“It is a wonderful experience to discover a new saint. For God is greatly magnified and marvelous in each one of His saints: differently in each one. There are no two saints alike: but all of them are like God, like Him in a different and special way. In fact, if Adam had never fallen, …
Tag Archives: Catholicism
Traditional Latin Mass
Last Sunday I attended my first traditional Latin Mass, at a local parish in Alabama while I was home visiting my parents. I had been meaning to check it out for a while. It was considerably different than what I’ve been used to; though I could still observe the basic form of the Mass. I …
St. Justin Martyr on Christian Baptism
St. Justin Martyr (100–165) was a second-century Christian apologist and one of our earliest testimonies to the worship of the Early Church. A pagan convert, he died a Christian martyr in Rome. In St. Justin’s First Apology (ca. 150), he writes regarding Christian Baptism: I will also relate the manner in which we dedicated ourselves …
By Scripture Alone; Alone with Scripture
(I am afraid this one gets a little preachy; possibly a little critical. As always, my heart is not to attack, but to rebuild.) So continuing from my thoughts yesterday: One of the most strident cries of the Protestant Reformation, and of Protestants to this day, is sola scriptura: by Scripture alone. Scripture, the Bible, …
Sola Scriptura and Sacred Tradition
This weekend I met with my friend Josh the Baptist, my oldest and dearest Christian friend. Over the years he has not been the most amenable to Catholicism — he once told me, years before either of us had any idea I would end up here, that he didn’t believe Catholicism was Christian. But he …
The Lonely Pilgrim
And now, the unveiling: “Catholicus nascens,” I decided, is something of a mouthful, not very communicable or catchy. I was tired of having to write down the URL for friends. So my blog is now known as “The Lonely Pilgrim.” And I’ve assigned it (and the DNS should have propagated by now) to the domain …
Early Testimonies to St. Peter’s Ministry in Rome
So I’m realizing why the “tomb of st. peter” is such a popular search term. It seems the issue of St. Peter’s presence and ministry in Rome is one of the major points of contention between Catholics and many Protestants (especially those of an anti-Catholic bent). This is somewhat surprising to me. Even as a …
Continue reading “Early Testimonies to St. Peter’s Ministry in Rome”
Confirmation in Penance
The way I know it’s God: when the penances Father Joe gives me are the same things God was leading me to do anyway.
Christ-centric, not Man-centric
One of the many things I love about Catholicism is that in our liturgy, in our worship, in our Sacraments, the focus is on Christ, not on the man at the front of the church. In evangelical Christianity especially, there’s such a tendency to build up a cult of personality around a popular and well-liked …
The Bones of St. Peter
This should be the conclusion of my three-parter on the Tomb of St. Peter at St. Peter’s Basilica on the Vatican, in which I hope to discuss the discovery of St. Peter’s relics and the issue of their authenticity. Also, a bibliography! Previously, “The Tomb of St. Peter,” “The Grave of St. Peter.“ The bones …