Soul and Sacrament

From this bishop’s homily for his father’s funeral mass....”Because, you see, the reception of the Eucharist, that intimate connection with Jesus, was at the very center of his relationship with God.” Eucharist at center of my father’s faith life - Arkansas Catholic - October 3, 2019 : Eucharist at center of my father’s faith life - Arkansas Catholic - October 3, 2019

These are in no particular order. I'm just listing them as they come to mind. 1. The sacredness of the Holy Mass and the scriptural basis for Transubstantiation.  Basically, we should have attended daily Mass in school as was the practice when my father's generation was in Catholic school. By the time I started Catholic school in the early 70's, we attended Mass once a week. I'm not complaining. Weekly Mass was wonderful. I'm grateful that I was able to attend weekly Mass with my fellow students. It was important to me then and is even more so now. Catholic schooling impressed that on my heart. But we should have attended daily Mass. The Mass and the Eucharist in the Mass is the sole source and summit of the Catholic faith. By the time I got to high school, Mass was optional. We had all-school masses a handful of times in the school year. The rest of the time we were allowed the option of attending Mass if we had an open mod (open study hall) during Mass time, wh...

I highly recommend this book. At the beginning of the new Millenium, I discovered a whole new world of Catholic teaching and wonderful books written by the new breed of Catholics - former Protestant clergy who became Catholic converts. My experience of 15 years worshipping in the Assembly of God churches had led me to believe that unhappy Catholics seeking a deeper relationship with Jesus routinely LEFT THE CATHOLIC CHURCH in order to be fulfilled spiritually. I remember Wednesday evening church services at the AoG churches where it was a lighter service, more open to fellowship, sharing, and "witnessing." Much of what was shared and witnessed was from former Catholics who passionately shared their disappointment in Catholicism and how they had "left the Catholic church and became real Christians." I personally had never, ever met a Protestant-turned-Catholic convert in my Catholic life. I assumed it just didn't happen. Pastor Jim Batts, at our church, Pentecos...

It is a challenge to live a life of daily Mass attendance. At a very difficult time in my professional life, I woke up at 4:30 a.m. to attend the early Communion service at St. Brigid's Catholic Church. I was facing some real challenges at work and some of the people that I had to work with were not very nice, to say the least. I felt I needed the extra spiritual strength that I knew I would receive from receiving the Eucharist daily. The job went from bad to worse (hostile place), and eventually, I resigned. I would probably have resigned much sooner if I had not had the extra inspiration and graces received from daily reception of Christ in the Eucharist. Fast forward to now, I have felt a real need to start attending daily Mass. Many years ago, there were many local parishes that had super early morning Mass, at 6 a.m. Now, those Masses are harder to find, but there are a few in San Antonio. St. Brigid still has their 6 a.m. Communion service. It is not a full Mass. It is Litu...