March 2016 - Simple Catholic Truth

The Triduum

Well, in the better late than never category I offer this post. I was hoping to publish this early last week but was delayed slightly in securing permissions from the original authors. My bad for getting a late start.

I Triduum particularly like this presentation because 1) it is very graphical, intuitive and easy to understand and 2) that for each of the three days, Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday the information is presented in three categories: What happened that day, What you’ll see at Church, and Live the Day.

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Hallelujah – Easter Version

“Hallelujah” is a song written by Canadian recording artist Leonard Cohen, originally released in 1984. Interpretations vary but most agree it is a commentary on broken love.

In 2006 Kelly Mooney, a Catholic musician from Rhode Island, wrote a set of lyrics adapted to Cohen’s original melody. In 2010 she secured the mechanical rights from Cohen’s publishers so that today we can now hear this most beautiful song about the greatest love story of all time.

Have a Blessed Easter!

[p.s. you might have to close any pop-up adds that may appear – sorry]

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RCIA – Did you know?

Holy Week is a most incredible time of the liturgical year. Palm Sunday and the triumphant entry into Jerusalem followed by the stark contrast of the Passion of our Lord and His glorious Resurrection. But as we walk thru our ‘routine’ of Holy Thursday, and Good Friday and Easter its easy to forget another great victory. At Easter Vigil the Body of Christ will grow as our Catechumens receive the Sacraments of Christian Initiation and the Candidates are received into Full Communion with His Holy Church. As a cradle Catholic, I realized that I really didn’t know much about the RCIA process that brings people to Christ so I thought I’d share a quick summary of what I found.

The Simple Catholic Snapshots:

RCIA is short for Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults
RCIA is a process where adults (and non-infant children) are brought into the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church
Inquiry, Catechumenate, Purification and Preparation, and Mystagogy are the four phases of the RCIA program.
These four RCIA phases are a good model of basic faith development so understanding them can help us in our Life in Christ.

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7 Deadly Sins – 7 Lively Virtues: Wrap-up

Last night was the final session of our 7 Deadly Sins – 7 Lively Virtues Adult Faith Formation class at Church. It has been a great seven weeks and I’m going to miss the probing discussions with the group. Because of scheduling constraints, we combined the last two topics namely Gluttony/Fasting and Lust/Chastity into one night. In this post I’ll give a very quick summary of these two important topics. Finally, I’ll provide a summary table to help remember the 7 Sins, the 7 Virtues and how to apply the lessons learned to our daily lives.

The Simple Catholic Snapshots:

Gluttony Healty Eating

Gluttony is the Immoderate Pleasure in Food or Drink
Gluttony is a Deadly Sin Since it Replaces the Desire for God with the Desire for Physical Pleasure
The Antidote to Gluttony is Fasting: Take Control of Your Physical Desires

lust_bust rings

Lust is Treating Another Person not as an End, but Rather as a Means to Personal Pleasure
Lust is a Sin Because It Is Love of Self Instead of Total Self-Giving Love as God Loves
The Antidote to Lust is Chastity
Chastity is a Virtue of Character, it is NOT a Behavior

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