A song of my youth is I Say A Little Prayer for You. I don’t remember giving it a lot of thought in 1968. I guess I was too busy. More recently I have wondered about differences between praying and saying a prayer with some suspicion of the value of the latter. It seemed to […]
Author: Darryl Williams
Catholic Confirmation
For the following explanation of Catholic Confirmation, we can give thanks to Magisterium.com, ChatGPT, the Bible, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and our priest who recently led a Man’s Prayer Group discussion of the subject. This is a summary statement from Magisterium.com: “Confirmation is an indispensable sacrament of initiation, bishop-administered, Apostolically transmitted (by the […]
A Few Old Testament Heroes
How did the small pagan world of five thousand years ago, maybe as few as 10 million people, become the current global population of eight billion souls, approximately 30% Christian and another 30% or so believing in one God but rejecting the Trinity? Christians rightfully see the 1st Century ministry of Jesus as the origin […]
Bible Tinkering and Tweaking
Father Henry Wansbrough (1934 – ) offered this comment on the Universalis App January 1, 2026: “At a certain stage, in the 1960’s, there was a great tendency to translate the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5) as ‘happy are the poor in spirit’ etc. But God’s blessing does not mean ‘happiness’ […]
CHANGE?!?!
For at least two years now I have been spending some serious morning time on the daily Mass readings for the Catholic Church. Those readings usually include related passages from the Old Testament, the Psalms, and the New Testament. They are available for reading and listening at the USCCB website and for reading only at Universalis.com. […]
The Nicene Creed
In 325 AD the Christian Church was about 300 years old and was “one holy, catholic, and apostolic church” meaning that it was established by Jesus, God in flesh, was universal, and was led by bishops of the time, successors of the original apostles who were followers of Jesus during his earthly ministry Decades of […]
Wisdom Bible Books
This post is a change of emphasis from Catholic Theology to a Bible study. The Catholic Church classifies six or seven Bible books as Wisdom Books. The Catholic Study Bible, Second Edition, includes Psalms with the comment that Psalms is “often associated” with the Wisdom books. I have not included Psalms in this list of […]
Christian Baptism
Baptism, the gateway to membership in the Church, is the first of seven sacraments (Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Penance, Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders, and Matrimony) established by Jesus during his earthly ministry and entrusted to the Church he founded. Baptism is a pre-requisite for reception of the other six sacraments. Basis and Commandment The […]
Truth and Love
It is unfortunate that the 21st Century meanings of truth and love do not do justice to the important ancient Greek and Hebrew words translated as truth and love in most English Bibles. Now we tend to talk easily of scientific truth, religious truth, and personal truth, giving the most weight to scientific truth but […]
The Roman Catholic Church
Two things make the Roman Catholic Church unique, its age and its seven sacraments. This little post uses magisterium.com to answer some key questions about the sacraments. There are hot links to open key sources. What is the Catholic definition of Sacrament? (Magisterium.com) In Catholic teaching a sacrament is a visible, tangible sign instituted by Christ […]