The Catechism of the Catholic Church

A good household will inevitably include within it an area for a good library, a book shelf, table books, or some combination of these. And in every single one of those homes the one indispensable 'must-have' book is a good, readable copy of the Bible, the very Word of God.

In every Catholic household, and in fact in any home that wishes to explore an even deeper study and understanding of the Bible and the teachings of the Church, there is one more book that is also important to own. That book is the official "Catechism of the Catholic Church", which has now been available for more than a decade.

On September 8th, 1997, Pope John Paul II promulgated changes to the 2nd Official English Edition of the book in order that it might conform to changes made to the Latin version on that same date. In the end, what currently stands is intended to be a 'universal catechism', one to be used as a resource or reference point for all other such efforts within the Christian Church at large.

The modern Catholic Catechism is in John Paul II's own words "a full, complete exposition of Catholic doctrine, enabling everyone to know what the Church professes, celebrates, lives, and prays in her daily life."

In 1985, the Catholic Bishops recommended that the effort should be made, particularly with the many changes to Church practices in the decades since Vatican II, to explain more fully, clearly, and substantively the Church official teachings on the many and varied topics for which it is responsible.

Pulling Back the Curtain

I've been thinking about it for a couple of years now, but just never had the nerve. Either I was going to be too embarrassed, or I was fearful of exposing my face to someone that I might have to see on a regular basis.

So it was with a little bit of nervousness that this past Saturday I entered the confessional at church and finally pulled back the curtain for a face-to-face confession.

Penance is one of the seven Sacraments of the Catholic Church, instituted by Jesus Christ Himself "in which forgiveness of sins committed after Baptism is granted through the priest's absolution to those who with true sorrow confess their sins and promise to satisfy for the same."

We are all sinners, we all commit sins, some of us more frequently and heinously than others. We need to seek forgiveness in order to restore our full relationship with God, and He has provided us the means through the intervention of His Son.

When you enter into the Sacrament of Penance, what is known commonly in the Church as 'confession', the misconception is that you are telling your sins to a man, the priest, and that he forgives you. That is simply not the case.

The power to forgive sins rests with God alone. However, he utlizes his blessed priests to act as ministers or confessors in humanizing the process. It is wholly necessary that we come to confession prepared to honestly evaluate our thoughts and actions, and to confess those that have broken our relationship with the Lord.

God Doesn't Want You to Go to Church

Well, perhaps I should say that God doesn't only want you to go to church. More importantly, God wants you to want to go to church. Just a moment spent contemplating those two ideas will reveal just how different they are in actuality.

In my occasional series on The Ten Commandments, I have already covered the third: Keep Holy the Sabbath, the Lord's Day. In a seven day week there are 168 hours for us to fill. Assuming that we sleep for approximately 49 of those, or seven hours of sleep per day, that leaves 119 for us to fill.

Say we work at a full-time job, requiring 40 hours there each week, and another hour per day in travel to and from work. That knocks us down to 72 hours for ourselves. Free from the need to sleep, free from the necessity of work, we have approximately 72 hours that are ours to spend as we choose.

Those with children know how much of that time is spent feeding, clothing, teaching, chaufering, entertaining the kiddies.

But even with all that, and knowing that we do not all have small children, we have dozens of hours in each week that go to ourselves. Television, computers, schooling, music, hobbies, working out, visiting friends and relatives, shopping. There are many ways that we fill these hours.

The fact is, God is only asking one hour per week from you. One little, tiny, short hour for you to spend in his house.