Archive for December 2010

Desperately Seeking Certainty, or the Obedience of Faith?

Dec 31st, 2010 | By | Category: Blog Posts

Catholics claim that when Jesus Christ established his Church, he permanently endowed her with a Magisterium that can teach infallibly on matters of faith and morals. Protestants deny this claim, appealing instead to the sole infallible authority of Sacred Scripture.Ā Catholics respond to the principle of sola scriptura in various ways, including the claim that apart […]



Signs of Predestination – A Catholic Discusses Election

Dec 29th, 2010 | By | Category: Blog Posts

All the members of Called to Communion once earnestly believed the tenets of Calvinism before abjuring the errors of that system in exchange for the true Catholic Faith. However, it would be wrong to suppose that Catholic deny predestination per se. Rather, the doctrine of predestination is upheld, albeit with a important qualifications.



Joyeux Noƫl

Dec 23rd, 2010 | By | Category: Blog Posts

Advent is not only about the coming of Christ into the world, it is also about the coming of His Kingdom, the Church that He establishes. This is why the first reading on the first Sunday of Advent is about the Church, from the prophet Isaiah:



A Response to Darrin Patrick on the Indicatives and the Imperatives

Dec 20th, 2010 | By | Category: Blog Posts

Recently I was asked to explain how a Catholic would respond to the indicative-imperative theology explained briefly in the following video by Darrin Patrick, lead pastor of The Journey, an emergent church with four campuses in the St. Louis area.



A Protestant Historian Discovers the Catholic Church

Dec 17th, 2010 | By | Category: Blog Posts

Dr. David Anders Called to Communion’s own Dr. David Anders recalls some highlights of his journey into the Catholic Church in this article which appears in a recent ‘Coming Home Network’ newsletter. Dr. Anders received his Ph.D. from The University of Iowa in 2002, in Reformation History and Historical Theology, having written his dissertation on […]



The Church Fathers on Transubstantiation

Dec 13th, 2010 | By | Category: Featured Articles

This article is intended to be a resource showing the support for the doctrine of Transubstantiation in the Church fathers, and not a robust defense of the doctrine as defined by the Council of Trent.1 The Church fathers did not believe in a mere spiritual presence of Christ alongside or in the elements (bread and […]



Our Lady of Guadalupe

Dec 11th, 2010 | By | Category: Blog Posts

In the decade following the arrival of Hernando Cortez and the Spanish Conquistadors in the New World in 1519, the Aztecs were highly resistant to Christianity. But in 1531 an amazing miracle took place, and the missionaries were soon overwhelmed with requests for catechesis and baptism. This miracle precipitated the greatest flood of conversions in […]



Sacramental Graces and Practical Apostasy

Dec 10th, 2010 | By | Category: Blog Posts

If the Catholic view of the efficacy of grace is correct, why are ā€œbad Catholicsā€ so prevalent (and so bad)? As I considered conversion from the Reformed faith, this was a question to which I returned regularly. But since being received into full communion with the Catholic Church, and viewing things from a Catholic frame, […]



David Anders on The Journey Home (Dec 6, 2010)

Dec 8th, 2010 | By | Category: Blog Posts

For those of you who missed David Anders’ appearance on The Journey Home this past Monday evening, here it is:



Mary’s Immaculate Conception

Dec 8th, 2010 | By | Category: Blog Posts

Today is the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, in which we celebrate the conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who “from the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from […]