Each weekday, you'll find a new question and answer. Check back for the new question and scroll down to see previous day's entries! Let us know what you think - - or question! -- by emailing us at tcanswer@osv.com.
Preparing for death
Q. When I was young, we were taught that we ought to spend every day preparing for heaven. Is this taught in religious education anymore?
H.G., Columbus, Ohio
A. Here’s a reply from OSV columnist Msgr. M. Francis Mannion:
The admonition to spend each day preparing for heaven is an essential part of Christian faith. My impression is that this goal is not emphasized as much as it should be in contemporary religious education.
Preparing each day for heaven does not distract us from our daily duties and obligations, but, on the contrary, impels us to take every important aspect of our lives with utmost seriousness.
In this light, our coming to heaven, will, by God's grace, be the fulfillment of our temporal lives.
Confessing Sins
Q. I have some friends who are non-Catholic, and the question they always ask me is why do I confess my sins to a priest. According to them only God can absolve me for my sins? What is the proper answer to them to resolve this issue?
— A. Casimiro
A. Here’s a reply from Father Reginald Martin:
Church teaching on the Sacrament of Reconciliation is unequivocal: “Individual, integral confession and absolution remain the only ordinary way for the faithful to reconcile themselves with God and the Church, unless physical or moral impossibility excuses from this kind of confession” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 1484).
Some consider a priest unnecessary in this process, either because only God forgives sin, or because the Letter of James commends confessing sin without mentioning priestly ministry (see 5:16). The Church’s response is twofold: reliance on Scripture, which describes Jesus giving the apostles authority to forgive sin (Jn 20:21), and belief that because sin weakens the bonds that unite Christians, Christ’s minister must restore the sinner to unity with other believers. “Reconciliation with the Church is inseparable from reconciliation with God” (Catechism, No. 1445).
The Sacrament of Reconciliation is not the Church arbitrarily assuming God’s power; the Church teaches “only God forgives sin” (No. 1441). “The confessor is not the master of God’s forgiveness, but its servant” (No. 1466). The Sacrament of Reconciliation expresses our belief that God’s authority is mediated through human instruments. Thus “bishops who are [the apostles’] successors, and priests, the bishops’ collaborators, continue to exercise this ministry” (No. 1461) Christ gave the apostles.
St. Louis Ibaraki
Q. Who is St. Louis Ibaraki? I have searched in books of saints but have not found him.
Sr. Grace Mary
A. Here’s a reply from TCA columnist Father Ray Ryland, Ph.D., J.D
On Feb. 6 we honor the memory and invoke the prayers of St. Paul Miki and his 25 companions (all Japanese), martyred in 1597. They are known as "the Holy Martyrs of Nagasaki." All were crucified.
St. Louis of Ibaraki was only 12 years old, by far the youngest of the martyrs. He was the nephew of two other Nagasaki martyrs, St. Paul Ibaraki and St. Leo Karasumaru.
On the eve of the martyrdom of St. Paul Miki and his companions, one of them, Father Francis Blanco, wrote of St. Louis, "We have little Louis with us, and he is so full of courage and in such high spirits that it astonishes everybody."
The saintly boy kept laughing and singing even when his torturers cut off one of his ears, and he steadfastly rejected their demand to renounce his faith.
Forty-Hour Adoration?
Q. In an article I read about St. John Neumann it said he instituted 40 days of adoration in his diocese, and I know that adoration of the Blessed Sacrament has been practiced in our parish. But what exactly is it, and how did it come about?
G. L., via e-mail
A. Here is a reply from Father Francis Hoffman, J.C.D.:
Doubtless you are referring to the forty hours of adoration for which St. John Neumann was a pioneer in this country.
By the time of the Council of Nicaea (A.D. 325), we know that the Blessed Sacrament was reserved in the churches of convents and monasteries. The practical purpose of reservation was to have the sacrament readily available for the sick and dying. Gradually, there arose adoration of our divine Savior under the forms of bread and wine.
This devotion gathered great momentum in the 11th century, at a time when Berengarius (999-1088) publicly denied the Real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament. Pope Gregory VII ordered Berengarius to sign a retraction stating what the Church has always believed. Subsequently, worship of our Lord Jesus Christ under these sacramental forms has repeatedly been commended by the Magisterium.
The Forty Hours devotion originated in Milan around 1530. The archbishop there petitioned the pope, asking for an indulgence to be given for this lengthy devotion. In 1539, Pope Paul III granted the petition.
In stating the purpose of this devotion, the pontiff sounded a note strikingly relevant to Christendom today. He wrote that the Forty Hours devotion, along with other pious practices, was offered "in order to appease the anger of God provoked by the offenses of Christians, and in order to bring to nought the efforts and machinations of the Turks who are pressing forward to the destruction of Christendom." As indeed the enemies of the Christian faith are doing today.
So the Forty Hours devotion spread throughout the Church. It was introduced in this country, as you have noted, by St. John Neumann in the 1840s for his Diocese of Philadelphia. In 1866, the Plenary Council of Baltimore approved the Forty Hours devotion for all dioceses in this country.
The number 40 recalls the 40 days of rain while Noah was in the ark; the 40 years the ancient Israelites wandered in the desert; and Our Lord's 40 days in the wilderness, which launched His public ministry.
The devotions begin with a Mass of Exposition. For the next 40 hours the faithful engage in private and corporate prayer. During daily Mass the Blessed Sacrament is returned to the tabernacle, then exposed again after Mass.
The 40 hours may be interspersed by a series of homilies. At the end of the Forty Hours devotion, a Mass of Deposition is offered, usually followed by a procession, benediction and final reposition of the Blessed Sacrament.
Mary’s Titles
Q. Why do Catholics give Mary, the Mother of God, so many different titles?
The Second Vatican Council document Lumen Gentium succinctly explains devotion to Mary: “This motherhood of Mary . . . continues uninterruptedly. … Therefore [she] is invoked … under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix” (see no. 62).
We find additional titles in the Litany of Loreto, said to be the most popular of the Church’s litanies. It – and other litanies – springs from petitions early Christians offered during eucharistic celebrations, after the proclamation of the Gospel. (These petitions inspired the prayers of the faithful we offer at Mass today.) The petitions invoked the help of the Trinity, the saints and, of course, the Blessed Virgin.
Titles honoring Mary are varied and imaginative. Some (“Ark of the Covenant,”) are taken from Scripture and express belief in Mary’s motherhood. Others (“Queen of heaven,” “Queen of angels”) reflect her relation to Jesus and the saints. Many titles (“Help of Christians,” “Refuge of sinners”) describe her maternal love for us, while others (“Mirror of justice,” “Mother of good counsel,” “Virgin most prudent,” “Virgin most faithful”) illustrate virtues we should cultivate. These titles reflect “what the Church already is … and what she will be” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 972). They call us to imitate Mary, whose fidelity to Christ’s call is our model in all things.
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