It could perhaps have been predicted that the mandatory global shutdown of the Church’s liturgical life and the slow reawakening of it here and there as policies loosen up would bring with it a bumper crop of new problems mingled …
Category: Sacred Scripture
Matthew Wrote First: Calculating the Dates for the Gospels
Oxford-educated archaeologist Sir William Ramsay, embarking on a journey to investigate the historicity of the Gospel records and Acts, was skeptical. Taught by liberals and having adopted prevalent errors on the alleged late origin and supposed non-historicity of the Gospels …
Spiritual Porneia and the “Lump” Destroyed
In the article “Porneia and Communion in the Hand” that was recently posted on 1P5, I explored the connections among porneia, the abuse crisis in the modern Church, and the immodesty toward our Lord’s Eucharistic body. Scripture speaks just as …
How to Dismantle Scripture: ‘Did God Really Say…?’
The words of Satan, “Did God really say…?,” to Eve are perfectly tempting. They do not directly challenge the commands of God or appear to contain any malice. These innocent-sounding words, however, contain an obvious counter to the wisdom of …
Porneia and Communion in the Hand
There are many instances of Eucharistic typology in Scripture that can give us insight into the question of whether God favors receiving Communion in the hand or on the tongue. This question is profoundly connected with questions of modesty, chastity, …
The First ‘Sunday of the Word of God’: Tradition Enthroned!
At the end of last September in his apostolic letter Aperuit illis, Pope Francis declared that the third Sunday per annum in the Novus Ordo would be the “Sunday of the Word of God.” In his letter, the pope left …
Reading the Whole Bible in a Year
I had never read the Bible, which is to say, the whole Bible. The extent of my Bible reading had been the passages read during Sunday Mass and the occasional daily Mass. So when I learned about Dr. Taylor Marshall’s …
Repetition Is the Mother of a Great Many Things
Readers may already know about the delightful book The Gentle Traditionalist: A Catholic Fairy-Tale from Ireland by Roger Buck (Angelico Press, 2015). Buck is back with an equally dashing although more earnest sequel: The Gentle Traditionalist Returns (Angelico Press, 2019). …
Sola Scriptura Needs Sola Fide, and How to Refute Both
At the suggestion of Father Dave Nix, I recently read the short work by Joel Peters entitled “Scripture Alone? 21 Reasons to Reject Sola Scriptura.” It is a fast read and probably the most crushing blow to Protestantism I have …
Bible Vigils, and Why We Don’t Have (or Need) Them
It can be bewildering, when reading about modern liturgical reforms in the Catholic Church, to compare reality (such as the disappearance of Gregorian Chant in the liturgy) with the intention, rationale, or official narrative (Gregorian Chant should have pride of …