Posts in the "Liturgy and sacraments" category

Articles on the means of corporate Christian worship.

New page on confession

A new page has been added to the list of available pages in our right-hand sidebar: it contains a set of audio files derived from a talk I gave on the sacrament of confession some time ago. I hope it will be useful!

The Journey of the Disciples

Doesn’t being A Christian mean somehow that we have met the risen Christ, that we live now not just for him, but with Him?
Every Easter season we read the passage of Luke’s Gospel about two disciples on their way to Emmaus, a town outside Jerusalem. This Gospel account is about a journey that often […]

St. Paul Center For Biblical Theology

The St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology is a non-profit research and educational institute that promotes life-transforming Scripture study in the Catholic tradition. The Center serves clergy and laity, students and scholars, with research and study tools — from books and publications to multimedia and on-line programming.
Salvationhistory.org is a highly recommended website featuring selected audio […]

Messing with the Mass: The Problem of Priestly Narcissism Today

You may have read some of the books by Paul Vitz, an American psychiatrist who has written a number of fascinating books on the relationship between psychology and religion.   One of his most recent books is called Faith of the Fatherless, in which he gives an account of the relationship between fatherlessness and atheism.  He goes through many […]

The Eucharist in the life and ministry of a deacon

I preached a recollection recently, on the subject of the Eucharist in the life and ministry of a deacon. It came in two parts:

The deacon within the moment of the Eucharist
The Eucharist and the life of charity

I have also added these files to a static page that also contains the diaconal reflections I gave […]

Parish mission on the sacraments

I have been preaching a mission at Holy Family parish, following the same pattern I used for the faith enrichment evenings at Saint Mary’s. The fourth evening, though, was a bit different, because the fourth evening covers something I call the “Four spiritual food groups” and I had already done a mission once before […]

Improvements to the “Catholic Funeral Information” page

The sidebar on the right contains links to certain static pages on this website, one of which is called Catholic funeral information. This page has just been updated with additional resources at the bottom:

Easter funeral readings
Funeral readings outside the Easter season
Our Catholic funeral rites (pamphlet)

How Jesus heals today

Very often, when we approach the Lord for a healing what we are really looking for is a cure. If that is our desire, we may find ourselves disappointed and even in despair. But there is no sacrament, for example, that can stave off death inevitably. The only way the disease of […]

Saint Monica’s Podcasts

“A collection of Homilies and talks given by Fr. Jack Durkin.”
I don’t personally know Fr. Durkin, but I found his homilies to be very - hum - different from what we typically hear in our parishes Listen to his latest homily, “The Rich Man’s Steward“, to see what I mean.
Other talks and homilies […]

“Minimal requirements” for a valid confession

The sacrament of reconciliation is not only the confession of your sins but it’s also the confession of God’s love and infinite mercy.