10 03, 2022

Galvanized Love

By |2022-03-10T01:47:59+00:00March 10th, 2022|Theology|

I am on a group Signal thread with a couple getting married and they asked me on that thread about how to explain the sacrament of marriage to a group of believers and non-believers: The audience will be people attending the wedding ceremony. Many of them aren’t Catholic or even Christian. The goal is to explain what they are seeing today and why it is important. Part of the explanation is going to be about Christian Marriage as a permanent union of man and woman. The union was made sacred when Christ raised it to the dignity of a Sacrament. The Sacrament of Matrimony is the essential element of the [...]

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17 02, 2022

Ex Opere Operato vs. Ex Opere Operantis

By |2022-02-16T02:10:47+00:00February 17th, 2022|Theology|

Fr. John Hardon SJ is quoted at The Fatima Center defining these two sacramental terms:   Ex opere operantis is a term mainly applied to the good dispositions with which a sacrament is received, to distinguish it from the ex opere operato which is the built-in efficacy of a sacrament properly conferred.   The above is an excellent definition of those two sacramental terms that always must be considered in a balance.  Most amateur theologians today are pretty good at knowing the principle of ex opere operato, namely, that a priest in mortal sin still validly confects the sacraments (provided he say the correct words.)  This is good that amateur theologians know this.  But most amateur [...]

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8 02, 2022

Is Water Baptism Necessary for Salvation?

By |2022-02-05T02:13:37+00:00February 8th, 2022|Theology|

Is water baptism necessary for salvation?  The first Pope (St. Peter) wrote under inspiration the following:  Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to Him.—1 Peter 3:21-22. The Catholic Church has interpreted this as water baptism being ordinarily necessary for salvation.  However, there are some extraordinary circumstances to consider.  The Church also teaches officially that baptism by blood (martyrdom) is sufficient for salvation [...]

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5 06, 2021

Life Update 2021.06.05

By |2021-05-27T18:15:45+00:00June 5th, 2021|Life|

This is the 19th century Papally-approved prayer I keep laminated in my Roman Breviary to pray before hearing confessions: Da mihi, Domine, sedium tuarum assistricem sapientiam, ut sciam judicare populum tuum in justitia et pauperos tuos in judicio. Fac me ita tractare claves regni coelorum, ut nulli aperiam cui claudendum sit, nulli claudam cui aperiendum sit. Sit intentio mea pura, zelus meus sincerus, charitas mea patiens, labor meus fructuosus. Sit in me lenitas non remissa, asperitas non severa; pauperem ne despiciam, diviti ne adulor. Fac me ad alliciendos peccatores suavem, ad interrogandos prudentem, ad instruendos peritum. Tribue, quaeso, ad retrahendos a malo solertiam, ad confirmandos in bono sedulitatem, ad promovendos [...]

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23 05, 2020

Can Adult Baptisms Be Canonically Suspended during COVID-19?

By |2020-05-23T21:29:34+00:00May 23rd, 2020|Theology|

This was an email I received from out of country. He gave me permission to reproduce it below under condition of anonymity. I changed his name and retracted the country of origin: Dear Father Nix, Here in COUNTRY-X, the government have banned all baptisms, and, by extension, all receptions into the Church. The bishops'conference have followed suit issuing their own edicts to this effect. There is, at the time of writing, no end date in sight for these measures, or even a vague time frame. Two catechumens, one whom was being prepared for unconditional Baptism, and the other who was being prepared to be received (with conditional Baptism), have asked [...]

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23 03, 2020

Catholic Clinicians Speak On COVID-19

By |2020-03-23T07:03:14+00:00March 23rd, 2020|Podcasts, Sermons, Talks|

On tonight's podcast, I am joined by a nurse working in an ICU treating many coronavirus patients and a physician  elsewhere who probably has coronavirus himself.  We put into layman's terms COVID-19's common symptoms and treatments.  Dr. Matt mentions the dashboard map of Johns Hopkins University.

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17 08, 2019

Why the Restoration of the Catholic Church Must Be Marian

By |2019-08-17T15:48:23+00:00August 17th, 2019|Theology|

Part I: A Night on the AmbulanceN.B. You can skip Part I if you do not want my real-life account of EMS from 20 years ago that got me thinking about the mystical body of Christ’s “anatomy.” The theology of this blog post is found exclusively in Part II: An Analogy In the Mystical Body.  But Part I here does describe an epic fail in my life... While pre-med at Boston College, I worked as an EMT at night. Upon graduation, I returned back to Denver and went to paramedic school while discerning if I should continue in medicine or if I was in fact called to the Holy Priesthood. [...]

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16 06, 2019

On Commendation of the Soul and Expiration

By |2024-06-10T02:32:06+00:00June 16th, 2019|Podcasts, Sermons, Talks|

For probably over 1000 years, these are the last prayers any Catholic would hear at the moment of death, prayed by the priest after both extreme unction and the Apostolic Pardon. These prayers are known as the Commendation of the Soul, the Litany for the Dying, The Three Prayers for Mercy and the Prayers at the moment of Expiration.

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