The New Mass App is Updated!

Now you can download version 1.1 of The New Mass app from the iTunes App Store! For those of you who already have The New Mass, simply download the update from the App Store on your iOS device. Click here for all the info.

It only took 1 hour and 44 minutes for Apple to approve the update once it was under review. That has to be some kind of record! We are so excited to present the latest version of the first app to explain the new English translation of the Mass to the world. Version 1.1 features many exciting additions, including high-res graphics for the new Retina display on the new iPod Touch and iPhone 4. We also added an important feature which was the #1 request from users, namely, the ability to advance back and forth over the various parts of the Mass. before, one had to return to the root menu.

We also included the final update to the new Nicene Creed translation, and added a “More” page featuring “Tell a Friend” and social media connectivity via Twitter and Facebook.

Many thanks to the phenomenal Kevin Birch, who programmed the update. If you like the upgrade, please give it a rating via the App Store.

Enjoy the new download, everyone!

/7 Comments/by

Taylor “Marshalls” Evidence for the Catholic Paul

The wait is over for book two in Taylor Marshall‘s three-volume Origins of Catholicism series! You may recall my review of book one, The Crucified Rabbi, which focused on the organic links between Judaism and the Catholic Church. Christmas came early for me this year when volume two, The Catholic Perspective on Paul, arrived in my mailbox recently. Since a particular interpretation of Paul’s writings by Luther touched off the Protestant revolution in the first place, it’s crucial to understand Paul correctly to ascertain (to borrow a phrase from N.T. Wright) what Saint Paul really said.

Look for my full review in Catholic Insight magazine in early 2011, but let me give you a sneak peek at Paul from Taylor’s Perspective:

It has been said that Paul’s entire theology is an expansion upon the particular words of Christ pronounced to him on the road to Damascus: “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” (Acts 26:14). With these words, Christ revealed that to persecute any of His disciples is to persecute Him. When Saul approved of the murder of Stephen, he had approved of the murder of Christ. When Saul imprisoned Christians, he had imprisoned Christ. From this intimate union between Christ and his disciples, Saint Paul extrapolated his entire theological system. Accordingly, Paul’s doctrine of the believer’s union with the person of Christ is the bedrock of Catholic theology because it presents salvation in terms of participation. Christ’s statement to Saul reveals that the Christian believer participates in the life of Christ. This is the center of Paul’s message. “So we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another” (Rom 12:5). The epistles of Paul constantly and consistently resound with the phrase “in Christ” and “in him”. This phrase is more common than any other topic in the letters of Paul combined. This means that Paul discusses the believer’s participation in Christ more than justification, faith, works, law, or predestination. Union with Christ is the ubiquitous theme of Paul’s theology.

When we understand Christianity as a participation in Christ, we begin to read Paul’s epistles in a new light, or rather under the ancient light of the Church Fathers who lived before us. We find that the “old perspective on Paul” articulated by the Catholic Church had it correct all along. Saint Paul presents the Church, baptism, the Eucharist, marriage, faith, works, justification, sanctification, and regeneration as participations in the person and work of Christ…this interpretation confirms that Paul’s teachings are in fact the teachings of the Catholic Church.

Paul’s paradigm of “union with Christ” can be contrasted with what I call “zero-sum theology”. Let me boldly suggest that all theological misunderstandings regarding the Catholic faith can be attributed to the adoption of “zero-sum theology”. By “zero-sum theology”, I mean that theological framework that views salvation, grace, life, and love as a pie with only so many pieces. Christ either gets all pieces or loses the remaining pieces to Mary, saints, sacraments, priests, popes, etc. Naturally, Christ as God should receive all the pieces – not merely some of the pieces. He is the whole of salvation, right?

Of course, Christ is the whole. He is “all in all” as Saint Paul beautifully teaches (Eph 1:23). However, Catholics do not subscribe to a “zero-sum” approach to Christ. Rather than using a “zero-sum” model, Catholics use Saint Paul’s paradigm of participation. Christ is “all in all”, but this means that all other aspects of redemption participate in and through Christ – not apart from Christ. Catholics thus believe that the sacraments, Mary, saints, and priests participate in and through Christ, and thereby lead the Christian to embrace Christ more deeply.

This difference between Catholicism and Protestantism accounts for almost every doctrinal difference between Catholic theology and Protestant theology. Catholicism is framed by a doctrine of participation – Protestantism is generally framed by the zero-sum paradigm.

– Taylor Marshall, The Catholic Perspective on Paul, pp. 26-28



/2 Comments/by

The Joy of Gaudete Sunday

Today is the Third Sunday of Advent, called Gaudete Sunday. The name comes from the first word of the introit at Mass: Gaudete – Latin for “Rejoice”. It is represented by the pink (officially “rose”) color of the candle on the Advent wreath, as opposed to the purple of the other weeks, and the corresponding pink vestments worn in the liturgy. Actually, I remember a priest saying on one Gaudete Sunday (perhaps slightly embarrassed at having to don vestments of this shade) “It’s not pink, people, it’s salmon. Salmon are strong, manly fish!”

The joy we feel on Gaudete Sunday stems from the fact that we are moving ever closer to celebrating the Nativity of the Lord – and we can’t contain this joy! It simply must overflow into the lives of others. Partaking in the apostolate of Confession can help that become a reality.

What is the apostolate of Confession? Many of us have friends and family members who have been away from God, the Church, and the sacraments for years. There is no better time than Advent for them to return to the Father’s house, as did the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32). In the Gospel account of Jesus healing a paralytic, we are told that his friends carried him to Jesus, lying on a mat. But because of the dense crowds surrounding the Master, they were unable to reach him. They resorted to digging a hole through the roof and lowering him down to Jesus! Not sure the homeowner was thrilled with the new skylight (it may have been Peter’s or even Jesus’ own house), but the text says: “When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Take heart, son, your sins are forgiven’” (Mark 2:5, emphasis mine). It took some ingenuity and effort for these men to get their friend to Jesus. Many of our friends are paralyzed in their interior life because of sin. We must find ways to bring them to Christ this Advent, so they can hear his word of forgiveness in the sacrament of Confession, and be set free to rejoice in the Lord.

/0 Comments/by

McEvangelism and Coffeenerdness

On this feast of the great evangelist St Francis Xavier, I thought I’d share this story with you. The other day I met up with my friend Kevin Walker, erstwhile soccer blogger (and the man behind such famous sites as the Own Goal Network) for a coffee. We decided to hit Mickey D’s as opposed to, say, Starbucks, for a pretty darn good reason – McDonald’s was in the midst of their free coffee promotion! Now, no one loves Starbucks more than yours truly, but having to take out a second mortgage for that grande vanilla latte isn’t always the best play. Especially when McCoffee (it isn’t really called that, but it should be) is gratis.

You know what? I’ve got to tell you that McDonald’s coffee, these days, is pretty darn good! And, no, I am not getting paid to say that! It’s waaay more consistent of a brew than Tim Hortons (the ubiquitous Canadian coffee named after a hockey player – and, yes, it is spelled without an apostrophe – don’t ask) is these days. I swear, almost like New Coke, Tim Hortons has “changed the formula” of their product over the last four years. It’s wildly inconsistent, depending on which location you go to and the time of day you go there – but I don’t think anyone’s noticed because we’ve been so pavlonianly trained to keep coming back regardless. Okay, end of rant – and rabbit trail. File this one under what Peter King of Sports Illustrated calls “coffeenerdness”.

Now, a funny thing happened while we were having said coffee: the place was jam-packed with students from our local Catholic high school, St Augustine’s, who, apparently, had also heard about the free elixir and thought it worthwhile to skip class to line up for it. While I’m ordering mine, Kevin sits down and somehow gets into a discussion on the Church with a student named Matthew. I returned to find them discussing the Bible. It seems Matthew is a devout Evangelical (even though he attends a Catholic high school) who finds Catholic teaching “unbiblical”, and was also appalled by the irreligious lifestyles led by many of his ostensibly Catholic classmates. To the latter point: don’t judge a religion by those who clearly don’t practice it. Rather, judge it by the strength of the lives of those who clearly do – the saints. As G.K. Chesterton once said, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.”

As for the first point, that Catholicism is “unbiblical”: Considering that the New Testament was written, and canonized by the Catholic Church, that can hardly be the case. Any discrepancies are only apparent, not real, and can be easily explained. Matthew had a ton of questions about these supposed problems, but, sadly, we didn’t have time to discuss them all. In a situation like this, its probably better, before dealing with less foundational issues, that we should seek to help people grasp a far more fundamental principle: Why do we believe the books that make up the Bible, especially the 27 books of the New Testament, are the infallible Word of God in the first place? The short answer is, “Because the Catholic Church says so”. It is she who collected and canonized those works, deeming them infallible. And we know from basic logic that an effect cannot be greater than its cause. For the Catholic Church to make such an infallible pronouncement, she herself must also be infallible.

I had hoped to discuss these things with Matthew at greater length. I gave him my contact info and he said that he would message me. So far he hasn’t. Matthew, if you happen to be reading this, let me say that I know that you really believe in Christ, and that you are sincere. I think that if you sincerely tale a look at the evidence, you will see that there is more than enough to show us that the Catholic Church is the Church that Jesus founded. It’s where he wants us to be, so we can get the “full meal deal” of the faith. If you ever want to talk about it some more, maybe we can grab another coffee at Mickey D’s. This one’s on me. The free coffee campaign may be over, but hopefully your investigation of things Catholic is not.

/1 Comment/by

It’s Clement-Time

Today is the feast day of Saint Clement, Pope and martyr. I’ve always felt his life and writings were eloquent testimony to papal primacy in the early Church.

Clement, who, according to Tertullian, was the direct successor of St Peter as bishop of Rome, was the author of a document that has come to be known as 1 Clement (there is a 2 Clement, but it’s author is most likely someone else). This letter was written to the church in Corinth, where the properly ordained presbyters of the Church had been unlawfully deposed by the people.

Clement orders the people to repent and obey their rightful leaders, and warns them of the dire consequences should they refuse:

“But if certain persons should be disobedient unto the words spoken by Him through us, let them understand that they will entangle themselves in no slight transgression and danger” (1 Clement 59:1).

All of this is quite interesting, considering that at the time Clement wrote this (c. 96), the Apostle John himself was still living in Ephesus, a city much closer to Corinth than Rome. Rather than turn to a living apostle, the Corinthians turn to the successor of Peter to solve their problem.

Did Clement’s intervention work? You bet. Not only were things set right in Corinth, but Clement’s letter was read to the congregation right alongside scriptures like St. Paul’s Corinthian correspondence for generations. Although 1 Clement was not ultimately included in the New Testament canon, it still provides one good piece of evidence that Papal primacy was not a later accretion or invention, but rather an integral feature of the Church Jesus founded.

/0 Comments/by

On the Feast of Christ the King

Today’s first reading records the Israelites saying to their King, David, “Here we are, your bone and your flesh”.

Jesus, the son of David, the rightful heir to the throne of the Kingdom of David (which in the Old Testament is called “The Kingdom of God”), also is a King who shares his flesh and blood with his people. Jesus does this, of course, not through natural descent and lineage, but by supernatural means: the Eucharist. In this way, we become part of the ultimate “Royal Family” (Who cares about the intrigues of Buckingham Palace!).

Jesus’ kingdom, unlike most, is not imposed from without, by means of force (consider the humility of the Passion), but rather proposed for consent from within. And to spread the reign of Christ in the hearts of others, we must first allow him to reign in our own, because the apostolate results from the overflow of our interior life.

One way we can do this is to receive the Eucharist more fruitfully. As St Thomas Aquinas wrote in his beautiful hymn Adoro Te Devote, one drop of the blood of Christ can free the entire world of all its’ sins.

There’s no lack of “power in the blood”, but some of us would rather remain king of our own lives than accede the throne to Christ. But when we do, when we receive our Eucharistic King and allow him to have more of us, as St John the Baptist did (“He must increase, I must decrease”), we will discover that Jesus makes us emissaries of the Kingdom. Like John, we can point others to Christ, even Christ in the Eucharist: “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of he world.”

/1 Comment/by

EWTN’s “The Journey Home” with Marcus Grodi

I just wrapped taping of an episode of The Journey Home program with host Marcus Grodi on EWTN. I have always wanted to be a guest on this amazing program since I returned to the Catholic Church in 2004. The show, in case you haven’t seen it before, features interviews with people who have discovered – or, as in my case, rediscovered – the truth of the Catholic Church.

Marcus, a former Presbyterian pastor himself, is also the founder and President of The Coming Home Network International, an incredible service and support network for Protestant ministers (and others) who are considering or are already on the road home to the Catholic Church.

The interview should air this coming Spring of 2011…stay tuned!

/2 Comments/by

Cale Clarke on “Perspectives”: The Full Episode!

OK, gang, here it is! Enjoy!

/1 Comment/by

Cale on Salt & Light TV this Friday!

This afternoon I was a guest on Salt & Light TV’s Perspectives: Weekly Edition program. The topic was social media’s impact on relationships. That’s me on the right, with host Pedro Guevara-Mann and fellow panelist Julie Abernethy from Aid to Women. The episode will air this Friday at 7:00 PM, and you can catch it in live streaming format at www.saltandlighttv.org!

/0 Comments/by

Parenting Your Catholic Teen (Part 4 of 4)

Let’s look at the final stage of growth:

Adulthood: “What can I do for you?”

Maturity means concern for others. Looking outside oneself to the needs of others, starting with God. Jesus first, others second, yourself last. That’s actually the recipe for happiness in this world, as Jesus himself taught it. What is the kingdom of God all about? Jesus says it’s the Kingdom of Right Relationships. Having a right relationship with God, and a right relationship with others. “Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself”. Love God – Jesus first. Love others – “love your neighbor”. And love yourself, too – “love your neighbor as you love yourself “. Love yourself – you must. But in the third place, very much in the third place. It’s certainly not the most important thing.

This way of living is the path to true joy – in fact, it quite literally spells joy – Jesus first, Others second, Yourself last. J.O.Y.

It is this Christian adult maturity that we need to inculcate in our kids. Because what God is looking for from you as a parent is much different than what the rest of the world seeks. Other parents may care most about the letters at the end of their children’s names – M.D., M.B.A., PhD. But Catholic parents care most of all about the letters they hope come before their childrens’ names: St. Saint. For the goal of Catholic parenting is that your child become a saint. Who are the saints? The word saint is from the Greek word “hagios”, which means “the holy ones.” And what does it mean to become holy? Does it mean being weird, floating on a cloud? No. Being a holy person just means being the best version of yourself. The person you were created to be. The Bible says, “Without holiness no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 13). If we want them to get to heaven, if we ant them to see Jesus, they must become saints. And so must we.

This is the goal of our lives and the most important role of Catholic parents. It’s what you solemnly promised before God at your own wedding. Part of the wedding vow in the Catholic Church is:  “Will you accept children as a gift from God, and will you raise them according to the laws of Christ and his Church?” will you do your part to help them grow in the faith and strive for sainthood? You reiterated that promise before God at your child’s baptism. And we will answer to God for how we did that on the last day.

Most of all, I want to tell you, as parents, never to give up. Never, never give up on your kids. They are not perfect, and they will make mistakes. Sometimes that’s not a bad thing, because some of the best learning experiences come through making mistakes.

But they need to know that you love them, as persons, unconditionally. You must “love the sinner, hate the sin.” Never stop modeling a life of Catholic integrity for them. And when they get lost in the crumbling and collapsing debris of our disintegrating culture, never stop looking for them to help dig them out. We have a heavenly Father who has never given up on any of us, although we’ve given him plenty of reasons to. He never gives up on us. Like him, let’s not ever, even for a moment, give up on our kids. Let’s help them to be exactly who God has created them to be: saints.

/1 Comment/by