Love Letters to Lukewarm Souls

Catholic Basics Series (Post #3) Why do Catholics emphasize Mary so much? Catholics believe that WORSHIP is due to God ALONE. Catholics do, however, VENERATE Mary. In other words, we HONOR our Blessed Mother with great reverence and devotion because she is the MOTHER OF GOD. Mary is the model of perfect love and obedience to Christ. God preserved Mary from sin, and she conceived our Lord by the power of the Holy Spirit, bringing Christ into our world. Catholics can’t help but honor the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is full of grace, the Mother of God and our Mother, for her “yes” to God that made the Incarnation possible. And without the Incarnation, we would not have salvation. Mary is the most beautiful model of total submission to the will of God. Catholics do not view Mary as equal to Christ, but rather venerate Mary because of her relationship to Christ. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains, “Mary’s role in the Church is inseparable from her union with Ch...

Catholic Basics Series (Post#2) Matthew 16:18 is key to understanding Christ’s intent to pass on the authority to lead the Church to Peter and the apostles. Christ tells Peter that he is the rock on which He will build His church. When Catholics use the term apostolic succession, they are referring to the line of bishops that stretches all the way back to the apostles—to Peter—the first Pope. Apostolic tradition (the authentic teaching of the apostles) was handed from Christ to the apostles, and from them to their successors. This unbroken line of popes (the bishops of Rome) and all other bishops have guided the Church for the past 2,000 years, just as Christ intended (Matthew 28:19-20).  Christ sent His apostles out into the world with authority to teach and heal (Luke 9:1-2) and to forgive sins (John 20:23). This God-given authority is exercised by the bishops within the Catholic Church to this day. Here's the historical list of Pope from Peter down to cur...

Catholic Basics Series (Post #1)   The Catholic Church is the only church today that can claim to be the one church founded by Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago. Other denominations (collectively known as Protestants) can trace their origins back to various human founders at a later date in history (as early as 16th century with the exception of Eastern Orthodox in 1054) . Nice to know stuff: Catholicism is the largest faith community in the world (more than 1.2 billion) The Catholic church is the one that collected and compiled the Bible. For 2,000 years, the Catholic church has fed, clothed, and housed more people in need than any group or institution in history. The Catholic church founded the first school/education system. The Catholic church founded the first hospital/health care system. The church has been the largest benefactor of arts. The church remains the world's premier institutional defender of human rights. Peter is the very first Pope, appointed ...

I believe that Catholics should always go back to the basics if we haven't done so. To simply go back to the basics of our faith--why we practice what we practice, why we believe what we believe--and joyfully share the numerous treasures of our church to other nominal Catholic framily (friends and family) as well as non-Catholics brothers and sisters in Christ. I believe one of the major reasons why we Catholics are easily turned off or many turned away from the faith and are easily persuaded by others is because we don't know, perhaps don't even care about knowing and learning the faith we grew up with. Then when other religions question us, instead of going back to seek for answers, we ended up questioning the faith along with them. It is like criticizing and judging someone for his actions, without knowing the root cause, the history of it first. We Catholics are also seemingly not very good salesmen and women of faith, either. Plagued with non-Catholic stereotype and...

© 2003 Excerpt from "I Can Serve": A Community Journal written on 2003, 7th of June For us trying to lovingly draw our dear friends deeper to God, we may hear these responses: “I’d rather rest than spend time in church or join a Christian community.” “I know people from a Christian community who are not good examples. They don’t practice what they preach. They still live in sin. They get angry, they speak bad words, they hurt people. Why should I join?” “I’m also a member already of a sorority (or a fraternity or a club). They’re all the same as yours. We help the poor, we conduct self-development programs, etc. sometimes even more extensive and financially-organized than Christian communities.” “I’m ok and happy with my life. Why should I complicate it further by spending on spiritual affairs inconvenient and a waste of my time and schedules. I help out my friends in need better than they do.” Many of our friends and relatives right now, as I speak...

Last night, I was watching a movie called "Beautiful Creatures." Towards the end of the movie, there was this scene showing an actor playing a Reverend/Pastor preaching in the pulpit. He was talking about a message that somehow reminds me of the same that most of our friends hardly ever examine or reconsider before saying "No" and walk away to tend to something else whenever the invitation arise to spend and commit more quality time for God whether through Christian-related gatherings or furthering one's Christian faith. "I don't want to preach today. Instead I just wanna talk to you. About a word we don't hear much anymore: "Sacrifice." It's not what I would call a modern word. People hear the word "sacrifice," and they become afraid that something will be taken away from them or that they will have to give up something they couldn't live without. "Sacrifice," to them, means "Loss". In a ...