Today if we look at the conciliar Church we can observe a total lack of any unity. First of all he’ll attack the Apostolicity, then the Catholicity, then he’ll attack their holiness, and only after succeeding in capturing those fortifications will he finally attack the main citadel, the oneness, the Faith itself. But with Catholics who are in a healthy state, who know their Faith who are Apostolic, he won’t just go straight for the attack on the Faith. The goal of the devil is to undermine Catholic Doctrine, the Catholic Faith, which is the source of unity, leaving souls without the truth. Just as the four marks build one on the other, a diminishment leading to a loss of the Faith and loss of Unity can be seen to follow the same pattern in reverse. ![]() The Apostolic Church is the Church which wants to spread to all things, to all people and to all places. A Catholic who is Apostolic then is one who never wastes an opportunity to spread the Faith, to give that true Doctrine and holiness to others and to bring others to it. Our Lord sent the Apostles, and the word Apostle means one who is sent out. This is what is meant when we call it Apostolic. The Catholic Faith must be in every aspect of our lives and every element of our society.įinally, the True Faith which brings with it Holiness, since it belongs everywhere because it is Catholic it must therefore be spread everywhere and will always seek to spread and propagate itself to the four corners of the world. It wants God in everything: God in your marriage, God in your children, God in your clothing, God in your business, God in your country. Furthermore, that Church which belongs to God desires to be everywhere. The Catholic Faith is not just for the French, not just for old ladies, not just for people from the Middle Ages, etc. Thus the unity brought about by the One True Faith, and the holiness which accompanies that are to be found everywhere. The word Catholic means ‘universal.’ Catholicity is thus a ‘universality’, an adaptability, a presence everywhere, possessing a quality which makes the One Faith and the Holiness fit into any country, any culture, any time or era. When we have the true Doctrine and true holiness, the next thing that comes from that is Catholicity. When we have the Faith we are made holy by it, but we cannot having that holiness without first uniting ourselves to the True Faith. Our external actions, our thoughts, our words, everything must from then on belong to God. We cannot come to the Faith and simply continue to live like pagans. The priest can bless certain articles and they then become ‘holy’, set aside for God. Priests and religious are persons set aside for God, Sunday is a day set aside for God. We say that a church is a holy building meaning that it is not just like any other, it has been set aside for God. Holiness means a setting aside for God, setting apart for God. The Catholic Faith brings other things with it. Without that one Faith, there cannot be unity. Any other doctrine, even only the tiniest difference, causes a loss of unity. There is only one Catholic Faith, one true doctrine. If you are not united in the Faith, there is no real way to achieve unity. What is the source of this unity? It is the Catholic Faith. The first of them is that the Church is One. ![]() ![]() Happy Holidays? Yeah, right! A fruitful Advent and Merry Christmas to all visitors to this site.These four marks are related to one another and they build one on the other. No Christmas trees, no lights, no good things to eat until December 25, when the time of waiting comes to an end and all of Christendom rejoices over an event so magnificent even a two-year-old will never forget it.Ĭhrist is to be born-and the world, the flesh and the Devil will never change that reality, no matter how hard they try. And a truly happy, holy and merry Christmas remains forever predicated on careful observance of Advent. And it can be gradually implemented, of course.Ĭhristmas is all about midnight and Christmas Eve and the Christ Child. I wrote it some years ago (before the last two children came along) and every year since, I receive email from Remnant readers telling me that they too have now adopted the old Christ Child tradition, believing it to be a beautiful way to restore and maintain the true meaning of Christmas, while strengthening Catholic identity in children. Editor's Note: Each year around Christmastime we post this short and personal Christmas reflection, which offers an alternative custom to the celebration of the great Feast.
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