Always be prepared! (For Sunday Mass, that is!)

Are lackluster homilies getting you down? Do you wish your pastor had a book on homily helps? Does keeping your kids well-behaved cause you to miss the proclamation of Scripture during the Liturgy of the Word?

Well, have no fear! There are many resources out there for you so that you can be prepared for Mass on Sunday. Even if your priest may not be the most eloquent orator on the Scripture, being well-prepared can make a great difference in getting the most out of Mass.

By way of example, I will take you through the readings for this Sunday, August 24, 2008, the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A).


#1: The first, and most important, step is to read the Scripture readings ahead of time (asking the Holy Spirit to enlighten your mind as you read). For that, the USCCB is a handy place to find all the Sunday Mass readings (and daily Mass readings as well!): Readings for August 24, 2008

#2: Next, Scott Hahn's St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology provides excellent homily helps on the Sunday Mass readings. They are clear, concise, yet deep, and they beautifully tie the readings together in the way they were meant to be read: "Oh the Depths" - on the readings for August 24, 2008

#3: St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in Picayune, MS, (home of the excellent, user-friendly, online version of the second edition of the Catechism of the Catholic Church) also has a wonderful archive of studies of all the readings from the Lectionary for every Sunday of the Liturgical Year. The studies are all in .pdf format and requires free Adobe Acrobat Reader to open: 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time - A

#4: Next, you may choose to listen to audio files of an excellent homilist. Fr. Bob Barron from the Archdiocese of Chicago, through his apostolate Word on Fire, offers an astonishing archive of all his homilies for the last 8 years (and counting!). He always has available the homily for the upcoming Sunday. Here is his homily for this Sunday: Sermon #398 - Ekklesia

*note: For Fr. Barron's homilies on the same readings, you can also backtrack to 2005 (Sermon #241 - Tu es Petrus) and 2002 (Sermon #86 - Thou Art Peter).

*note #2: Catholics United for the Faith also has an archive of homilies on their website in print form, although they have discontinued it at the present time. They have about two and a half years worth of Sunday homilies, but they do not have one for the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time for year A.

#5: Be sure to check out what the early Church Fathers were saying on the Gospels as well by consulting St. Thomas Aquinas' invaluable compilation, the Catena Aurea (the "Golden Chain"). Aquinas went through the Gospels verse by verse to compile what the early Church Fathers had to say about them. It is truly remarkable. Look at what the early Church Fathers say about this Sunday's Gospel: Matthew 16:13-20

#6: A good Bible Commentary is also quite helpful. Online, there is the old Haydock Bible Commentary available free of charge. All you have to do is look up the passages from the Sunday Readings:

• Isaiah 22:19-23
• Psalm 138[137]: 1-2, 2-3, 6, 8
• Romans 11:33-36
• Matthew 16:13-20

*note: Of course, there are other great Bible Commentaries in print form, such as the Ignatius Catholic Bible Study and the Navarre Bible Commentary.

If you follow these steps in a spirit of prayer, you should be well-prepared to celebrate the great mysteries of our faith when you go to Mass on Sunday. Not to mention the fact that your biblical prowess will greatly improve!

Catholics Come Home!

Catholics Come Home is a great resource for reaching out to those Catholics who have stopped practicing their faith, or those non-Catholics who may be interested in the Catholic Church.

One of their primary purposes is to organize media campaigns via television that encourage people to come to (or come back to) the Catholic Church.

These short "commercials" for the Church are available on their website, and are very well done:

• Catholics Come Home Epic
• Catholics Come Home Movie

To accompany the videos, they have Fact Sheets that provide documentation and scriptural support for every statement made in each video:

• Catholics Come Home Epic - Fact Sheet
• Catholics Come Home Movie - Fact Sheet

They also link to a great number of written resources on their website. Although many of their links point to other sites, they have organized those links in an extremely helpful way, and all the sources that I have seen are reliable places to go for answers on the Catholic faith.

In addition, any non-practicing Catholic (or non-Catholic) can get a FREE copy of Matthew Kelly's great book Rediscovering Catholicism, just by asking!

And, Catholic Culture gives this apostolate a great review.

So, all in all, this is a great Catholic organization that is at the forefront of the New Evangelization. It deserves our support and our prayers.

Catholic Apologist's Bookshelf!

Here's an annotated bibliography of some of the best general Catholic apologetics books out there. It is far from a complete list, but enough for a fledgling apologist to get grounded! Of course, there are many other great apologetics books that address particular topics, but I have tried to stick with those of a more general nature.

I have also included a bibliography of Catholic conversion stories. Many of these come from some of the premier Catholic Apologists. They all serve as great apologetics tools. The authors necessarily respond to many of the common objections against the Catholic Church as they describe what led them to recognize the Catholic Church as the one true Church established by Jesus Christ!


Apologetics Bibliography

• Armstrong, Dave. A Biblical Defense of Catholicism. Manchester, NH: Sophia Institute Press, 2003. A comprehensive look at the biblical support of Catholic teaching.
• Chacon, Frank, and Jim Burnham. Beginning Apologetics Series. Farmington, NM: San Juan Catholic Seminars, 1993-2005. A great set of booklets that systematically lays out how to defend Catholic teaching amongst a variety of specific groups.
• Drummey, James J. Catholic Replies. Norwood, MA: C.R. Publications, 1995. 800 Questions and answers on some of the most pressing questions Catholics face.
• Drummey, James J. Catholic Replies 2. Norwood, MA: C.R. Publications, 1998. 800 more questions on a wide variety of important Catholic topics.
• Hahn, Scott. Reasons to Believe: How to Understand, Explain, and Defend the Catholic Faith. New York: Doubleday, 2007. Comprehensive overview of how to explain the Catholic faith to others.
• Keating, Karl. Catholicism and Fundamentalism. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 1988. A more in depth look of the differences between Catholics and Fundamentalist Christians, as well as an analysis of the roots of many of the common misconceptions Fundamentalists have regarding Catholic teaching.
• Keating, Karl. What Catholics Really Believe: 52 Answers to Common Misconceptions About the Catholic Faith. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 1995. Written for beginners.
• Kreeft, Peter and Ronald K. Tacelli. Handbook of Christian Apologetics. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1994. This book is not specifically Catholic (Kreeft is Catholic but Tacelli is not) but it is a great resource for general Christian apologetics, such as the existence of God, the problem of evil, etc.
• Madrid, Patrick. Pope Fiction: Answers to 30 Myths & Misconceptions about the Papacy. San Diego, CA: Basilica Press, 1999. As the title suggests, this book addresses the most common misconceptions people have regarding the Pope. I include this, even though it addresses one particular topic, because it is they key difference between the Catholic Church and every other form of Christianity. Many of the chapters also address other topics (such as Galileo and the Inquisition) from the perspective of the papacy.
• Madrid, Patrick. Search and Rescue: How to Bring Your Family and Friends Into — Or Back Into —the Catholic Church. Manchester, NH: Sophia Institute Press, 2001. This book takes a pastoral approach in giving advice to the reader on how to approach the topic of Catholicism with family and friends. Not an apologetics book per se, but very helpful in applying the information learned from other apologetics books.
• Madrid, Patrick. Where is That in the Bible?. Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor, 2001. This book identifies and explains the scriptural roots of those doctrines unique to Catholicism.
• Madrid, Patrick. Why is That in Tradition?. Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor, 2002. Similar to Where is That in the Bible?, this book uses the writings of the Early Church Fathers to illustrate that the earliest Christians were Catholic in their beliefs and practices.
• Salza, John. The Biblical Basis for the Catholic Faith. Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor, 2005. Similar to Armstrong’s book, but briefer.
• Schreck, Alan. Catholic and Christian: An Explanation of Commonly Misunderstood Catholic Beliefs. Revised ed. Cincinnati, OH: Servant Publications, 2004. A good overview of Catholic teaching from an apologetics standpoint.
• Suprenant, Leon J., Jr., and Philip C.L. Gray. Faith Facts: Answers to Catholic Questions. Steubenville, OH: Emmaus Road Publishing, 1999. A compilation of many of Catholics United for the Faith's most popular Faith Facts tracts.
• Suprenant, Leon J., Jr., and Philip C.L. Gray. Faith Facts II: Answers to Catholic Questions. Steubenville, OH: Emmaus Road Publishing, 2004. The sequel with even more answers to many important questions on the Catholic faith.

Apologetics Conversion Stories

• Currie, David. Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 1996.
• Hahn, Scott, and Kimberly Hahn. Rome Sweet Home: Our Journey to Catholicism. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 1993.
• Howard, Thomas. Evangelical Is Not Enough: Worship of God in Liturgy and Sacrament. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 1988.
• Howard, Thomas. Lead, Kindly Light: My Journey to Rome. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 2004.
• Madrid, Patrick, Ed. Surprised by Truth: 11 Converts Give the Biblical and Historical Reasons for Becoming Catholic. San Diego, CA: Basilica Press, 1994.
• Madrid, Patrick, Ed. Surprised by Truth 2: 15 Men and Women Give the Biblical and Historical Reasons for Becoming Catholic. Manchester, NH: Sophia Institute Press, 2000.
• Madrid, Patrick, Ed. Surprised by Truth 3: 10 More Converts Explain the Biblical and Historical Reasons for Becoming Catholic. Manchester, NH: Sophia Institute Press, 2002.
• Ray, Steve. Crossing the Tiber: Evangelical Protestants Discover the Historic Church. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 1997.
• Schoeman, Roy, Ed. Honey From the Rock: Sixteen Jews Find the Sweetness of Christ. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 2007.
• Shea, Mark. By What Authority?: An Evangelical Discovers Catholic Tradition. Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor, 1996
  
  

Biblia Clerus: Reading the Word of God With the Church

This is the best new website I've seen come along in a while!

http://www.clerus.org/bibliaclerus/index_eng.html

Recently launched by the Vatican Congregation for the Clergy, it puts the Scriptures at your fingertips alongside those writings of the Early Church Fathers, the Doctors of the Church, and the magisterial documents that cite a particular passage of Scripture.

You can look up any passage in Scripture in either the NAB or RSV translation for us English speakers (if you read Latin, Greek, or Hebrew, these translations are here, too, along with French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish). Simply find the passage you are looking for, click the "comment" button, and up pops links to a wide variety of Church documents that cite that particular passage.

This is a dream come true for those interested in connecting the Scriptures with the early Church Fathers. It also makes a great homily help for priests, and an excellent research tool for students.

In addition to all this, you are also free to download the entire contents of the website so that you can access it at any time without an internet connection!

All in all, it seems to be an invaluable tool for Catholics as they approach the Scriptures in order to truly read the Bible from the heart of the Church (to borrow the slogan from the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology).

Spe Salvi!

Today Pope Benedict XVI released his second encyclical Spe Salvi (On Christian Hope). Let's see, his first encyclical was on love and now his second one is on hope. I wonder what his third one might be about....

I haven't read it yet, but I will try to share some thoughts once I have the chance to do so.

The Scandal of Scandal

Picture in your mind a man sitting down in front of a beautiful mahogany grand piano on the stage of an immense concert hall packed with people. The stage lights glisten off of its shiny surface. The man pulls out an ornately decorated copy of Mozart's Piano Concertos and places it reverently upon the music stand. He opens up the book to a suitable place and stretches his fingers as he readies them for the task at hand. A bead of sweat trickles down his forehead and he wipes it on his sleeve.

Then he begins.

And the sounds that reverberate from the piano are sounds to which no person ought to be subjected. The pianist, if he can be called that, does not know how to read music and has never played before in his life.

The people in the audience begin to murmur and most begin to leave. In the lobby area, some people begin to remark about the performance:

"I had heard good things about that Mozart guy, but evidently he is very overrated. He couldn't compose his way out of a paper bag!"

"So true. I don't think I'll be listening to anything else by Mozart anytime soon!"

Do you think it a bit strange that one poor "musician" would actually change the way people think about Mozart? Does it seem unrealistic that people would react in such a way?

It does seem silly to think that reasonable people would respond negatively towards the composer over one bad musician. Yet, in regards to God and the Church, such responses are common place.

How many people think poorly of the Church or Her practice of a celibate clergy in light of the sex abuse scandal? A lot.

But we don't judge the Sacrament of Marriage on those who are unfaithful to their marriage vows. Neither should we judge the priesthood based on those who have been unfaithful to their vows.

The familiar statistic is that half of all marriages end in divorce. Many of these are the result of marital infidelity. Would allowing married people the freedom to commit adultery help decrease divorce and improve the institution of marriage? Then why do we think that allowing priests to marry will somehow solve the sex abuse scandal?

It is more reasonable to judge something based on those who can do it well rather than on those who cannot. We should judge the brilliance of Mozart on those who can faithfully play his music as it was written. We should not judge the merits of Mozart's music on those who have no musical skill whatsoever.

In the same way, we ought to judge the teachings of the Church on those who live those teachings faithfully (i.e. the saints). We should not judge the Church based on those who fail to live up to Her own teachings.

Catholic Educator's Resource Center

I recently came across an excellent online source of articles on all things Catholic: www.catholiceducation.org.

This is an excellent starting point for information. I was looking for information on the Inquisition, as I know there are many popular misconceptions about it. So I enter "Inquisition" into the search engine and up comes 12 related articles giving me exactly the info I was looking for.

They pull their articles from other reliable sources (such as Lay Witness magzine, Crisis magazine, EWTN, and more) and receive permission to post the articles on their website.

I think that I will certainly be going here much more in the future. It's everything a Catholic educator could hope for in one place!