Secret to businesses, schools, and the Christian witness

You hear it at every school faculty workshop in August - before the students arrive.

You hear it when businesses gather for goal-setting meetings and staffing workshops.

Husbands and wives talk about it when they are raising their families.

We need to be on the same page and be giving a clear message.

Today's reading at Mass is essentially saying the same thing. It is one of the coolest miracles of all time. It cannot be explained away. People from every language gather in Jerusalem. The Holy Spirit comes. The Apostles begin preaching - but the people all hear in their native tongue. Everyone understands perfectly. Language is no barrier.

If you've ever tried to learn a foreign language (Spanish was mine) you know human limitations. Even a multi-lingual person might only speak four or five languages. Certainly, this was not a work of human intelligence. This was a work of the Holy Spirit who wanted Our Lord's disciples to be on the same page, clearly delivering the same message. God wants his people to be united in the faith, to be one body, to have one baptism, to be following one Lord of All.

Take another look at the reading from Acts of the Apostles - and think about how many languages were represented that day - all hearing with the same ears. Truly, one of the greatest miracles of all time!

Parthians, Medes and Elamites; people from Mesopotamia, Judaea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya round Cyrene; as well as visitors from Rome – Jews and proselytes alike – Cretans and Arabs; we hear them preaching in our own language about the marvels of God.’



Are you still not sure if it matters that we share the same faith with the world? Do you still think it is okay that there are over 33000 different Christian denominations? Of course it matters. Let's get on the same page, preach the Gospel with one unified voice.



Invite someone to RCIA this year and help them to hear with the unified ears - the teachings of 2000 years, the voice of the Magisterium, the Church, born on that Pentecost Day.



Happy Birthday, Catholic Church.

Secret to businesses, schools, and the Christian witness

Unity in the Magisterium - Part Two

There is sound doctrine, and it is knowable. There is perfect unity, and it is attainable. We have been led by word of mouth and by letter (II Thessalonians 2:15). Our terra firma is the Teaching Magisterium of the Catholic Church. This "word of mouth" speaks about all that the Apostles have taught (I Corinthians 3:12-13). By the power of the Holy Spirit, the Teaching Voice of the Catholic Church has taught us to be One Body with One Faith in every age (Ephesians 4).

There is no other way to have unity. There is no other way to fulfill the prayer of Jesus Christ on the night He was betrayed.

Unity is the net result of having this one Deposit of Faith, but there is a wonderful by-product that occurs when we give up our individual need to argue and debate Scriptural passages. Once we can put that to rest, once we read the Catechism of the Catholic Church and realize that it is completely reasonable and theologically sound, once we know there is a two-thousand-year-old Deposit of Faith and it’s not going to lead us into error, we are free to consider next things.

You, my friend, have a unique calling, one that nobody else can fulfill. That is what you must grapple with and discern. And talk about the abundant life and the joy-filled journey! That is when it all begins. Let us leave childish bickering behind and mature into the spiritual adults God has called us to become. There is one Body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one Hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of us all, who is above all and through all and in all (Ephesians 4:4-6).

(article by Denise Bossert first published by One Bread Lay Apostolate http://www.1bread.catholic.org/)

Unity in the Magisterium - Part Two

Unity in the Magisterium - Part One

I must have been around four years old when I was first paraded in front of the church to sing with my sister. The song was “The B-I-B-L-E,” and I belted the words out with all the zeal I could muster. The B-I-B-L-E, yes that’s the book for me; I stand alone on the Word of God, the B-I-B-L-E!

I wasn’t sure what the words meant. Was I proclaiming that I would believe in the Bible even if I was completely alone in doing so? Or did it mean that I would believe only in the Bible and nothing else?

Years later, I realized that the song was proclaiming the second of these two possibilities, a little thing Protestant Reformers called Sola Scriptura. But as a small child, I just liked to sing about Jesus, and I had no idea the problems that existed in the theology of Sola Scriptura.

Then my dad switched denominations (Wesleyan to Presbyterian) and everything changed.

I think that is when I first realized that there are many interpretations of Holy Scripture and that just because it is the inspired Word of God, it doesn’t mean all Christians believe the same way. That is a perplexing thing. The Holy Spirit came at Pentecost to lead the Disciples into all Truth; so why didn’t we all believe the same thing? Truth isn’t just a matter of opinion. But some of the denominations had totally different ideas on when one should be baptized, how one is sanctified and justified before God, and if one can ever lose the gift of grace and mercy once he has it. The questions weren’t simply whether Eve ate an apple or pomegranate. These differences concerned key issues of life, death, and salvation.

To complicate matters further, it was about this same time that my cousins began receiving the charismatic Gifts of the Holy Spirit (they were Assembly of God), and neither the Wesleyans nor the Presbyterians talked about that at all. Obviously, there was a problem with “standing alone on the Word of God” because that’s exactly what everyone seemed to be doing. And nobody could agree on anything.

First and Second Peter talked about following sound doctrine. First John warned about being led astray. The Book of Jude said to beware of those who seek to divide. In First Corinthians, St. Paul reminded us to be perfectly united in mind and thought.

For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out how this was possible.

If all Scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching as it said in Second Timothy, then we should all be teaching the same thing. And that’s just not what I saw happening. Furthermore, if there is a disagreement in the Body of Christ, the Bible says we are to take some of the elders with us to iron out the disagreement. Fine. But which elders? From which church?

Either Pontius Pilate was right when he said, what is truth? Or Truth is a constant. It can be taught. It can be trusted. It can settle quarrels rather than create them.

There was one more problem with “standing alone on the Word of God.” We live in a changing world. The Bible doesn’t directly address issues like abortion, euthanasia, same-sex marriage, or human cloning. Where is the teaching voice that we can trust to interpret Scripture and guide us through the cultural changes? Who can help us to stand on the Word of God without having that same Word tear us apart? Who is the benefactress and keeper of Truth? Yes, the Holy Spirit leads us into all Truth, but which voice speaks for the Holy Spirit on issues that divide? Private inspiration had not inspired unity. It had inspired over 30,000 different denominations.

The Church had always been the pillar and foundation of Truth - not the Bible. And those were the words of Holy Scripture (Timothy 3:15-16). The Church, not the Bible alone.

Part Two in tomorrow's blog

(article by Denise Bossert first published by One Bread Lay Apostolate at http://www.1bread.catholic.org/)

Unity in the Magisterium - Part One