Open Line with Father Brian Mullady - 02/10/2022

in north america call toll-free 1-833-288 ewtn that's 1-833-288-3986 outside north america call 1205 you can also text the letters ewtn to 5500 or send an email to openline a ewtn.com thursday to each and every one of you thanks so much for tuning in to ewtn's open line dominican father brian malady is in the house if you've got a question the number is 833 288 e wtn that's eight three three two eight eight three nine eight six if you're outside the united states and canada we'd still love to hear from you that number is one two zero five two seven one two nine eight five and you can even get moves straight to the front of the line if you are outside the united states or canada at one two zero five two seven one two five you can always send us an email openline ewtn.com or you can text your question text the letters ewtn to 5500 wait for a response text your first name and your question message and data rates may apply i'm jack williams charles berry producing the program today your call screener is matt gubinski and if you're watching us on youtube or facebook live you can type a question into the chat window and it may find its way to us by the end of the program and your host as he is every thursday father brian mullady how are you just fine how about you jack terrific so why do you church people always hit me in the interpersonal relationship with all your doctrine well uh i thought that in this segment we might talk about since it's close to valentine's day the primary expression of interpersonal relations which is marriage and of course i was just reading interestingly enough i think it was on facebook something about self-affirmation on valentine's day where everything's about yourself now there's nothing wrong with loving yourself but you love yourself as someone who's a person and therefore gives yourself to another and the whole secret of marital relations is the ability to give yourself disinterestedly to another what we call self-restraining love as you know it's a truism today that with our modern world culture and the culture wars marriage is the foundation of the family which is the basic building block of all society it's where everybody basically learns initially to give themselves to another in a disinterested way and marriage of course has been greatly attacked for the last 50 years in the west and i don't like to talk about this too much but i think it needs to be stated again just for the sake of clarity that one of the principal attacks on marriage has been contraception i just finished writing a book on the ideas of dr conrad bars who was a catholic psychiatrist who talks a lot about this interestingly enough as a psychiatrist and one of the things he says in one of his books doctor the heart if he's comparing a european country i won't say which one to uh during world war ii in its difficulties in resisting the nazis and he says this country paid its price for taking the lead in one of the most successful campaigns in modern history some 125 years earlier the campaign of birth control because you know birth control's origin was a doctor malthus who was an episcopalian divine and very much a humanitarian but believed that the world's food supply would be destroyed if we didn't limit births and this would be about 1820. successful their campaign had been because birth control appeals so much to the selfish element in every human being it eliminates the responsibilities and duties of love it decries the consequence of romance and it educates young people in their own selfish interests and in the indulgence of their selfish desired this country by destroying the morality of its youth had led the way to the destruction of its own existence because it had removed in its children the backbone of perseverance against evil now this has certainly come to fruition i don't know if you were around jack when umani vite was approved but i was about 22 years old when it was approved and everybody thought the pope was nuts paul vi said things like if we approve this birth control this contraceptive pill it will lead to uh basically the destruction of the family wholesale divorce and and homosexuality and of course he didn't even imagine the cross-gender transgender things but i mean and everybody laughed at him and yet that's what's happened and the reason it's happened is quite simple the moment you separate sexuality from marriage then why not have a homosexual relationship because it doesn't have anything to do with the relationship of marriage in itself and the moment you separate sexuality from marriage you separate the physical expression of this internal self-restraining love or you will form another person from the conversion of heart in a sense or the giving of yourself that should characterize this relationship john paul ii expressed this in the wednesday audiences on theology of the body when he defined concupiscence you know the lustful look in the sermon on the mount as you're not good because you exist you're good because you make me feel good which is utilitarian so the implication is well when you don't make me feel good anymore then i don't love you anymore and there shouldn't be any uh lasting relationship behind all this when as a matter of fact the whole reason god established the relationship of marriage was to reflect his own giving himself within the trinity which is after all eternal and involves the complete inner penetration of the persons into each other's lie you know each other's person because obviously god doesn't have a life in the sense that we do and yet complete separation too so you realize yourself by losing yourself to find yourself in the gift you give of yourself to another and that's what love basically is so what we've done is by re using the birth control pill to say something like no child but a wanted child what we mean is no child but one that fits into my life so it's all about me and it's not about the person themselves and of course the children pick this up and it's one of the reasons so i think a lot of our children are committing suicide and that sort of thing because they don't feel loved for themselves alone they don't experience this interested love they're only loved because they can do things or produce things or win things or something like that no if they're made in the image and likeness of god they're lovable in themselves so once in valentine's day it's good to recall that the teaching of the magisterium of the church which 50 years ago was considered to be almost insane you could say completely uh out to lunch in a way is really actually quite relevant to trying to re-establish today authentic marriages you know uh we do have an enemy right and uh an enemy far inferior to the god that we serve but from our perspective a formidable enemy and he maybe isn't wise but he's not stupid and he understands where to attack and the area of the family is really kind of his prime target isn't it well yeah because it's completely against what he stands for love by giving yourself to another no for satan it's absorbing the weaker self into the more powerful self [Laughter] and the marriage is something he finds totally repugnant because not only does it reflect god c.s lewis is very eloquent out those are the screw tape letters when he had satan say nobody can love another in the sense of affirming them uh even in nature one thing affirms itself by supplanting or destroying the other and then he says the sad thing is that the trinity the enemy calls himself three as well as one and he actually introduces into human beings the idea that they can give themselves and receive themselves in this interested use which is complete madness he says nobody can love it's just impossible because satan can't love in order for him to love he has to get out of himself in his selfishness 833 288 ewtn is our toll-free number 8332 eight eight three nine eight six grab one of these open phone lines on ewtn's open line thursday with father brian milady [Music] now we have today's quote from mother angelica's perpetual calendar the real christian lives in an atmosphere of prayer for him prayer is not a spiritual exercise that he performs on occasion it is a way of life there are times he says prayers but those are times he asks for things he needs most of the time is spent in preparing himself to live in god as god lives in him mother angelica's perpetual calendar is available at ewtnrc.com that's ewtnrc.com this is a messy family minute with mike and alicia hernan we talk a lot on our program about the messiness of life but we thought we should take a moment to explain why it's important we live in a broken fallen world and we're constantly trying to repair relationships in situations that have become well messy why is it so important to recognize this because if we deny or ignore this reality or try to control our situation and make it neat and perfect we'll only end up frustrating ourselves and making the situation worse family life is never easy saint john paul recognized this when he wrote there is no family that does not know how selfishness discord and tension can wound the family but every family is called by the god of peace to have the joyous and renewing experience of reconciliation and unity restored families need to embrace the mess knowing that god is always calling us to reconciliation with him and our families and that he will give us the grace we need to get there for more inspiration visit us at messyfamilyminute.org catholic radio network if you have a question call 1-833-288-ewtn that's 1-833-288-3986 north america call 1205-271-2985 or send us an email to openline ewtn.com you know hot off the presses for the month of february a new book from ewtn publishing spiritual excellence the path to happiness holiness and heaven by deacon richard eason uh deaconess has prepared a practical and motivational book to help you pursue spiritual excellence and discover the abundant life our lord is calling you to experience in this book you'll be empowered to fly with the angels and soar with the saints so you can live a happier and holier life some of the topics featured in this book are how to remain steadfast in suffering conflict and adversity and how to overcome doubt stress and worry in your faith all of this in spiritual excellence the path to happiness holiness in heaven by deacon richard eason available now at ewtn's religious catalog that's ewtnrc.com wide open phone lines for you at 833 288 ewtn that's 833-288-3986 father sharon in newark ohio has been holding since the end of the last program we are going to reward her patients now sharon you are on the air with father brian milady thank you i had a question been thinking about it for a long time father i'm a cradle catholic but this i don't know uh when a priest a catholic priest leaves the catholic church is his power to change the bread and wine into the body and blood of jesus christ is that power severed or can he go on and take that with him and go to other churches well i'm glad you asked that because uh it helps me to explain that the priesthood involves not only it's like baptism it not only involves grace but it also involves an indelible mark and just as a christian who goes to hell still is a christian they don't revert to being a pagan they have an indelible mark in them in the same way the priest has the indelible mark in eternity you are a priest forever according to the order of melchizedek so he takes that ability with him but were he to confect the eucharist in another church he'd be committing a grave sin because he has to do it in union with the catholic church now there are well more more with regard to absolution of sin in danger of death even a priest who's married or defrocked can forgive sins in other words if a person is dying and there's no priest available it's possible for them to give absolution because they still have the power to do so but normally speaking the power in this world can only be exercised in canonical union with the catholic church and that involves the faculties to carry out the deeds now you still have the power to do it but it would be gravely against christ's will for you to do this outside of the mass so that's the answer you never cease being a priest but if you were to exercise your priesthood and i i would say absolution and danger of death is the one exception if you were to because it's an emergency as you know if you were to exercise your priesthood in any other context you'd be committing a graves in yourself does that help sharon okay i guess that's it yes thank you so much thank you we appreciate the phone call 833 288 ewtn that uh opens up a line for you at [Music] i agree 833-288-3986 the catholic teaching on same-sex quote-unquote marriage however as a catholic american i struggle with the idea of imposing my morality on another how do i reconcile this well you have to realize that the whole idea of one man and one woman uh who are naturally a man and a woman by their biology marrying each other isn't just a christian teaching but it's also a teaching of the natural law in fact it's contained it would be implicitly contained in the ten commandments about adultery obviously they didn't have trained sex or things like that or people who identify with another sex in former times but had they had it they would certainly have as some societies now that are not western and highly educated react against the whole idea almost with horror you could say it wasn't they were so much against homosexuality but they'd be against the idea that you could marry and be homosexual that's that's different and they they they felt that even though they tolerated homosexuals they didn't think that it could be a context for marriage that's where the issue lies and the natural law demands and this is regardless of christianity it has to do with having children like i said in order to have children you have to be a biological male and a biological female and you have to look upon your uh sexual sexual act as an expression of the interior gift of the self and that's true whether you're a pagan a buddhist a hindu a muslim a christian whatever because that's part and parcel to the natural institution of marriage eight three three two eight eight e wtn is our toll-free number plenty of open phone lines and all kinds of time for your calls at 833-288-3986 a timely question from david who wants to know why do catholics teach against contraception well i tried to explain we teach against contraception because we believe that each and every conjugal act that sexual act in marriage has to be opened to the gift of life but the reason god created what made sexual uh life different or friendship in marriage maybe i should say different than ordinary friendship is the fact that it turns around the god using it to create the soul and to give life and so if you try to frustrate that by artificial designs especially by artificial designs which are based on the idea that it won't fit into your life financially or some way you can of course practice natural family planning which is basically controlling your will and your use of the sexual act according to the natural infertility that god himself has placed in the act what this has to be for a serious reason you can't just because you want another boat or another house or some something like that and not even poverty you know if we said that people shouldn't have children because of poverty but most of us wouldn't have been born i mean you got to remember for most of the history of the human race most people lived in poverty and they were lucky to have something to eat and shelter and and some freedom to uh relax and have enjoyment and things like that but the reason we're against this is because we think it strikes right at the heart of what marriage and the sexual act is about here's a good question from diana she said i've always wondered why they mention god's image and god's likeness in the same sentence are they different they're different in the sense that in the context they're used i think i haven't done a deep study about this but i believe the context is the image for adam and eve at least before the sin would have been the fact of their spirits the likeness is the fact that they're in the state of grace and so there is some difference between the two whether that's at the origin of every place that phrases uses scripture i really don't know i haven't really done a study on it but it's it has to do with emphasizing different aspects of how we differ from animals basically uh 833 288 ewtn is our toll-free number [Music] nine 833-288-3988 six if you're outside the united states and canada we'd still love to hear from you that number is one two zero five two seven one two nine eight five and we'll even put you straight to the front of the line at one two zero five two seven one two nine eight five angela would like to know if we should be using gender neutral pronouns for god you mean like it uh the pronouns or them or they or you know no yeah unless you're referring to the purses of the trinity obviously you can refer to they there but if you're referring to one of the persons it's he now why well god obviously doesn't have a gender he doesn't have a body but in the scriptures there are masculine and feminine images for god the feminine image would be i would gather you like a hen gathers her chicks the masculine images have do god's power and they're by far the more prevalent in other words his transcendence and the feminine images have to do with his imminence in the world now people that write about these sorts of things and reflect on them say that both can be used obviously because the scriptures do it in the old testament especially but that the masculine image predominates because god's transcendence is the source of his nearness in the world and his nearness in the world ends again in his transcendence so the masculine image will be much more further emphasized the feminine image is inserted basically in the masculine image but normally when we refer to god we refer to him 833 288 ewtn couple of open phone lines at eight 833-288-3988 you can always text your question to father milady text the letters ewtn to five five zero zero zero wait for a response text your first name and your question message and data rates may apply uh i've got an uh a little bit lengthy email but i think it's it's kind of a heartbreaking email i'm gonna read it now and i'll get you to comment it uh comment on it at the bottom of the hour here but lillian writes in she said i married via civil union 13 years ago for this reason i have not received holy communion for this long i was ignorant of god's commands and the issue of cohabitating did not bother me at the time over the years our marriage became very strenuous very or little or no communication there have been no marital relations for at least five years i then began to experience a strong hunger to and thirst for christ i prayed to the lord to forgive us i tried several times to have my husband and i have a simple church marriage but he has continued to decline i told he told me i should seek help on my own we have three children ages four through twelve i fear if we separate there will be a grave consequences for the children although i pray on a daily basis and attend mass frequently i still feel a void in my heart what should i do is i want to be admitted again to holy communion so that's lillian and we will hear father mullady's response to her and we'll also talk to you hopefully at 1-800-833 excuse me 288 ewtn it's a thursday edition of ewtn's open line with father brian malady [Music] this is ewtn catholic radio hi this is trent horn from catholic answers and a lot of people ask me how do you pray i like the axe formula acts first we adore god realize he's god we are not we're contrite we ask him to forgive us of our sins we're thankful we thank him for the blessings and trials he's given us and then we make supplications and asked him for help in our own lives doing all of this so we can grow closer to him and spend eternity with him and now the ewtn family prayer with father joseph family a prayer that we pray together is a powerful prayer so please pray together with me our ewtn family prayer today we pray for those who are suffering with parkinson's disease [Music] lord jesus christ consolation of the afflicted you are our refuge we pray for those who are suffering the effects of parkinson's disease as they lose their physical strength and abilities increase their spiritual strength and abilities renew their inner spirit day after day and through their share in your sufferings give the grace of conversion to sinners and their weakness reveal your strength give peace and joy to those who care for them amen you want to be notified when ewtn openline goes live on facebook follow ewgen radio's facebook page and click the bell icon to be notified this is debbie giorgiani and i'm jerry usher join us for take two with jerry and debbie tomorrow at noon eastern now back to more of open line with father brian malady [Music] catholic radio network 833 288 ewtn is our toll-free number 833-288-3986 and father we have an email from lillian who um really stored it started to to throw herself into her faith after she had already entered into a civil marriage and she's feeling a little stuck now well you mentioned lillian that you hadn't had relations for quite some time now the problem with going to communion isn't the fact that you're married outside the church necessarily you would have to confess that as a sin uh but the problem is would be sexual continuous sex in other words if you and your husband were continuing to consummate your marriage but if you weren't having sex you basically be living as brother and sister which means that once you confess being mayor outside the church which you seem to be sad that you did all right you have to tell your husband that you can just do it in the confessional with our lord that then if you're not having relations you could go to commune as long as you're not having relations so sometimes people make people promise to do that in your case that might be too rigorous the solution so i would suggest that if you're not having a relations that you just quietly uh once you confess the marathon the church had been absolved uh avail yourself of a communion now the problem is if your husband never decides it's time to have relations again then you're going to have to deal with that and that means you may have to abstain from communion then all right thank you lillian one thing you've done by writing in is you're going to have a whole bunch of people listening to the program praying for you and for your family next up is stephanie in dayton ohio she is listening on sacred heart radio stephanie thanks for holding you're on with father brian hi father thank you so much for taking my call i am a bit in despair honestly in the state of the traditional latin mass and kind of want some sort of confirmation as to where that lies if you have any knowledge towards this i know that you know having attended for many years the novus ordo um my movement toward the traditional lat masses truly helped my face and i just don't see where the traditional latin mass is wrong in any way can you give me some knowledge as to where the state where is this the state now what are you despairing about the fact that it's going to be resolved and won't be resolved you won't ever be able to go again or where are you in despair what are you in despair about i'm in despair that that they might that the latin mass might be eliminated all right well i really don't know the answer to that it's in the pope's mind whatever he's going to do and the other thing i would say is this uh when you say you've gone to the novus ordo mass and you find the traditional atmos much more helpful i can understand that but as someone who said the noah's auto mass for 50 years in various places i've discovered that there are many different expressions of the novusardo mass and one of them is that it's perfectly possible for a priest to celebrate the novus ordo mass in latin even facing east and it's it might be the case that near where you live there is such a place where you could go for that and i think most of the laity frankly couldn't tell the difference between that and the traditional land mass so you may some others may but many of them they'll say the latin mass but they don't distinguish between the two now there there is a distinction so if you could find a place where the nova sorta was said uh in a more um traditional manner uh with traditional music and all that sort of thing near where you live if it should ever become the case that the um no extraordinary form is uh well forbidden at least in your diocese because some bishops haven't paid any attention to this thing that came from rome uh then you could have a place where you could still find spiritual comfort in my opinion you know father i think a lot of people are under the misconception that the documents of vatican ii did away with latin and really it's quite the opposite if you really read the documents isn't it well it is and if you read the original form of the missile of paul the sixth there are places where it says and now the priest faces the people and says so in other words it presumes that at least for the liturgy of the eucharist the priest is not going to be facing the people but the liturgist got a hold of it and everybody's so used to it now uh that it's very hard to change i would love i like celebrating the liturgy of the eucharist facing east in other words facing the altar but like was the case with the changes in vatican 2 where these people just impose this stuff they never explain them to anybody you can't just walk in and impose this on people without some preparation catechesis and and that sort of thing because people's prayer life is very personal to them thanks so much oops thanks stephanie we appreciate that call today 833 288 ewtn is our toll-free number 833-288-3986 next up is bassam in orchard lake michigan listening on ave maria radio bassam welcome to the program uh thank you thank you father for your ministry question um going to mass online on a daily basis not sunday sunday definitely attending after the pandemic but on a daily basis is that still considered going to mass or is it a pious prayer [Music] i would consider it a devotional practice uh as you know the only obligation for going to mass is on on sunday so if i actually watch the ewtn mass every morning when i get up and i say mass also myself later and for me it's a pious devotional meditation that helps to get me in the mood and i hear the readings read once and i hear some you know some other pers priest reflection on the readings and it helps me to focus my thoughts so if you were to use that as you would a spiritual book or something like that as a pious preparation or i think that would be wonderful if you can't go physically going with mass daily is something that's somewhat new in the church you know i mean at least when i was a boy in the 50s nobody went to mass daily hardly anybody you know i used to serve the 6am massa there'd be one person there and part of it was because of the communion fast from midnight on of course everyone would be at sunday mass so it's a wonderful thing to do if you can do it and if you can't do it i think that viewing the television mass is certainly a way to deepen your prayer life 833 288 ewtn still time for your calls at 833-288-3986 next up is james in atlanta georgia listening on sirius xm channel 130. james you're on with father brian milady hello um i was wondering why people use god's name in vain and if we hear it what should we do about it well what do you mean by god's name in vain now uh because the second commandment you know is somewhat um ambiguous in the terminology it uses because that doesn't mean every use of the name of god is wrong for example if you call on god to witness in court so help you god you know if you call on god to witness the truth in court that's not considered in vain it would be considered to be against the second commandment for you to call on god to witness to a truth you are stating in court when you're committing perjury if you mean um actually while using the terminology to and you mean it you know like trying to damn people or something like that that would obviously be a serious problem if it's just um impolite speech that's the only real correction you'd use there is more or less a correction of the context that you're not being polite to people around you so it depends on what you mean by that and um if you really mean to damn someone or curse someone obviously that not only needs to be corrected but it's a serious sin but if it's a casual figure of speech it may be impolite it may be something you wouldn't do shouldn't do in public but it's not necessarily it would be a venial sin if it were a sin um so uh i think that the issue is i i that's why i don't know what you mean by it to say whether you should correct it for someone else you can tell someone you think their language is trash and it's not getting through basically in other words their messages are getting through because of the manner in which they're giving it and they're and again they're also being extremely impolite and rude basically to other people which is it has a it kind of borders on a lack of love for other people too and making people uncomfortable or life not livable for others frankly i'm appalled i've been a call for 25 years at the language that people use in movies now and i used to say it was like they they took the f word and they put a computer on it and they just liberally dispersed it throughout this movie script with no reason whatsoever why who talks that way anyway nobody does but they put this thing in there and i just am astonished at how awful it is um but it's not quite the same as cursing in the sense of bringing we you know calling god a curse so you know i've got a depending upon how involved you want to get in any individual situation i know i have a a a colleague and another apostolate who uh whenever he hears someone shout out the messiah's name in anger or frustration he'll he'll immediately respond to them by saying i know him [Laughter] well it's it's uh different cultures too have i mean when i was a little a boy you know one of the expressions that was used and i just heard one of our priests the other day that jesus barry and joseph they'll say like that you know which is of course taking the name of the lord in vain and the word bloody i don't know if you know what the origin of this is the word bloody and in british is by our lady that's what it comes from so it's a corruption by our lady next up is ken in chicago illinois listening on wsfi radio today ken you're on with father brian hi great show thanks for taking the call um my daughter got engaged um just before christmas and we are practicing catholics and so is her fiance and i'm struggling with them because they want to have an outdoor wedding and i'm telling my daughter that everything i've looked at you can't and it says but there are exceptions and i can't seem to find what the exceptions are to make my argument with my daughters so i need a little guidance here oh you mean like a happening in the park that's what they used to have in the 70s in california in the redwoods or something like that normally speaking weddings should be performed in church because it is a sacrament now i'm not a parish priest you know i was a professor and preacher so i think there are some exceptions that may be made to that but they're not spelled out anywhere in the sense that it's this or this or this i think it depends on the pastor and on the diocese but they have to have permission to not have the wedding in church so i i really don't know how to answer that otherwise but happenings in the park don't do it i'm sorry i seriously doubt anyone will get permission for such a wedding does that help ken right yeah it's uh it's yes and no right yeah yeah it's not going to be happening in the park but um they just wanted to have it uh near where they are having the reception at so yeah well that that won't fly i'm sorry that won't fly that's a silly reason if there were some re really important reason for it but you know people the worst job i know i know people are going to not want to hear this but when i teach the seminarians i say you know i haven't done that many weddings because i wasn't a parish priest but the worst job a priest does is weddings and it's because everybody's queen for a day and they all want their stuff and uh the worst wedding i ever had was a greek orthodox roman catholic wedding when i was newly ordained where the woman wanted to have mass in her parish church which was roman catholic and the boy was greek orthodox so they wanted the greek orthodox ceremonial you know with the crowns and the whole bit so i said okay well i can get your permission to have the greek priest come here and do all that stuff so i called the diocese of nation sure that's fine so the couple came the next day a week and i said okay it's all set and the greek kid says oh that's no it's not my priest says no greek priest is setting foot in the catholic church for any reason whatsoever oh okay well i can get your permission to be married in the greek church and the woman goes i want to be married in my parish church and i thought gee the first baptism is going to be really something if the wedding's like this i also always tell used to tell the seminarians my short shrift in doing weddings is one rule i learned there's only two people that have to be happy for a wedding to go well and it's not the bride and the groom it's the mother of the bride and the mother of the group so if you make them happy it will be a delightful experience and if you can't i don't know and you know a lot of parishes now they hire lay women to try to deal with the ladies on where they want to have the wedding so i think this if there was an important reason i think that the i don't know maybe the priest will give you permission to the diocese to do it but just to have it near the reception uh uh that's not an important enough reason thanks ken god bless you next stop for us is bemidji minnesota carrie is in the great state of minnesota listening on real presence radio carrie you're on with father brian hello father thank you so much i'm learning a lot already my quick question is this i work in a nursing home on the overnight shift where many times more often than not our residents do pass on the overnight shift a lot of them are not catholic and i do pray with them um when it's just the two of us in the room however i was wondering is it possible am i allowed to bring holy water and make the sign of the cross on their forehead or is that outside my mouth well if the hospital will let you do it uh you could do that but not baptism uh-uh you can't do that um but you could bless them i'll tell you a funny story too about that we had a brother who was doing his clinical pastoral education which they all have to go through now where they go to a hospital for like a month and in formation and seminary and learn how to you know relate to the uh patients so strangely he was at a large hospital in los angeles and the two women running clinical pastoral education were jewish and they said to him don't you guys have an outfit or something you wear he said you mean the religious habit oh yeah that'll be nice to be counter cultural so why don't you wear that so he got to wear his habit in the secular hospital anyway there was a woman that was brought in she was hispanic she was going absolutely nuts and so he went and got the blessed sacrament and brought it to her and as soon as he held it up she went totally into peace so there was a fellow uh who was in the same program who wasn't catholic and he said what did you do anyway he said well see we have this thing called the blessed sacrament and we believe it's jesus and blah blah blah so the next day brother goes to the hospital and this fellow says you know they brought in another woman who's hysterical so i went and got whatever that was you the tabernacle and i brought it and gave it to her and and of course brother said well you're not really allowed to do that and i thought well yeah look at that i mean it does testify as the power of the sacrament right but um no we if you if you think it would be helpful i would say you could do it but don't force it on people for one thing you'll get in trouble if you do that yeah god bless you thanks carrie we appreciate the call you know ewtn rate has been the home of the rosary for nearly 30 years uh and it's still the same today twice a day on ewtn radio you can pray the rosary with mother angelica and the nuns at 5 30 a.m uh eastern time and then at 9 30 p.m eastern time father benedict groeschel and simonetta with some beautiful reflections on the rosary that's right here on ewtn radio father brian you remember lillian our emailer nancy in ontario canada listening at ewtn.com uh has a question about the answer that you gave to lillian all right and we will go hopefully uh to nancy nancy you're on with father brian hello father bryan hi i've been very interesting listening to you i would like to ask you about a situation and whether or not it would be okay imagine that a woman is in that very same situation where um the relationship has grown cold in her marriage and then she can because they're living his brother and sister she can now go to communion and imagine someday that was kind of your uh your your throw off at the end of it imagine someday he says oh actually i wanted to be back the way it used to be with sex and all uh imagine she says it this at this point she says to him you know when i was younger i didn't realize how important it was to have a catholic marriage and i dearly love you and i would be very happy especially for our children if we could normalize things but sir it only happens after a catholic marriage i know now that that's what i'm obligated to do before i get into a marriage type relationship again with you um what if she says that to him well who knows it may be the catalyst he needs to change or he may just say forget it i don't want it i i mean you know people present these hypothetical situations that's why i don't imagine i like facts i like real situations in this case apparently that hasn't been possible so far that's not to say it might not be possible in the future but you can't presume on that and that was the point of her question with what she did if you couldn't presume on it would it be a legitimate position for her to take in that hypothetical situation you mean that i tell him that she wanted to be married in the catholic church yeah or to kind of hold uh the marital act hostage from him well uh it can't be a matter of use it has to be look this is my situation if they're communicating which is always a difficulty in marriage as you know um you know this is my situation i've been going to communion because it means a great deal to me but it's because we haven't been having relations which i look on as sinful because we're not married in the church so um i don't want to use this as a weapon and present you with a you know an either or a situation an ultimatum but what i would say is if you want to make me happy if you love me uh i really need to my religion is very important to me it would be nice if you could marry me in the church but if you don't want to if you if you insist on consummating our marriage again i won't be able to go to commune which would make me very unhappy and finally leonard is watching us on youtube today and he uh he's got a kind of a two-part question he says how many times a day can i receive holy communion and he says that he's been saying the spiritual communion prayer and listening to online mass two or three times a day and wonders if that's sacrilegious listening to online mass it's not sacrilegious uh it's not the same as going to communion as regards to going to commune uh we went through all this in the 70s because people started to go to multiple masses so oh gosh they started out and they said well you can go to communion twice but it has to be a different kind of mass well what does that mean so like a funeral or something but what could it mean well that was so hard to interpret nobody could figure it out so finally as my understanding of the rule at the moment is you may go to communion twice but it has to be the whole mass that you attend in other words what they don't want is people just running in to go to communion and then running out and then running in to go to communion it has to be you have to attend the whole mass of which command is given each time it's my understanding thank you leonard we appreciate that question today and we have come flat up against the end of another hour here on ewtn's open line thursday with father brian m'lady we will certainly do it again next week at the same time and father as we conclude today's show would you leave us with a blessing may the blessing of almighty god father son and holy spirit descend upon you and remain with you forever amen amen on behalf of our host father brian mullady our producer charles beary and our call screener matt gubinsky i'm jack williams thanks so much for tuning in to a thursday edition of ewtn's open line if you've got a theology question that's been eaten at you tomorrow is your day give us a call our very own vice president of theology colin donovan will be in the house taking your questions or more importantly if you've called on another day and the host has told you to call back on friday and ask colin that you can do that tomorrow until we get together tomorrow with colin donovan god bless [Music] one of the reasons we should go to mass is be

Channel: EWTN

Views: 956

Keywords: Catholic, EWTN, Christian, television

Id: tVsLCmAO50o

Length: 54min 0sec (3240 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 10 2022