CATHOLIC UPDATES

The sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, is a sacrament instituted by Christ at the Last Supper when he told his Apostles: " This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me" (Luke 22:19) While the other sacraments (Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Orders, Holy Matrimony, Anointing of the Sick, Penance) give us grace, the Holy Eucharist gives us not just but grace, but also the author of grace, Jesus, God and Man. It is the center of all else the Church has and does.

In every Catholic Church, one observes that images and statues of Christ, the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saints are found. For this reason, many non-catholics who have not really understood the meaning of those images and statues call Catholics Idolaters. Hence they make reference to the bible passage thatsl says: "Do not act corruptly and make a graven image for yourselves in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water below the earth" (Deut. 4:16-18).

A family is a group of people related by blood and living together, comprising of the father, mother children and other relatives. In the words of Pope St. John Paul II, the family is "a community of persons; of husband and wives of parents and children, of relatives. It's first task is to live with fidelity the reality of community of persons" (Familiar is Consortio, no.18). The term "family" has a Latin root "familia", which points to concepts such as "servants" and "household". This means that it is a household servants who attend to the need of one another and those of the society. In ancient Hebrew, the family was seen as an agent shaping the nation of Isreal. Family relationships, thus, were seen to be symbolic of the loving relationship between God and his chosen people.

The celibacy of Catholic Priesthood has been a bone of contention especially among other Christian denominations. Many has argued against it as if it has no biblical backup. As a matter of fact, some see it as a form of deceit from demons and other Spirits as they quote 1Tim.4:1-3 -"Now the spirit expressely, that in latter times, some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats..." Of course this has no relation to Priesthood celibacy, since the Church is a perfect divine establishment.

Ancient tradition holds(just as can be read from the preface of the Mass of Mary's Assumption, Roman Missal), that on the third day after Mary's death, the Apostles went with some other disciples to adorn the tomb of the blessed Virgin Mary but upon arriving, found it empty and filled with flowers. Then they heard the chants of angels singing: "A Virgin before birth, a Virgin at birth, a virgin after birth" and at this instant they understood by inlosed knowledge that God had taken the body of blessed Virgin Mary into heaven.

If I am not mistaking, every christian believes that the bible is the word of God or the great depository of the word of God. But inasmuch as "all the scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for correction and for training in righteousness"(2Tim.3:16), God never intended the bible to be Christians rule of faith, independent of the living authority of the Church.

Most often our brethren of other denominations accuse us by saying "Catholics do not read the bible"; "Catholics do not know the bible"; "Catholic clergy hide the truth of the bible from their congregation" and so many other similar criticisms. Anyway, I don't blame them when they don't know the true history and use of the bible.