An awesome discovery (along with some of my comments):

Art restorers in Italy have discovered what are believed to be the oldest paintings of some of Jesus Christ’s apostles.

The faces of Apostles Andrew, John, Peter and Paul were uncovered using new laser technology in a catacomb in Rome.

The paintings date from the second half of the 4th Century or the early 5th Century, the restorers and Vatican officials believe.

The images may have influenced later depictions of Christ’s early followers. [I think it more likely that these images reflected what had been handed on; they didn't "invent" what the apostles looked like.]

“These are the first images that we know of the faces of these four apostles,” said Fabrizio Bisconti, head of archaeology for Rome’s numerous Vatican-owned catacombs.

The frescoes in a tomb of a Roman noblewoman in the Santa Tecla catacomb were known about but their details came to light during a two-year restoration project funded by the Vatican.

The images were uncovered using new laser technology that allowed the restorers to burn off thick white calcium carbonate deposits caused by extreme humidity and lack of air. [That is pretty cool.]

“The laser created a sort of mini-explosion of steam when it interacted with the calcium carbonate to make it detach from the surface,” said Barbara Mazzei, who was in charge of the project.

“It was very, very emotional to discover this,” she added.

Andrew, Peter and John were among Jesus’ original 12 apostles.

Paul was an influential early Christian who travelled widely in the Mediterranean area in the 1st Century. [Isn't it sad that they felt the need to include the previous two sentences in formerly 'Christian' Britain?] His letters to the early churches, found in the Bible’s New Testament, are arguably some of the most influential on Christian thinking. [Arguably? I don't think that word is needed in this sentence.]

Since 2002, Catholics have been hit with the sexual abuse crisis in the Church. First it was uncovered in the United States, then revelations of abuse and cover-ups spread to other countries, reaching a crescendo this past Spring with many media outlets trying to tag Pope Benedict with accusations of misconduct. One of the problems with this slow drip, drip of sordid revelations is that it is hard to get a “big picture” perspective of the problem and the Church’s response to it. Instead, it just appears as if nothing is changing and nothing is being addressed. News story after news story just seem to repeat the same allegations over and over.

Because of this, Greg Erlandson and Matthew Bunson have done Catholics a great service by writing the book “Pope Benedict XVI and the Sexual Abuse Crisis” (full disclosure: Erlandson is the President and Publisher of Our Sunday Visitor, which is publishing my book this Fall). In this book, the authors do two things: recount the details of the crisis and note what the Church – and particularly Pope Benedict – has done to respond to it. They are not afraid to criticize church officials when they need to be criticized, but they also note the leading role Pope Benedict has taken to rid the Church of sexual predators, dating back to his days as a Cardinal.

This book is split into two parts: the first is the analysis of Erlandson and Bunson, and then the second part includes a large number of official writings and documents from the Pope and other church officials related to the crisis. This second section serves the same purpose as the first: to gather together in one place a “big picture” of what church officials have been doing since 2002 to address abuse within the Church.

I do wish that the book addressed critically the results of some of the U.S. bishops’ actions since 2002 to protect children. There seems to be no question that predator priests are becoming more and more rare because of the bishops’ actions since 2002, but there is legitimate concern that some of the actions taken (such as mandatory and possibly inappropriate “Safe Environment” training in Catholic schools) can have long-term negative consequences. But frankly, that is not really a criticism of this book, as that was not a topic Erlandson and Bunson were covering. I do hope someday that someone does study those issues and writes a comprehensive book about it.

However, if you want to get a great overview of the abuse crisis in the Church and the Church’s – and Pope’s – response to it, I would recommend buying a copy of Pope Benedict XVI and the Sexual Abuse Crisis. And for those particularly interested in this topic, OSV has set up a blog associated with this book and the issues surrounding it.

It’s pretty much a guarantee that when Stephen Colbert talks about religion you’ll end up with some hilarious (and often incisive) quotes. A few examples from the following video:

“Adam and Eve were Jewish…check under the fig leaf, my friend.”

“Jesus loves to run up the odds. You saw what he did the last time he was here; he let them think he had them on the ropes. Three days later…Boom! He comes back and they clean up at the table.”

Today is the last day of the Year of the Priest. If you haven’t been praying for priests all year, then be sure to do so today. If there is anything that the parable of the workers in the vineyard tells us, it is that the Lord doesn’t ignore stragglers!

I have been mightily blessed during my 17+ years as a Catholic with many wonderful priests in my life. I have been a part of three different parishes during that time, and all of them have had great priests assigned to them. My current pastor is awesome, as were his predecessors. I have also been privileged to know many great religious priests, such as Fr. Conrad Osterhaut, C.F.R., and Fr. Giles Dimock, O.P.

But there is one priest I’d like to single out on this final day of the Year of the Priest. His name is Fr. Scott Woods. Back in 2002, he was a newly ordained priest assigned to our parish. He was only 28 years old, and I was there for his first Mass at our parish, two weeks after his ordination. It was obvious he was a bundle of nerves, and his homily was poorly delivered (mostly read, actually). I remember thinking, “well, maybe he has other strengths.” I don’t mind saying this publicly, because in just a few short years he became one of the best preachers I have ever heard. Anyone who thinks Catholic priests can’t preach have never heard Fr. Scott preach – he brings it full throttle every time.

But it is not his preaching that I am most thankful for. He was assigned to my parish during a down time in my spiritual life. After my conversion in the early 1990′s, I was very fervent in living my Catholic faith – attending Mass regularly, praying often, and serving the Church in many ways. But then life hit me: I got married, had kids, and worked a stressful job. And so my spiritual life stagnated, and then faltered. I never stopped practicing the Faith, but there is no question I became something even worse: lukewarm. I was going through the motions and had little love behind those motions. I put up little resistance to persistent sins in my life and did little to exemplify holiness to my family.

Then Fr. Scott was assigned to our parish. A few months later, my wife suggested that we start going to him regularly for confession. It is an indicator of my spiritual slothfulness that my first thought was “I don’t really want our associate pastor knowing how lame I am.” But I relented and we began to schedule monthly confessions with Fr. Scott. These regular meetings became great moments of grace in my life, as Fr. Scott guided me masterfully. He didn’t allow me to despair of my sinfulness, yet pushed me to beg the Lord for the grace to overcome it. He knew when to be tough with me, and when to be merciful. In a very short time I was back on track in my spiritual life – not that I overcame all the sins in my life, but I was now fighting them instead of letting them win by default.

Fr. Scott was at our parish for four years, and I am thankful for every moment he was there. He is now assigned to a parish in Southern Maryland, and I’m sure he is helping many other souls in their spiritual battles. The great thing about the Church is that there are countless “Fr. Scott’s” out there helping souls fight evil and love the Lord. On this final day of the Year of the Priest, thank the Lord for all the great priests in the world and ask Him to continue to send them to us.

Ten years ago yesterday, in a parish about ten minutes from my house, a Catholic priest was murdered in his rectory. The victim of a botched robbery, Msgr. Thomas Wells was a beloved pastor and a dedicated priest. One of Msgr. Wells’ greatest gifts, however, was encouraging priestly vocations; in fact, so many men became priests because of his influence that they came to be known as the “Wells Guys.” I have personally met many of these young priests, and they are all dynamic, orthodox priests who love Christ, love the Church, and love Msgr. Wells.

One of the men who came under his influence was his own nephew, who will be ordained to the priesthood this month:

It has been ten years since the murder of Father Tom Wells, a beloved priest from a huge Catholic family.

Wells, then pastor of Mother Seton Parish in Germantown, was found stabbed to death in the rectory, the result of a robbery-gone-bad.

‘I remember the first thing I thought was, it must’ve been a car accident,” said Dave Wells, Father Tom’s newphew. “I mean, who kills a priest?!”

Robert Lucas was subsequently convicted and sentenced to 42 years in prison.

Thousands turned out for Wells’ funeral, a testament to the many lives touched by one priest. It was a turning point for Dave, then a junior in high school.

“It really struck me at that point, the power of the priesthood, lived well,” Wells said. “It popped in my head, maybe I should think about this–maybe God’s calling me to follow in Tom’s footsteps, in a way, by being a priest.”

And on June 19, the now 27-year-old Dave Wells will be ordained a priest. His first vestment: a gift, in loving memory of his uncle, who was ordained in 1971.

“I think there’s candy in this one, let’s see!” Wells joked.

To his family, Dave’s just a regular guy.

“He didn’t wear a halo over his head,” said Judy Wells, the Dave’s mother. “I mean, I didn’t have a clue. He was just a normal kid who loved baseball.”

And this soon-to-be priest believes the uncle who inspired him–msgr wells–is still guiding him, from above:

“I can see him laughing right now, you know, just with joy,” Dave said. “I do think he’s interceding for me, that he’s kind of with me in a special way.”

One of the most important things to remember about the Christian Faith is that death is not the end of our lives – it is only the means to our final destination. And after death, our work here on earth may not be done, as can be seen by the intercession of the saints. It appears that Msgr. Wells has continued to be busy encouraging vocations since his untimely death ten years ago.

May the souls of the faithfully departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

One of the great developments in theology in the 20th century, both in Catholic and Orthodox circles, was the rise of “eucharistic ecclesiology.” This is the recognition of the central place of the Eucharist in the life of the Church. Or, in the words of Henri de Lubac, “the Eucharist makes the Church.” Without the Eucharist, there would be no Church (and likewise, without the Church there would be no Eucharist). The Church is not just a gathering of like-minded people for a common cause, it is the mystical Body of Christ, and the Eucharist is the means in which this Body stays united.

But what happens when a Christian body proclaiming itself to be a “church” does not celebrate a valid Eucharist? Is it really a Church? Not according to the Catholic Church. In the language of the Church, it is an “ecclesial communion,” which basically means it is a group of Christians who are united in some fashion and its members – individually – are also connected to the Church in an imperfect way through their baptism. But the organization itself is not a church, per se, because it does not have the unifying element of the Eucharist, nor does the organization itself have a true connection to the Church. This is an important distinction that should not be glossed over, and it has far-ranging implications, especially in the area of ecumenism.

The goal of the Catholic Church in ecumenical talks is that each Christian is in communion with the bishop of Rome. In the case of the Orthodox churches – which are true churches because they have a valid Eucharist – this is pursued on a corporate level. The goal is to unite those Eastern churches – as churches – to the bishop of Rome. But in the case of Protestants, this is not the case. It is impossible to unite their corporate bodies to Rome as churches since they do not celebrate a valid Eucharist. Thus, the ideal is simply to allow these groups to join en masse to the Catholic Church, not as churches, but instead as a large group of individuals.

The case of the Anglicans might appear to be an exception, but it is sadly not. In Pope Benedict’s initiative to bring traditional Anglicans into the Church, he has allowed the set-up of personal ordinariates which would be the corporate structure for convert Anglicans to enter the Church. But it is important to note that their existing ecclesial structure would not be incorporated into the Church, but would instead simply cease to exist. If a large body of traditional Anglicans were to enter the Church, they would formally be entering as individuals, not as a body.

The most important part of what makes us a Church is not the fact that we have the same beliefs or a common goal in life. It is that we celebrate the Eucharist, which is the Body of Christ. Let us pray that all Christians will one day be able to celebrate this great mystery at one altar.

Over the past few years, Francis Beckwith, the former President of the Evangelical Theological Society who reverted to the Catholic Faith, has popularized the notion of an “Evangelical Catholic.” This is someone who is faithfully Catholic but at the same time embraces many of the good things of Evangelical Protestantism, such as a zeal for evangelizing and a deep love of the Scriptures.

But what exactly does it mean to be an Evangelical Catholic? Fr. Phillip De Vous of the Diocese of Covington, KY has composed “Eight principles of Evangelical Catholicism,” (posted over at Rich Leonardi’s blog Ten Reasons) which are a great summary of Evangelical Catholicism:

Evangelical Catholicism

During the nearly twenty-seven years of his pontificate, John Paul the Great called the Church to the urgent mission of fulfilling the Great Commission in our time, a project he called the New Evangelization. This evangelical summons of John Paul continued the same call given to the Church by Pope Paul VI in the years of and after the Second Vatican Council, and now the same commitment to announcing the timeless truths of the Gospel with new ardor, new methods, and new conviction is being asked of us by Pope Benedict XVI.

By our Baptism we are called to receive the Gospel as a complete, coherent, comprehensive Way of Life and to submit our entire lives in the obedience of faith to the Lord Jesus. Everything about us must be measured and guided by the Gospel: our thoughts, words, actions, bodies, relationships, spending habits, political convictions, leisure activities, lifestyle choices, and business decisions. But this total surrender to Christ and His Gospel is not a restriction of our freedom; in fact, it is the beginning of authentic discipleship and the only path to evangelical liberty. As the Lord Jesus teaches, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (John 8:31 -32).

Another way of expressing our commitment to the work of the New Evangelization is to say that we must become Evangelical Catholics. By our Baptism, we are called to be men and women of the Gospel who are Christian disciples by conviction rather than Church members by convention. Being Evangelical Catholics requires that we know the Gospel, believe the Gospel, live the Gospel, and share the Gospel with others. Becoming Evangelical Catholics is a lifelong adventure of letting go of cafeteria, casual, and cultural Catholicism by accepting the liberating truth of the Word of God and living by grace through faith in the Son of God.

All Catholics are called by their Baptism to be Evangelical Catholics, which means (in part) living according to these eight principles of Evangelical Catholicism:

1. The Lord Jesus Christ is the crucified and risen Savior of all mankind, and no human person can fully understand his life or find his dignity and destiny apart from a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus. It is not enough to know who Jesus is; we must know Jesus.

2. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is divine revelation, not human wisdom, and the Gospel is given to us in Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition which together constitute a single divine deposit of faith transmitted authentically and authoritatively by the Bishops in full communion with the Bishop of Rome. We must surrender our private judgments in all matters of faith and morals to the sacred teaching authority of the Church’s Magisterium if we are to receive the whole Gospel.

3. The seven Sacraments of the New Covenant are divinely instituted instruments of grace given to the Church as the ordinary means of sanctification for believers. Receiving the Sacraments regularly and worthily is essential to the life of grace, and for this reason, faithful attendance at Sunday Mass every week (serious illness and necessary work aside) and regular Confession of sins are absolutely required for a life of authentic discipleship.

4. Through Word and Sacrament we are drawn by grace into a transforming union with the Lord Jesus, and having been justified by faith we are called to sanctification and equipped by the Holy Spirit for the good works of the new creation. We must, therefore, learn to live as faithful disciples and to reject whatever is contrary to the Gospel, which is the Good News of the Father’s mercy and love revealed in the life, death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

5. The sacred liturgy, through which the seven Sacraments are celebrated and the Hours of praise are prayed, makes present to us the saving mysteries of the Lord Jesus. The liturgy must therefore be celebrated in such a way that the truth of the Gospel, the beauty of sacred music, the dignity of ritual form, the solemnity of divine worship, and the fellowship of the baptized assembled to pray are kept together in organic unity.

6. Receiving the Sacraments without receiving the Gospel leads to superstition rather than living faith, and the Church must therefore take great care to ensure that those who receive the Sacraments also receive the Gospel in its integrity and entirety. Consequently, before Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Communion, and Marriage are administered, there must be in those who request these Sacraments clear evidence of knowledge of the Gospel and a serious intention to live the Christian life.

7. Being a follower of Christ requires moving from being a Church member by convention to a Christian disciple by conviction. This transformation demands that we consciously accept the Gospel as the measure of our entire lives, rather than attempting to measure the Gospel by our experience. Personal knowledge of and devotion to Sacred Scripture is necessary for this transformation to occur through the obedience of faith, and there is no substitute for personal knowledge of the Bible. Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.

8. All the baptized are sent in the Great Commission to be witnesses of Christ to others and must be equipped by the Church to teach the Gospel in word and deed. An essential dimension of true discipleship is the willingness to invite others to follow the Lord Jesus and the readiness to explain His Gospel.

In short, Catholics should personally know and love Jesus, encounter him in the Sacraments and the Scriptures, serve him faithfully in the Church, and tell others about his great love for us!

There is a great interview over at Zenit with a man who grew up in the Soviet Union as a communist, ended up becoming Catholic, and now is a priest in the Ukrainian Catholic Church:

Raised in the communist Soviet Union, Yurko Kolasa knew nothing of the Catholic faith until he was well into his teens. Once the Greek-Catholic Church went from an underground following to being an openly practiced and respected religion in Ukraine, this future priest’s whole world opened up.

Today, Father Kolasa is the prefect of the training program for priests, seminarians and religious, at the International Theological Institute in Vienna. He is also a married priest of the Eastern Rite Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, and a father of four.

He also tells of the marriage preparation program he developed, how it has positively impacted the marriage success rate in Ukraine and is quickly becoming the proto-type for marriage preparation programs throughout various dioceses in Eastern Europe.

Continue reading…

May God continue to bless Fr. Kolasa in all he does!

As most Catholics know, Vatican II was held 40 years ago and in many quarters is still controversial. But this should surprise no one; the first ecumenical council, the Council of Nicea, was held almost 1700 years ago and it is still controversial today. It has been upheld as the standard of orthodoxy, derided as an intervention of the state into Church affairs, and accused of being the origin for both a belief in Christ’s divinity and the pope’s primacy. The Vatican II Fathers had nothing on the bishops at Nicea when it comes to controversy!

Even after all these centuries, Nicea is still important. Not only did it express in clear language the divinity of Christ (something believed before the Council, of course), but also it demonstrates the authority of the Church to make such authoritative declarations. By attacking Nicea, those who wish to reshape the Church or change her doctrines know that they can make great progress in their cause.

With that being said, blogger Darrell Pursiful has a great – and fun – test to determine what your religious beliefs are, all based on your attitude towards the Council of Nicea:

How would you complete this sentence? “The Council of Nicea…”

1. “…was a genuine work of the Holy Spirit, codifying for all time the true apostolic teaching on the person and nature of Christ.”

You are a conservative Catholic or Orthodox Christian. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

2. “…was a good thing, and it may even be said that the Holy Spirit was in it, leading the church to affirm Christ’s full divinity and humanity in terms that have stood the test of time. Shame about those anathemas at the end.”

You are a run-of-the-mill conservative Christian. If you’re Protestant, you can probably recite the Four Spiritual Laws. If you’re Catholic or Orthodox, I bet you’ve had some interesting discussions with some of your fellow parishioners.

3. “…contextualized the Christian message for a Greco-Roman audience. In those terms, I have no problems with it, although I do cross my fingers at certain points when (if) I recite the Creed in church.”

You are a centrist or liberal Christian in a mainline denomination. You probably subscribe to The Christian Century and wear a jacket with elbow patches.

4. “…is irrelevant to my faith. It was just some bunch of Catholic bigwigs asserting their authority over plain, Bible-believing Christians like me. Of course I believe in the Trinity, why do you ask?”

You are a fundamentalist Christian. And you need to take a church history course.

5. “…is irrelevant to my faith. It was just some bunch of Catholic bigwigs asserting their authority over plain, Bible-believing Christians like me. Of course I deny the Trinity, why do you ask?”

You are a Mormon, Jehovah’s Witness, or similar. And you need to take a church history course.

6. “…was the final nail in the coffin of the inclusive spirituality of Jesus, replacing theological diversity and egalitarianism with patriarchal regimentation and the silencing of all dissent. Oh, and they wrote the New Testament.”

You are a pagan or Gnostic who appreciates the teachings of Jesus—at least the ones that conform to your religious presuppositions—although you distrust most traditional, institutional forms of Christianity. You need to take a church history course, and you need to quit reading Dan Brown books.

7. “…was the final nail in the coffin of the Judaic faith of Yeshua ha-Mashiach, replacing Torah-observance and traditional Jewish piety with syncretistic pagan mythology. Oh, and they wrote the New Testament.”

You are an Ebionite. You appreciate the teachings of JesusYashuaYehoshuaYeshua—at least the ones that conform to your religious presuppositions—but want nothing to do with Christianity or the New Testament as classically defined. The Greek language probably makes you break out in hives.

Hopefully, readers of this blog should know how I answered this quiz. I’ll give you a hint, however: it didn’t take me long to find my answer.

H/t: The Way of the Fathers

In the 4th century, debate raged within the Church surrounding both Christological and Trinitarian issues: were you an Arian, a semi-Arian, or a defender of Nicea? Do you believe that the Holy Spirit is God or not? People would literally get into fist-fights at the local shops over these issues. It is reported that jolly ol’ St. Nicholas punched the heretic Arius in the face during the Council of Nicea. People realized that these issues were vitally important, as all of Christianity revolves around the identity of Jesus Christ and the nature of the Godhead.

Today debates in the Church are not about such sublime and elevated topics. Most Catholics might not deny the Christological and Trinitarian definitions of the early Councils, but they don’t put much thought into them, either. Today our debates are over sexuality, specifically, what I like to call the “pelvic trinity:” abortion, contraception and homosexuality. This unholy trinity of issues are of course interrelated and they all revolve around our “right” to engage in sexual activities with no consequences. But these issues go even deeper, as they touch whether we have the right to define morality as we see fit, or if there is One above us who makes those determinations. Ultimately, it comes down to the question of who is in charge: us or God.

With this in mind, it should come as no surprise that disgraced Catholic priest Fr. Alberto Cutié (aka “Father Oprah”), who left the Catholic Church to become Episcopal after being caught with his mistress last year, has adapted his own views on sexuality to be more in line with his new ecclesial communion. He was recently ordained an Episcopal priest and now he is admitting that he had struggles with the Catholic Church’s position on the pelvic trinity:

As a Catholic, he secretly struggled with his church’s stance toward homosexuality, contraceptives and his own celibacy. As an Episcopalian, he’s speaking freely about his support of openly gay clergy, of birth control, and, when a woman’s life is in danger, even abortion.

This should come as no surprise, as the most common modern response to personal failures in the area of sexual ethics is not to repent and try again, but instead to redefine sin and continue in your activities. Fr. Cutié justifies his own failures in practicing sexual self-control by rejecting the immorality of just about any sexual activity. He exacerbates his own sin by encouraging others to engage in similar sins to make him feel better about himself.

But Christ through his Church has a better way: instead of wallowing in sin which harms the human person, the Church’s sexual ethic frees one to live as God designed us to live. And failure to live up to this sexual ethic is never total: even when we fall, Christ always offers us the grace – through confession and the Eucharist – to get back up and try again. We should never get discouraged, as success in the moral life is measured less by our falls than by how much we keep striving for holiness.

Please pray for Fr. Cutié that he might be one day reconciled to Christ in the Catholic Church.

About a month ago, I wrote that our response to the abuse crisis within the Church is to become saints. As we all should know, we cannot make ourselves saints – it is a work of God. All we can do is ask for His grace and make our will conform to His Will.

With this in mind, I’m very excited by the initiative of some students in Rome, who have decided to have Eucharistic Adoration in reparation for abuse:

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican is hosting two hours of eucharistic adoration “in reparation for abuses committed by priests and for the healing of this wound within the church.”

The service in St. Peter’s Basilica this Saturday will feature an hour of silent adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, an hour of prayer and meditation, and a solemn blessing at the end.

The unusual initiative was organized by Catholic university students in Rome. Sources said the event was originally planned for the small Church of St. Anne inside Vatican City, but that it was moved to St. Peter’s at the suggestion of Cardinal Angelo Comastri, who is archpriest of the basilica.

So far, however, the Vatican has not publicized the event. Invitations have been forwarded by email and spread by word-of-mouth.

The hour of prayer and meditation will be led by Msgr. Charles Scicluna, an official of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith who deals directly with cases of priests accused of abuse of minors.

In several recent statements, Pope Benedict has said the response to the sex abuse crisis in the church will require openness, adoption of new measures to protect children and spiritual reparation.

In a letter to Irish Catholics earlier this year, he asked that eucharistic adoration be set up in every diocese, so that “through intense prayer before the real presence of the Lord, you can make reparation for the sins of abuse that have done so much harm.”

What a wonderful idea! If you have Eucharistic Adoration available to you, try to take some time soon to go and adore the Lord and beg him for his mercy on the whole Church.

Bishop James Conley, auxiliary bishop of Denver, throws out the first pitch before a recent Rockies-Nationals game:

I had the pleasure of working with then-Fr. Conley in the early 1990′s on pro-life efforts. He was an outstanding priest, and I’m sure he is an outstanding bishop. And it looks like he’s a pretty tough southpaw as well.

Last week there was a wonderful story in the Washington Post about the newest class of men about to be ordained to the priesthood. The Lord has blessed the Church with many saintly priests over the years, and it appears He is continuing to do so.

Pray for our priests!

One of the distinct features of many practicing Catholic families is its size. In my Catholic homeschool group, our family – with five children – hovers around the median in regards to family size. But how do you know if you have a “big family?” Here is a guide to help you:

You might have a big family if…

1) You don’t park your van, you dock it.

2) When you go out for a family walk in the neighborhood, you need a traffic cop.

3) Even your parents ask you “are they all yours?”

4) The army asks for your advice about logistics regarding food distribution.

5) You have been asked hundreds of times, “don’t you know how they are made?”

6) There is nothing “mini” about your van.

7) You are constantly asked the name of the day care you run when you go out.

8) You don’t have a shoe rack in your house, but instead a shoe room.

9) You have to reserve the party room whenever you go to a restaurant.

10) You have grandchildren older than some of your own children.

The apostle John was on the Mount called Olivet when the Lord appeared to him. Jesus said, “John, where are the other disciples? I have something important to tell you all and then I’m going to ascend to my Father.”

John replied, “Lord, today was not a good day for them. Peter and Andrew and James had to go fishing (they let me off since I’m just a teenager), and the other disciples also have to work today. Couldn’t you have picked a better day for us to meet? Like Sunday? I mean, after all, Thursday is a work day for just about everyone.”

Jesus frowned, and answered, “It has been forty days since my resurrection. Today is the day I am to ascend to my Father. Furthermore, in ten days I will be sending the Holy Spirit to you, and you need to spend those ten days in prayer.”

John said to him, “How about this – let’s reschedule your ascension for Sunday, when we can all get together. That way no one will miss this great event. Then we can just do the Holy Spirit thing the following Sunday; again, when we can all get off work and gather together. I really think that would work out for the best and would be a lot more convenient for everyone.”

Slowly, Jesus walked away, muttering, “I think I’m starting to regret giving these guys authority over the Church…”