We’ve just completed the task of compiling something called “100 Essential Books for the Catholic Parish Library” here at Aquinas and More. It was quite a challenge to distill the great bounty of Catholic books down to just a core “100 Best” but we think we did a pretty good job. If your parish has a library or is interested in starting one, just download the list. Links are included for easy purchasing. We think it is a great starting point! Areas covered include Sacred Scripture, Theology, Church History, Liturgy, Sacraments, Apologetics, Spiritual Classics and Children’s books.

If you have suggestions on changes to the list, please let us know!

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January 31, 2007 - 1^st Entry

A Journey of Faith

Dear Readers,

This short section of our newsletter will introduce you to the healing power of our Lord in the life of just one of his unworthy creatures.  I am not an intellectual, just another ordinary Catholic girl experiencing the extraordinary power of God in her life.  This is not a comfortable place for me to be, sharing personal thoughts with strangers, yet, I must remember, we are all  brothers and sisters in Christ.  I have learned that God loves to challenge us, pulling us out of our comfort zones, that place of safety where we risk nothing and hardly live at all.   Yet, He always pulls us out with such love.  He knows with such intimacy that person we are capable of becoming, that person He created us to be.  Why are we so afraid to let our Lord lead us?  We’ve all lived in those comfort zones and have come to know them so well. 

The Lord brought me to Aquinas and More just over one year ago and there was no doubt in my mind that this was part of His plan for my life.  The first book offered to me was “Catholicism for Dummies”.  Yes, I was offended, but only out of  pride.  As I began to read it, I realized this book was filled with so many details of our Faith of which I was unaware.  I have such a long way to go to fully understand the immense treasure that is our Faith, but our Lord is leading me and I have surrendered to Him and have allowed His love to flow through me.  It is my hope to bring His love to all of our readers.   

All for Jesus,

Aline

Eight years ago I wrote an article for Homiletic and Pastoral Review called Parish Liturgical Renewal. Yesterday my sister was looking through her reading list for a theology masters from the Catholic Distance University and the article is on the list! Unfortunately, the original article was printed in draft form. I have provided a link to the finished article here. Is my mom proud? You bet. Do I need to go to confession for getting a big head? Probably.

If you have any feedback on the article, I’d love to hear it.

Human nature wants to stand up for itself. “I can do it myself! I don’t need any help.” How many times a day do we say that to ourselves?

Fr. Walter Ciszek, S. J., tells his personal story of how he overcame these emotions and came to fully rely on God to protect him in his two books He Leadeth Me and With God In Russia.

In With God In Russia, He tells the fascinating story of how he came to be in Russia at the start of World War II and how he got arrested. He goes on to tell of his 23 years in Soviet prisons and Siberian labor camps, and his life after prison in Siberia. In He Leadeth Me he tells how he was able to survive all that he did only through God’s help and providence. He explains the emotions he felt at the beginning of the war and at his arrest, how they progressed during his prison stay and the interrogations, and finally how he came to realize that he needed God to survive his ordeal.

Fr. Ciszek offers strength to anyone faced with tough times and difficulties. He gives both physical and spiritual examples of God’s Divine Providence and love, all taken from his own life.

…the magical number of children that when reached requires you to run the dishwasher at least twice a day so that you have enough dishes and silverware for each meal.

He’s going to need all the prayer he can get

His last public act was saying the inauguration Mass for pro-abortion, pro-homosexual union “Catholic” Nancy Pelosi.

He also wrote editorials praising President Clinton for vetoing a ban on partial birth abortions and had a consistently pro-abortion voting record during his tenure in Congress.

And yet, during the controversy over Nancy Pelosi’s inaugural Mass, Archbishop Wuerl said that Fr. Drinan was “a priest in good standing”.

Nope, no reason to be cynical here. Please move along to the next scandal.

In what sounds like a sour grapes interview from a Fr. Foster in the London Telegraph, comes this choice bit of anger: “He is not going to do it [allow greater use of the Tridentine Mass],” Fr Foster said. “He had trouble with Regensberg, and then trouble in Warsaw, and if he does this, all hell will break loose.” In any case, he added: “It is a useless mass and the whole mentality is stupid. The idea of it is that things were better in the old days. It makes the Vatican look medieval.”

Fr. Foster sounds like he still hasn’t gotten over getting fired from the Gregorian University.

Also, the statement above makes no sense if Fr. Foster is truly as dedicated to the preservation of Latin as he claims while at the same time sounding a defeatist tone about it being used less and less frequently. Doesn’t his attempt to preserve Latin make him look medieval?

For more analysis of the article, please visit the New Liturgical Movement.

Oh, and if you want to  help keep Latin from becoming extinct, we have a wide range of text books and apologias for Latin available.

Saturday morning started bright and early with a CUF seminar at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church. The entire confirmation class from another parish and the RCIA class from St. Patrick’s were required to attend the seminar which would be unheard of in most places. Bishop Sheridan celebrated Mass and then gave a talk on reconciliation. The talk was very good, laying out the theology behind the sacrament as well as a brief look at its history before getting into the specifics of the sacrament itself. He explained the three different “rites” of reconciliation - individual confession, penance service with individual confession and general absolution. He emphasized that the third form is not done in our diocese and should never be done unless the sky is falling. He also joked about “this being one of those times he wished he was an evangelical” as he tried to find a Bible passage during his talk. The Q&A session afterwards had a few pointed moments where the bishop bluntly stated that using artificial contraception is a mortal sin and that priests who refuse to tell people that who ask are like cancer doctors who won’t tell the patient he has cancer for fear that the patient won’t come back. He also was asked about the immorality of divorce and said that objectively speaking, divorce is always a grave sin but it is up to the individuals involved to see how or if they are the one responsible for the divorce. I know that blunt statements like that will make some people mad, but since very few people know or are ever told these things, it was good to hear it said.

The second talk in the morning was an apologetics talk on the communion of saints by a member of the St. Francis Apologetics Club. The confirmation class attended this talk and got a good overview of the biblical basis for saints and intercessory prayer. Hopefully the attendees will remember what they heard next time their evangelical friends start asking questions.

This morning our assistant pastor gave a homily on the dignity of the unborn and used Fr. Pavone’s new book Ending Abortion, Not Just Fighting It to emphasize the point that babies are babies from conception and we should stop saying things like “I’m expecting a baby.” and should choose names for the baby before the baby is born. He also recommends commemorating the conception date in some way. We already give our kids names before they are born but since we don’t find out what sex they are before birth, we name them after flowers that have something to do with the season or place we are living at the time. Two of our children, Bluebonnet and Violet, never got real names but we ask them to pray for us every night. My parents named all of us before we were born too. I was called Schnitzel because my parents had been stationed in Germany and I somehow convinced them to name my youngest brother “Tribble” because I was really into Star Trek.

The religious education packet this morning contained a letter from the staff reminding the parents that the religious education teachers were there to HELP parents educate their children, not to do it for them. Next week they are going to give out eight one-hour lessons to be done at home in preparation for First Confession and the kids have to return them completed or they get to wait until next year. The letter also reminded the parents that the staff thought it was their duty to make sure that the parents had some solid instruction as well and so some more articles from the Association for Catechetical Ministry’s RCIA program were included. These articles were on the teaching authority of the Church and the apostolic mission of the Church with a focus on the laity. If your parish is looking for a replacement RCIA program or doesn’t really have a set program, I really recommend this series. It is orthodox and the participant’s book includes the rights to perpetual reproduction within the parish. Talk about saving money!

All in all, it was a great weekend full of solid Catholic activities.

Earlier this week we received a rather cryptic email from someone who gave us a “ticket number” and said that since he couldn’t use it last summer he wanted to use it now. When asked for more details, he said that it was a Delta Airlines ticket number and he was writing to see if it was not too late to use the ticket.

I’m not sure that airline ticket reservations are a core competency for us. Yet.

Oh, and that number doesn’t include the number of babies killed through the use of abortifacient contraceptives either.