Augustine reflects on the nature of a true sacrifice pleasing to God. Works of mercy and acts of compassion qualify, but the most perfect sacrifice is that of the Whole Body of Christ, head and members (Totus Christus), which is offered to God in every...
From a letter by Tertullian, an Early Church Father, to his wife, ca. 202 AD, illustrating the great esteem for the sacrament of holy marriage in the days of the early Catholic Church....
Commenting on 1 Peter 2, Bede tells the newly baptized that they are a chosen race, a royal priesthood & a consecrated nation through their baptism into Christ and anointing with the sacred oil of confirmation. [dropcaps type='normal' font_size='100' color='' background_color='' border_color='']Y[/dropcaps] ou are a chosen...
Augustine here explains the connection between the eighth day, baptism, circumcision, the resurrection as new creation & Sunday as the Christian day of Easter worship instead of Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath....
Irenaeus here shows that the Church of the 2nd century regarded the Eucharist as a sacrifice which fulfilled the prophecy of Malachi 1:11 of a new, pure oblation and offering that would be offered by the gentiles all over the world. ...
The following are excerpts from Vatican II's Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (Sacrosanctum Concilium) that pertain to the Mass and the sacrament of the eucharist. [dropcaps type='normal' font_size='100' color='' background_color='' border_color='']I[/dropcaps]NTRODUCTION For it is the liturgy through which, especially in the divine sacrifice of the Eucharist,...
In this video webinar of approximately 75 minutes, Dr. Matthew Bunson of the Catholic Distance University (CDU), initiates a conversation with two other CDU professors, Dr. Marcellino D'Ambrosio (Dr. Italy) and Dr. James Kruggel, on Pope Francis' Apostolic Exhortation on Marriage and the Family, Amoris...
St. Thomas Aquinas wrote this prayer to be recited after Mass and communion which beautifully expresses what it means to receive Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist and cultivates the proper dispositions so that this sacrament can bear greater fruit in our lives....
Origen, commenting on the book of Joshua, shows that the early Church saw the sacrament of baptism not only as the crossing of the Red Sea, but also as the crossing of the Jordan River into the Promised Land....
This excerpt on the sacrament of baptism from St. Basil the Great’s book On the Holy Spirit (ca. AD 360) describes how baptism fulfills what Jesus says to Nicodemus in John 3 about being born again in water and the Spirit. He also here outlines...