Setting The Record Straight

What Good are Monks? A Protestant friend asked this question and I was rendered speechless. Where do you begin to describe the thanks we owe to monks for the stupendous gifts they gave us? They created and provided a great part of of what we think of as our civilization. They created the university system, the foundations of science, the foundations of modern agriculture, etcetera. Listen and be amazed at this forgotten history. It is a big subject so this is part one of two podcasts.

All over the world there will be bold public processions this week which bear the Eucharist in a monstrance for all to witness an amazing truth; the Presence of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, appearing on earth in this place and moment in that Eucharist. In the USA, May 31st, 2018 is the Feast of Corpus Christi (“Body Of Christ”). Just as many could not believe their eyes when they saw Christ who had risen from the dead, there are many today who doubt the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Too many Catholics are shy, even apologetic, about sharing their conviction that, when we receive the Eucharist, we are touched by Christ’s physical Body and Blood. (“Touch me and see…” Luke 24:39). This intimate contact usually happens inside our churches. Corpus Christi processions go outside of our churches as bold public proclamations of the truth of the Presence. That intent was made plain by Pope Urban IV who established the Feast of Corpus Christi seven-hundred-and-fifty

It was a handwritten note. One of the three men who had been rescued from North Korea handed it to Mike Pence, our Vice President as soon as he met him. It was Thursday May 10th, 2018. The Vice President had gone to welcome them home. He read the note. It was the 126th Psalm. Why were these men imprisoned? They had something in common that was fatally dangerous to the North Korean government. They were Christian Evangelists. The note began, “Psalm 126:1-3. When the Lord brought back the captives to Zion. We were like men that dreamed…”

Amusing stories of miracles performed by saints. But these stories are mostly forgotten today, perhaps because, in this skeptical age they seem unimportant and a bit embarrassing to Catholics. Yet, given God’s powerful authenticated miracles , they seem to be certainly possible Perhaps they are true, partly true, or perhaps they are just invented tales. They are called hagiographies, that is, biographies that put the saint in a very flattering light. Hagiographies make the subjects seems like saints. Whether these particular miracles happened or not, they were saints for other reasons.