In response to a recent comment by a regular guest here at Called to Communion, I’d like to take a brief moment to re-visit the basic vision behind this site. I’ve remarked several times in combox discussion that certain interlocutors don’t seem to grasp what we’re trying to accomplish. This recent comment confirms my suspicion.
The following essay is a guest contribution by Jeremy Tate. Jeremy is finishing a graduate degree at Reformed Theological Seminary in Washington D.C. this Spring. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church in America until he was received into full communion with the Catholic Church this past February.
The late Trappist Father Louis, born Thomas Merton, while living a lifestyle reserved and removed from the world, was a prolific writer. His autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain, became a bestseller shortly after its publication in 1948, and is still widely in print today. In it Merton describes his spiritual coming of age, his movement […]
One week ago we celebrated Holy Saturday, the day between the death of Christ and His resurrection. What happened to the soul of Christ during that time? The Tradition answers this question in the line of the Apostles Creed: “He descended to hell,” referring there not to the hell of the damned, but to what […]
“O happy fault, O necessary sin of Adam, which gained for us so great a Redeemer!” – The Exsultet, Traditionally Sung at the Easter Vigil A simple answer of why God allowed the Fall of man runs like this. God did not desire man’s sin but He respected man’s free will by allowing him to […]
On behalf of everyone at Called to Communion, I’d like to officially welcome Tom Brown and his wife Jessica to the Catholic Church. Tom has been on a journey towards the Catholic Church for almost six years and was just received into the Church at last night’s Easter Vigil along with his wife and four […]
The following is video from a Way of the Cross procession held in downtown Montgomery, Alabama as part of our Good Friday reflection. It was surprising to see our local television and print media cover the event but they did! There were over 120 people who walked the almost 2 mile procession, reflecting and meditating […]
We cannot fully appreciate the sorrow of the Cross because we cannot comprehend the innocence of Jesus Christ. It’s hard to watch a man suffer, but it’s harder to watch a child suffer. The reason for this is because we know the child is more innocent than the man. When the innocent suffer, it grieves […]
As we enter into the three most sacred days of the liturgical year, when Christ entered into His Passion and death, it may be helpful to consider the difference between the Reformed and Catholic conceptions of Christ’s Passion and Atonement.
In 1273, the year before he died, St. Thomas Aquinas was in Naples working on the third part of his Summa Theologiae. Having just completed the section on the Eucharist, he was praying in front of the crucifix on the altar, before Matins, and caught up in mystical ecstasy in the presence of Christ. Three […]
