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We Are Catholics And Proud of It!

	With the eyes of the secular world turned to, and often-times against, Rome, it is understandable that the Catholics go through some sort of winnowing – separating the faithful and those who are Catholics-in-name-only. The faint hearted would sly away from the basic teaching of the Church opting for the more "worldly" view of Catholicism. That is why, as believing Catholics we have to be aware of what
is and what is not the teaching of the Church. The common misconceptions. Whether or not we place value on what others say, we still are to those who do not believe in the Catholic religion, what they see – mysterious, superstitious and non-Bible based Christians. The appearance of mystery and superstition come from what other see – moving lips (silently praying the Rosary), use of incense, holy water, etc., and generally the Rites in a Mass.
The Use of Incense Incense, of course, the granulated or powered aromatic resin from various trees, when sprinkled on glowing embers in a censer or thurible, produces the familiar fragrant cloud of smoke. This fragrant smoke symbolizes prayer rising to God.sprinkled on glowing embers in a censer or thurible, produces the familiar fragrant cloud of smoke. 4 The problem with the use of incense to the non-Catholics is the fact that its use is both from pagan worship and, as the abundant references to incense in the Old Testament would seem to indicate, from Judaism. However, the use of incense IS based on the Bible, and can be found in Ps 141:2 and Rv 8:3-5.
*Continued below...*

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The Use of Holy Water
The holy water refers to water originally blessed at the Easter Vigil for the Baptism of the catechumens and infants that night. For hygienic and symbolic reasons, water is blessed each time where its use is needed, before being set aside from the regular unblessed water, and being made available in the stoups (the containers of holy water found at the entryways of a Church), and in baptistries.

The blessing of the holy water, over prayer, originally consisted of adding oils, rendering it easily stale instead of life-giving and fresh. Holy water is now sprinkled with salt, symbolizing incorruption and immortality – it is, after all, a traditional preservative. ¹

The holy water does not have magical powers – there is not place for magic in the Catholic Church. But it HAS spiritual benefits from the devotion of those who use it. To the ancients, washing with water could symbolize internal purity (cleansing of the spirit) because washing was used to obtain external purity (cleansing the body).

There are several references to the use of water in the Bible. The Jews used water to consecrate priests (Ex 29:4, Lv 8:6). Water was used before sacrifices were offered (Ex 30:18-19). In the Catholic Church, water is used to symbolize the washing of the feet of Christ (Jn 13:4-10). In the Mass, a little water is mixed with wine before the consecration in memory of the blood and water that flowed out of Jesus’ side at the Cross. The holy water, a sacramental, whose sprinkling or use reminds us of Baptism and a means of sanctification (Catechism Of The Catholic Church, 1668).

For those who object to the use of the holy water, as with other sacramentals and the sacraments themselves, the problems is that they do not think material things can be used to transfer grace or that they should not have any real part in worship. However, a rigorous believer of the Bible must then also believe in water or incense for ceremonial use. ¹

And what about the moving lips during a silent recitation of the Rosary? There is nothing wrong with honoring the Mother of God, or is there?

When most people think of Bible-Christians, they usually mean those in the Protestant denominations. They "own" the Bible, right? And the Church really does not want us to read the bible, right again? Well, wrong. Nothing could be further from the truth.

You will have to wait for the next issues! Note: This series of articles on Catholic Apologetics are based on research from several books. I really encourage you to read at least the following:

¹What Catholics Really Believe-Setting the Record Straight: 52 Answers to Common Misconceptions About the Catholic Faith, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 1992, by Karl Keating, director Catholic Answers, a lay-run apologetics and evangelization organization, and editor of the magazine, This Rock. He is also the author of the best-seller, Catholicism and Fundamentalism.
2Nuts & Bolts: A Practical Guide for Explaining and Defending the Catholic Faith, Basilica Press, San Diego, 1999, by Tim Staples, a former Assemblies of God youth pastor who converted to the Catholic Church.
³Catholic Source Book, Harcourt Religion Publishers, 2000, by Rev. Peter Klein. Rev Peter Klein is a priest of the Diocese of Winona in Minnesota.
⁴Our Sunday Visitor's Catholic Encyclopedia, Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division, Huntington, Indiana, 1998, by Rev. Peter M.J. Stravinskas, editor. Rev. Peter M.J. Stravinskas is the author of eleven books and more than 500 articles. He is the founding editor of Catholic Answer and the administrator of St. John the Baptist Church of Bayonne, New Jersey. He likewise serves as adjunct professor of education at Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey.