Current Secret Club members will get it automatically.

Purgatory is a controversial subject that Catholics are often attacked over, so if you’d like to receive the special interview with John Paul II on purgatory, just sign up for the Secret Information Club by the end of Friday, June 29th, and you’ll have it in your inbox on Saturday morning.

You should sign up using this handy sign up form:

If you have any difficulty, just email me at jimmy@secretinfoclub.com.

The Church Year: June 28, 2012

Today is Thursday of the 12th week of Ordinary Time. The liturgical color is red.

Note: In some parts of the world (like England and Wales but not the United States or Canada), tomorrow is a holyday of obligation (St.s Peter and Paul, Apostles). If you live in one of those places, be sure to go to Mass either this evening or tomorrow.

In the Extraordinary Form, this is the season after Pentecost, and the liturgical color for today is violet.

 

Saints & Celebrations:

On June 28, in the Ordinary Form, we celebrate St. Irenaeus, bishop and martyr. It is a memorial.

In the Extraordinary Form, we celebrate the Vigil of St.s Peter and Paul, apostles. It is a vigil.

If you’d like to learn more about St. Irenaeus, you can click here.

If you’d like to learn more about the Vigil of St.s Peter and Paul, you can click here.

For information about other saints, blesseds, and feasts celebrated today, you can click here.

 

Readings:

To see today’s readings in the Ordinary Form, you can click here.

Or you can click play to listen to them:

 

Devotional Information:

According to the Holy See’s Letter on Some Aspects of Christian Meditation:

28. Some physical exercises automatically produce a feeling of quiet and relaxation, pleasing sensations, perhaps even phenomena of light and of warmth, which resemble spiritual well-being. To take such feelings for the authentic consolations of the Holy Spirit would be a totally erroneous way of conceiving the spiritual life. Giving them a symbolic significance typical of the mystical experience, when the moral condition of the person concerned does not correspond to such an experience, would represent a kind of mental schizophrenia which could also lead to psychic disturbance and, at times, to moral deviations.

That does not mean that genuine practices of meditation which come from the Christian East and from the great non-Christian religions, which prove attractive to the man of today who is divided and disoriented, cannot constitute a suitable means of helping the person who prays to come before God with an interior peace, even in the midst of external pressures.

It should, however, be remembered that habitual union with God, namely that attitude of interior vigilance and appeal to the divine assistance which in the New Testament is called “continuous prayer,”34 is not necessarily interrupted when one devotes oneself also, according to the will of God, to work and to the care of one’s neighbor. “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God,” the Apostle tells us (1 Cor 10:31). In fact, genuine prayer, as the great spiritual masters teach, stirs up in the person who prays an ardent charity which moves him to collaborate in the mission of the Church and to serve his brothers for the greater glory of God.35