During Advent, we prepare to celebrate the historical coming of the Son of God as the child of Mary born in Bethlehem. We pray more intensely. We fast more joyously.

With all the changes in the way that the Church accomplishes Her divine mission, priests remain essential.

In Catholic moral teaching, there has always been a distinction between ordinary and extraordinary means to preserve life.

A person remains a person even when terminally ill or seriously disabled. All human life is sacred, not just a productive or useful life. On March 20, 2004, Pope John Paul II made the point of addressing those who argue that the continuation and care of human life depends on the quality of life.

From the first moment of life, the child waiting to be born in the womb is not a tissue or organ belonging to the mother to be disposed of at will. It is a person.

In the case of other medical procedures and drugs, there is an increasing demand to inform the public. Common sense. Yet, for some reason, when it comes to the risks associated with abortion, there is a flight from common sense. Could it be that the willful destruction of the life of an innocent unborn child in the womb is so evil an act that it diminishes moral sensitivity even in areas where common sense should prevail?

It may take a childlike humility to do as the Church asks in the celebration of the Liturgy. True love is never proud. “Priests who faithfully celebrate Mass according to the liturgical norms, and communities which conform to these norms, quietly but eloquently demonstrate their love for the Church” (Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 52).

This is the first of two articles that will treat the meaning of bodily gestures at liturgy.

In December 1962, the Second Vatican Council opened the door for the use of the vernacular in the Liturgy. The principle was solid. The use of the mother tongue promotes better understanding of what the Church is praying. Gradually over the years, Latin has virtually disappeared from the Liturgy. However, the Council then and the Church today never deleted Latin as the language of the Latin rite.

The Eucharist as meal; the Eucharist as Sacrifice; the Eucharist as eschatological anticipation: all these dimensions of the Eucharist come together in the Real Presence.

From apostolic times, all the followers of Jesus have believed in the Real Presence. That is until the birth of Protestantism in the 16th century! Before the time of Luther, however, there were a few dissident voices who denied the faith of the Church in the Real Presence.

. In every Eucharist, we enter the Holy of Holies, the Body of Christ, and we are sanctified (cf. Heb 90:11-14). The Eucharist is the privileged place where life becomes sacred. The Eucharist makes our life a sacred adventure of ever-deepening communion with God.