News
Reminder: TONIGHT!
Please join us and bring your questions!
National Alliance on Mental Illness Presentation (no cost)
The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) will be joining us at OMC on August 12th at 6:30pm. NAMI is the nation’s largest mental health organization providing Education, Advocacy and S…Catholicism is different. Personally, I have always known so. Our church did not break away from any other tradition. Almost 99% of our doctrine comes directly out of the bible (our doctrine on Transubstantiation and Mary, the Mother of God, are the big stumbling blocks). The traditions which hold to the doctrine of Sola Scriptura( only Holy Scripture as a source of doctrine) need to remember that the Catholic Church put together and later canonized what is our bible today. It was first put together by a Church Father named Athanasius in the fifth century and then ratified again at the Council of Trent in 1546, AND OUR DOCTRINE HAS NOT CHANGED EVER SINCE ( except for the addition of the doctrines of the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption of Mary). Therefore, if some newager Christian says he belongs to a bible-based church, please tell him that you, as a Catholic, do so too. I was happy to read that Bishop Barron, in his introduction to the book accompanying his CATHOLICISM series has this to say about our church:
The doctrine of the Incarnation separates Christianity from the other great world religions, but how does it distinguish Catholicism from the other Christian churches? Don't Protestants and the Orthodox hold just as firmly to the conviction that the Word became flesh? They do indeed, but they don't, I would argue, embrace the doctrine in its fullness. They don't see all the way to the bottom of it or draw out all of its implications. Essential to the Catholic mind is what I would characterize as a keen sense of the prolongation of the Incarnation throughout space and time, an extension that is made possible through the mystery of the church. Catholics see God's continued enfleshment in the oil, water, bread, imposed hands, wine, and salt of the sacraments; they appreciate it in the gestures, movements, incensations, and songs of the Liturgy; they savor it in the texts, arguments, and debates of the theologians; they sense it in the graced governance of popes and bishops; they love it in the struggles and missions of the saints; they know it in the writings of Catholic poets and in the cathedrals crafted by Catholic architects, artists, and workers. In short, all of this discloses to the Catholic eye and mind the ongoing presence of the Word made flesh, namely Christ.
Newman said that a complex idea is equivalent to the sum total of its possible aspects. This means, he saw, that ideas are only really known across great stretches of space and time, with the gradual unfolding of their many dimensions and profiles. The Incarnation is one of the richest and most complex ideas ever proposed to the mind, and hence it demands the space and time of the church in order fully to disclose itself. This is why, in order to grasp it fully, we have to read the Gospels, the Epistles of Paul, the Confessions of Saint Augustine, the Summa Theologiae of Thomas Aquinas, The Divine Comedy of Dante, Saint John of the Cross's Ascent of Mount Carmel, The Story of a Soul of Therese of Lisieux, among many other master texts. But we also have to look and listen. We must consult the Cathedral of Chartres, the Sainte-Chapelle, the Arena Chapel, the Sistine Chapel ceiling, Bernini's Ecstasy of Saint Teresa, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Grtinewald's Crucifixion in the Isenheim Altarpiece, the soaring melodies of Gregorian chant, the Masses of Mozart, and the motets of Palestrina. Catholicism is a matter of the body and the senses as much as it is a matter of the mind and the soul, precisely because the Word became flesh.
The artifacts of Catholicism are not objets d'art in a museum, they function rather as a mystagogue (something that teaches or opens the mind to the profound), conducting you ever deeper into the mystery of the Incarnation in the hopes that you might be transformed by its power. I stand with the theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar, who held that the truth of Catholicism is best appreciated from within the confines of the church, just as the windows of a cathedral, drab enough when seen from the outside, shine in all of their splendor when viewed from the inside. Going deep within the cathedral of Catholicism, I'm convinced, will change and enhance your life.
Catholicism is a celebration, in words and imagery, of the God who takes infinite delight in bringing human beings to fullness of life. Jesus, is the constant point of reference, the beginning and the end of the Catholic faith. The uniqueness of Jesus, how his claim to speak and act in the very person of God sets him apart from all other philosophers, mystics, and religious founders. His resurrection from the dead not only ratifies his divine identity but also establishes him as the Lord of the nations, the one to whom final allegiance is due. Jesus’ teaching is extraordinary while being spoken in simple words and texture, have quote literally changed the world. They constitute the path to joy, for all those who read and follow them.
Fun time at Family Night! Build your own pizza and game night. Keep watch for monthly events for families! @ Our Mother of Confidence Church
Summer is coming to an end. Last picnic of the season.... sign-up. Print and use this sign-up form. Drop it in the basket on Sunday. Click on each image to view, fully.
ATTENTION YOUNG ADULTS!
Quick reminder: Mass and Dinner TONIGHT!
ALL are welcome!
5:30 pm Mass Dinner after – across the street – Outcast Grill A great way to meet fellow Catholic Young Adults! ALL ARE WELCOME! PLAN TO: Sit together at Mass and/or meet outside on the…
Day one of VBS was a hit! Over 140 children + more than 50 volunteers = lots of happy faces.
