Bob Nicholas

This past weekend I traveled to MI for my sister-in-laws wedding. I’m very happy to report that their wedding was beautiful and the guests enjoyed themselves. Emily is now a happily married lady and I couldn’t be more joy filled to see her smile and in love with Dave. Being present for her wedding was a close moment for me because my wife’s family has, like all families, had their moments with a teenage daughter and to see how happy mom and dad were, and to see by brother-in-laws happy, and my wife happy, was a blessing. God bless you Emily and Dave. May God richly bless you and increase your inheritance as he did Jabez. May you find true Joy in knowing your souls companion delivered by God.

 Watching them get married also brought me close to God in another way. When I first learned that they were to be married by a magistrate rather than in a church, I panicked. My sister-in-law grew up a Catholic and I feared that a wedding in this manner would present problems with God. After some searching I found, through the direction of a trusted friend and priest, that since she has chosen a non-Catholic faith and left the Church she was no longer bound by Catholic norms for marriage.

My response was not judgment, rather it was in fear that I became concerned for her. I did not want their marriage to be seen as bad by the Church. Nor did I want to subject us to the decision of supporting a marital ceremony seen as scandalous by the Church. I say this to point something out about Catholics, us, we the believers.

 The Church has a deposit of faith that is unchanged since Christ walked the earth and since the Holy Spirit first descended upon the Apostles in the Upper Room. This faith is constant and you can count on it. You and I can count on our faith.

Let me say it again. You and I can count on our faith.

You see, in my heart I knew this marriage was right. I knew that God wanted them to be married. But my lack of full understanding caused me to fear in my intellect that it would not be endorsed by the Church. I was ready, as Abraham was, to take one for the team and not go in my mind, but in my heart I was already watching them say “I do”.

“So Bob, what’s the point” you ask. The point my feathered friend is that the more we know about our faith and our Church, the better we can make decisions based on faith. I did exactly what I admonish others for doing…I made a decision about something without the fullness of truth as my guide.

How often do we do this? I can count on a calculator that has more than 7 digits the number of times I have heard, “I’m a practicing Catholic, man I try to get to Mass at least twice a month.” Or, “I believe in Abortion but I’m a Catholic and that’s okay.” Or my favorite, “The Eucharist is just a sign, that old ideal about it really being Jesus is over now.”

So here is my simple conclusion to this long post about me being a short sighted uninformed decision maker who learned his lesson.

Begin with love: If you truly believe, your heart won’t guide you wrong.

Back it up with Truth: The old ‘trust and verify’ method.

Trust your heart, verify with the knowledge of 2000 years of tradition and theology.

And lastly: ASK. My good friend Tom who has more than once said something smart told me I was crazy to not attend the wedding which affirmed my heart. Our true friends who know the desire of our heart is Christ, will always lead us to him.

So go forth, be fruitful in the Spirit, multiply if your are married, and…. Make good decisions based in faith. Until next time I’m your host…humble bob.

Man alive, I’m struggling. Why do people say they “love” the Church but then basterdize her teachings?

How is it that we say “one holy and Apostolic faith” and yet have people who don’t give a hoot about what Holy Mother Church teaches.

I don’t get it. If ya’ll don’t like what the Church teaches, why are you staying? Is there something here perhaps that you want….or need? AHA! There is… Except we as a Church aren’t using it properly.

When asked “why stay Catholic” to a person who doesn’t agree with many of the Church teachings they responded, “the Eucharist.”

Funny becuase recieving the Eucharist is supposed to be a COMMUNION of ONE FAITH. Jesus Christ made present to us body, blood, soul and divinity.

CACC 44: Man is made to live in communion with God in whom he finds happiness: “When I am completely united to you, there will be no more sorrow or trials; entirely full of you, my life will be complete” (St. Augustine, Conf. 10, 28, 39: PL 32, 795).

CACC 2032: The Church, the “pillar and bulwark of the truth,” “has received this solemn command of Christ from the apostles to announce the saving truth.”74 “To the Church belongs the right always and everywhere to announce moral principles, including those pertaining to the social order, and to make judgments on any human affairs to the extent that they are required by the fundamental rights of the human person or the salvation of souls.”

TO DISREGARD HOLY MOTHER CHURCH’S TEACHINGS IS SIN.
( I should point out that non-Catholics are not bound by Church teaching, but should follow the teachings of their faith. When in a Baptist church…)

The Church has the Command of Christ and the Church belongs the right always and everywhere to announce moral principles.

So take….Contraception. Why do people think they have the right to disagree with Humane Vitae? Who are you? Humane Vitae is a teaching of the Church on a moral issue to which the Church has been given Authority from Christ to make known and call the faithful to abide.

SOOOOOOO my good friend, when you disagree with this teaching and do not follow it you need Confession to recieve the Eucharist. WAIT… You mean the Eucharist, the whole reason your staying Catholic, is something not to be recieved while in sin??

CACC 1443: “During his public life Jesus not only forgave sins, but also made plain the effect of this forgiveness: he reintegrated forgiven sinners into the community of the People of God from which sin had alienated or even excluded them. A remarkable sign of this is the fact that Jesus receives sinners at his table, a gesture that expresses in an astonishing way both God’s forgiveness and the return to the bosom of the People of God”

CACC 1469: “This sacrament reconciles us with the Church. Sin damages or even breaks fraternal communion. The sacrament of Penance repairs or restores it. In this sense it does not simply heal the one restored to ecclesial communion, but has also a revitalizing effect on the life of the Church which suffered from the sin of one of her members.76 Re-established or strengthened in the communion of saints, the sinner is made stronger by the exchange of spiritual goods among all the living members of the Body of Christ, whether still on pilgrimage or already in the heavenly homeland”

Our Church was founded by Christ to guide the people to Heaven. Our Clergy, and the faithful, have duty to Preach the TRUTH as defined by the Church, not defined by man. How hard of a concept is this people?

I’m tired of saying, ‘well I understand why you disagree with that,” when I don’t understand. I don’t get it at all. To me, it’s simple.

God creates man and let’s him live in the house.
Man screws up and gets kicked out of the house.
Man sucks at living life of Grace in the world.
God comes to get man out of jail.
God creates Church to help man stay out of trouble.
Man listens to Church, stays out of trouble, and gets back into the house.
Eternal End of story.

But all too often people think, “I don’t need the Church to tell me what to do, I can figure that out on my own.”

In the words of the famous Wayne, “SHA RIGHT!” We can’t even find our way out of a cardboard box without God.

So, what’s the moral of this post. I don’t know. How about, shut up and listen.