Starting from 2hrs 35 mins, we have Pope Francis's incensation of the Blessed Sacrament, our Eucharistic Lord.



Starting from 8 mins 41 seconds, we have Pope Benedict XVI's incensation of the Blessed Sacrament, our Eucharistic Lord.




Kneeling before our Eucharistic Lord has always been important to Popes, as you can see.

Kneeling Catholic will be none too pleased for reasons which will be obvious. Our beloved Holy Father says so many good and wise things but one wonders if there were some behind His Holiness who were wondering when Pope Francis would use the prie-dieu set before him.

Pray that the Holy Father sets a good example to the rest of us, especially at this time when faith in the Real Presence is so weak and so fragile, to kneel before our God, as did his predecessor and, presumably, all of His Holiness's predecessors.



St. Francis of Assisi, in his "Letter to All Superiors of the Friars Minor" said:

'When the priest is offering sacrifice at the altar o…

A same-sex union can never achieve conception as a rule - ever - in every case this cannot be achieved.

The reproductive system of male and female can effect the relationship of a marriage in terms of fertility. Fertility can cause joy and pain, for example, joy with the birth or conception of a child and pain if a couple or one of the couple are found to be infertile.

Fertility is a non-issue for same-sex couples. Therefore is it 'equal marriage' if a couple of different genders can achieve something that same-sex couples cannot - reproduction? Surely it is not and therefore cannot be called marriage because we are dealing with a different category of human relationship. Indeed, the Catholic Church would say that we are dealing here with a disordered sexual relationship, but, for same-sex couples, the opposite situation arises. The reproductive system of the couple - be they male and male or female and female - are never involved in the sexual union.

So we see that 1 man + 1…

I answer that, It was necessary for woman to be made, as the Scripture says, as a "helper" to man; not, indeed, as a helpmate in other works, as some say, since man can be more efficiently helped by another man in other works; but as a helper in the work of generation. This can be made clear if we observe the mode of generation carried out in various living things. Some living things do not possess in themselves the power of generation, but are generated by some other specific agent, such as some plants and animals by the influence of the heavenly bodies, from some fitting matter and not from seed: others possess the active and passive generative power together; as we see in plants which are generated from seed; for the noblest vital function in plants is generation. Wherefore we observe that in these the active power of generation invariably accompanies the passive power. Among perfect animals the active power of generation belongs to the male sex, and the passive power to …