Old Saint Mary's Cathedral + Chinese Mission

The Cross Wearing a cross around your neck can seem somewhat weird. And when it has a body on the cross it is really grotesque. It is a sign of torture. Catholics wear these things around their necks, like other people might wear jewelry. The cross was the way Jesus was executed. I wonder if he had been shot by a firing squad, would people wear a rifle around their necks? Now many Catholics wear the cross as a kind of talisman, asking God to help them in times of troub

St. Joseph Today is the Feast of St. Joseph, the husband of Mary. Nothing of what he ever said is recorded. But not so for me. This past Saturday, I gave a great talk on the Celtic/Cosmic Christ, and I did record it. You can find it on Soundcloud.com which is a u-tube type thing. Look for me under frterrysspiritualstuff. Now I forgot to turn the recorder off during the intermission, so there will be a long time with background noise and then I come on again. I am my own

The Baptism Way I read where in the early Christian church, people who wanted to be baptized had to go through this long process of initiation. That was the basis for the long process we have today. Then I read where this fellow Ambrose, in the 4th century, a declared saint, mind you, was not even baptized but the town wanted him to be their bishop. So in a week's time, they baptized him, confirmed him, ordained him a priest, and then ordained him a bishop. After that, h

Fleeting Concern In centuries past, some ascetic monks and hermits counseled a "careless and fleeting concern for the world." They said we were to fix our energy and attention on the next life, the everlasting one as they saw it. Back then, there was little knowledge of how our earth is adversely affected by what we do. Life was hard and short and you did what was needed to survive. The communal monks, such as Benedictines, who farmed and ranched the land, had a better i

Nuper Nonnulli + 160 160 years ago today, on March 6, 1858, the Congregation of Bishops and Regulars issued the Decree Nuper Nonnulli. At their request, it dispensed four of Isaac Hecker’s Redemptorist colleagues, Clarence Walworth, Augustine Hewit, George Deshon, and Francis Baker from their vows, and attached Hecker himself to their petition in respect to the dispensation. The decree directed the five of them then to work “under the direction and jurisdiction of the local