Bound in Love

Man and Wife, Claimed by Christ, Bound in Love, Stumbling toward Heaven

  • Sacramental Life of the Church

    When we read the Old Testament, we see the pattern of how God revealed himself to his chosen people. He spoke miraculously to one man in a remote setting, such as speaking to Abraham or sending him three angels. God also spoke through the prophets, such as speaking to Moses on Mt. Sinai and communicating… Continue reading

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  • Babylonian Captivity

    The prophet Jeremiah was sent by the Lord to warn the Hebrews about the impending Babylonian exile. He served as a prophet for more than 40 years. There are 52 chapters of Jeremiah, which is immediately followed by five chapters of his Lamentations. His message was so sad, he was called the weeping prophet and… Continue reading

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  • The Church: Distinctively Catholic

    We are going to explore one of the areas where Catholics and other Christians use the same word but do not necessarily mean the same thing. That word is “Church.” Study of the church is called “ecclesiology,” which is based on the greek word for church. Ekklesia is a word in Greek that means “those… Continue reading

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  • Fire Pits

    Here on the 26th Sunday in ordinary time, the readings have a seriousness of tone that will continue through the first couple of weeks of Advent. In the reading from Saint James, and in the teaching from Jesus in the gospel, we are challenged to take seriously the reality of Gehenna. So what is Gehenna?… Continue reading

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  • The Fourth Cup

    Some of you may be familiar with a talk given by Scott Hahn called the Fourth Cup. Scott does a great job of taking you on a great journey of discovery as a Protestant preacher to learn something profound about the Catholic Mass. From Scott’s talk, you get the sense that his understanding of the… Continue reading

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  • The Scandal and Triumph of the Cross

    For the last couple of sessions we have focused on the problem of sin, both the original sin that messed up God’s creation and the actual sins that we commit. Today, we will talk about the central action taken by Jesus to fix that problem for us. And we will work our way through some… Continue reading

  • Actual Sin

    Last week we talked about the church’s teaching on Original Sin, and this week we are going to talk about actual sin. I just want to spend a few minutes giving some context on why we spent so much time on Original Sin. Our program is called Faith and Mission, and sometimes by the word… Continue reading

  • No Middle Ground

    The last line of the Gospel is quite challenging. “From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile.” [Mk 7:23] With these strong words, Jesus is reminding the Pharisees and scribes, and he is… Continue reading

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  • Original Sin

    Today I would like to begin talking about the problem that we face as people of faith in the world. Remember we are the Church Militant. So what are we fighting? We are fighting sin, and we are fighting from a disadvantaged position. And this is the problem that Jesus came in human form to… Continue reading

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  • Why Faith and Mission?

    We are calling this Sunday morning Faith formation program Faith in Mission because we want to focus on the critical role the laity plays in the work of the Church Militant, the Church of the people who are alive in the world. As Catholics, we believe the fullness of the Church includes the Saints in… Continue reading