question corner CommentaryLentQuestion Corner Question Corner: Do we relax our Lenten fasts on Sunday? Jenna Marie CooperMarch 14, 20233 min read The time of Lent is not meant so much to provide us with a literal 40 forty days of penance, but rather to recall Jesus’ 40 days of fasting in the desert. CommentaryLentQuestion Corner Question Corner: Weekly Friday sacrifices: You mean they never went away? Jenna Marie CooperMarch 9, 20234 min read Our obligation to do some form of penance on Friday is identified in Canon 1250 in the Code of Canon Law, which tells us that “The penitential days and times in the universal church are every Friday of the whole year and the season of Lent.” CommentaryQuestion Corner ‘Question Corner’: What are miracles, and why do we need them? Jenna Marie CooperMarch 1, 20234 min read Calling something like an unlikely sports comeback a “miracle” is using quite a bit of poetic license, since there is a readily discernible natural explanation for the victory (namely, the skill of the athletes, which the athletes acquired through their own human efforts). CommentaryQuestion Corner Question Corner: Can laypeople ever absolve sins? Chanting in ‘Novus Ordo’ Jenna Marie CooperFebruary 22, 20233 min read Even in an emergency, non-ordained laypeople are not able to confer absolution; nor can Catholic deacons, even though they are ordained. CommentaryQuestion Corner Question Corner: Infant communion and wandering minds Jenna Marie CooperFebruary 15, 20234 min read The difference in customs regarding the Christian initiation of infants amounts to a difference in emphasis between the broad liturgical traditions of Christian East and West. CommentaryQuestion Corner Question Corner: Must I believe in and follow apparitions? Jenna Marie CooperFebruary 7, 20234 min read No Catholic is obligated to follow any of the devotional “rules” accompanying a particular private revelation or to take on any of the prayers urged by the seers of an apparition. CommentaryFeatureQuestion Corner Question Corner: Leaving early and the paschal candle Jenna Marie CooperJanuary 30, 20234 min read The final blessing is the official conclusion of the Mass, so — in that sense — once the final blessing is said, Mass is over and you may leave without technically missing any of the Mass. CommentaryFeatureQuestion Corner Question Corner: Burning or burying sacramentals? And why use holy water? Jenna Marie CooperJanuary 25, 20234 min read If you have sacramental objects which you no longer need but which are still in relatively good shape, the best and easiest thing to do is pass them along to someone else who could use them. CommentaryFeatureGuest CommentaryQuestion Corner Question Corner: On Limbo and on silent prayer Jenna Marie CooperJanuary 16, 20234 min read Limbo is not included in our Creeds and is never mentioned in our current Catechism of the Catholic Church. CommentaryFeatureGuest CommentaryQuestion Corner Questions: Holy days of obligation, vegetarians in Lent Jenna Marie CooperJanuary 9, 20234 min read It can be a beautiful practice to go to Mass on a feast that isn’t strictly obligatory simply to enter more deeply into the spirituality of our liturgical year. Previous 1 … 5 6 7 … 17 Next