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 […]
Author: Darryl Williams
Jonah’s Sins and Confessions
There are many different scholarly views of the Old Testament Book of Jonah. Discussion of them can be found in The Jewish Study Bible, Pages 1198-1199, A Theological Introduction to the Old Testament, Pages 438-439), and in one book all Catholics should have on hand, The Catholic Study Bible, Second Edition, Pages 278-279. The confusion […]
Real Presence
A Theological Journey The Baptist Experience The journey from my early Baptist experience with quarterly celebration of The Lord’s Supper, a simple response to the instruction of Jesus to “do this in remembrance of me,” to weekly celebration of the Eucharist, a reaction to the promise of Jesus that “Those who eat my flesh and […]
Love, Hate, and Crime
Love and Hate I have written recently about how sloppy use of the word “love” has diluted its current meaning. Yes, we are commanded in Sacred Scripture to love God, our families, our neighbors, and even our enemies. Now we easily claim to love peanut butter, our cars, and football even if we ignore God, […]
Latin???
16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah,[c] the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter,[d] and on this rock[e] I will build my church, and the gates of Hades […]
More on Sacraments
This post results from expressed interest in different understandings of sacraments by various Christian denominations. The investigation is complicated because there are many churches, and the beliefs of church members sometimes vary significantly from the official positions of denomination leadership. But the issue for this post is not what church members believe but what their […]
Mysterious Sacraments
Sacraments may be one of the easiest Catholic ideas to accept but most difficult to fully understand and to experience appropriately. The Wikipedia write up on the term (as of 8/30/2025) includes a good introduction to Catholic teaching as well as to the differences with other Christian views. Sometimes understanding the differences clarifies the teachings. […]
Why Me Lord
This is a little break from the series on Catholic theology but it is inspired by a post I am writing on why adults become Catholic, why they sometimes remain Catholic, and why they sometimes leave the Catholic church. That may come later, but all those “whys” made me think of one of my favorite […]
9 – Perfection and Purgatory
What about Perfection? Forms of perfect show up fifty-eight times in the NRSVCE Bible. Below are a dozen examples that seem to refer to the possibility of perfection for us. There are others that speak more of the perfection of God, God’s law, and Jesus. When anyone offers a sacrifice of well-being to the Lord, in […]
8 – Bible Love
The English word Love has no deep 21st century meaning. We love our spouses, God, Jesus, golf, football, beaches, mountains, cars, and peanut butter. In English translations of the Bible, love is a very common word. It occurs about 500 times in the Old Testament and about 200 times in the New Testament depending on […]