->LITURGY is the official divine worship of the ->CHURCH. [1077-1112] A -> LITURGY is not an event that depends on good ideas and great songs. No one makes or invents a liturgy. It is something living that grew over millennia of faith. A Mass is a holy, venerable action. LiturgyContinue Reading
The people of Israel interrupted their work “seven times a day” (Ps 119:164) in order to praise God. Jesus participated in the liturgy and prayer of his people; he taught his disciples to pray and gathered them in the Upper Room so as to celebrate with them the -> LITURGYContinue Reading
We say Amen — “Yes” — to the profession of our faith because God appoints us witnesses to the faith. Anyone who says Amen assents freely and gladly to God’s work in creation and redemption. [1061-1065] The Hebrew word amen comes from a family of words that mean both “faith”Continue Reading
At the end of time, God will create a new heaven and a new earth. Evil will no longer have any power or attractiveness. The redeemed will stand face to face with God — as his friends. Their yearning for peace and justice will be fulfilled. To behold God willContinue Reading
The Last Judgment will take place at the end of the world, at the second coming of Christ. “All who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrectionContinue Reading
God does not damn men. Man himself is the one who refuses God’s merciful love and voluntarily deprives himself of (eternal) life by excluding himself from communion with God. [1036-1037] God yearns fro communion even with the worst sinner; he wants everyone to convert and be saved. Yet God createdContinue Reading
Hell is the condition of everlasting separation from God. the absolute absence of love. [1033-1037] Someone who consciously and with full consent dies in serious sin, without repenting, and refuses God’s merciful, forgiving love forever, excludes himself from communion with God and the saints. Our freedom makes that decision possible.Continue Reading
Yes, since all those who are baptized into Christ from one communion and are united with one another, the living can also help the souls of the faithful departed in purgatory. [1032, 1414] When a man is dead, he can do nothing more for himself. The time of active probationContinue Reading
Purgatory, often imagined as a place, is actually a condition. Someone who dies in God’s grace (and therefore at peace with God and men) but who still needs purification before he can see God face to face is in purgatory. [1030-1031] When Peter had betrayed Jeses, the Lord turned aroundContinue Reading
Heaven is the endless moment of love. Nothing more separates us from God, whom our soul loves and has sought our whole life long. Together with all the angels and saints we will be able to rejoice forever in and with God. [1023-1026, 1053] If you have ever observed aContinue Reading
