Why Be Catholic? Quotes

“The sacraments, especially baptism, confession, and the Holy Eucharist, are powerful antidotes to combat and suppress our concupiscence in a way reminiscent of how certain drugs, such as quinine and chloroquine, suppress the parasite that causes malaria.”
― Patrick Madrid, Why Be Catholic?: Ten Answers to a Very Important Question

“Sanctifying grace is internal to the soul; it’s inside you and “inheres” in the soul in a way analogous to how blood is inside the body and inheres in every part of it, vivifying all the members down to the smallest cell. Sanctifying”
― Patrick Madrid, Why Be Catholic?: Ten Answers to a Very Important Question

“uses a striking analogy to explain what happens when one receives a sacrament worthily: “As fire transforms into itself everything it touches, so the Holy Spirit transforms into the divine life whatever is subjected to his power.”5 Three key effects are accomplished in the soul of one who receives the sacraments. First, the soul is further purified, cleansed from those base things that pose a barrier to God’s holiness. Second, the soul is strengthened and inured against the corrosive effects of sin. And third, the soul’s capacity for grace—in a sense, similar to the lungs’ capacity to breathe in air—is expanded. This is the meaning of the Church’s”
― Patrick Madrid, Why Be Catholic?: Ten Answers to a Very Important Question

“THE SEVEN SACRAMENTS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH are the primary means by which God spiritually feeds, heals, and strengthens us. This is not to suggest that the sacraments are the only way God does things—far from it. He imparts grace however He wishes. But as the Bible shows, Christ gave the apostles certain specific ways of unleashing the power of God’s grace known today as the sacraments. There are seven: baptism, confirmation, the Eucharist, confession, holy matrimony, holy orders, and holy anointing (aka extreme unction,”
― Patrick Madrid, Why Be Catholic?: Ten Answers to a Very Important Question

“refutes such a notion. Third: Jesus promised that he would be with his Church “to the close of the age,” or, to the end of the world (Matt. 28:19–20). This is another way of saying that the Church he established would last until the end, literally, come hell or high water. The Catholic Church is “visible,”
― Patrick Madrid, Why Be Catholic?: Ten Answers to a Very Important Question

“, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” There is a great deal of important theological truth packed into this brief passage, and it’s not my intention to explore that here, except to point out the particular line that sheds light on the Church the Lord was going to establish. He says, “On this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it.” This clue told me that, whichever Church it was, it had to be able to trace itself back in an unbroken line of continuity from the”
― Patrick Madrid, Why Be Catholic?: Ten Answers to a Very Important Question

“Second: Jesus Christ, not some other man or woman, is the founder of his Church. In Matthew 16:13–19, Jesus asks his apostles, “Who do men say that the Son of man is?” This elicits a series of incorrect answers: “Some say John the Baptist, others say Eli’jah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
― Patrick Madrid, Why Be Catholic?: Ten Answers to a Very Important Question

“his hearers: “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 5:14–16). This statement has a twofold significance. First, it describes what each individual Christian is called to do and to be in this world: to shine forth to others the light of Christ. Christ is also describing the Church he would establish as visible, not obscure or hidden. I asked myself: Why would Jesus have gone to all the trouble of establishing a Church just to make it so arcane and obscure that no one could ever really know for sure if he had found it? What good would that do? Similarly, since Jesus never did things halfway or for no good reason, I asked myself what purpose it would serve for the Church he established to be hard to locate and how this would square with his statement that, individually and corporately, his followers, the”
― Patrick Madrid, Why Be Catholic?: Ten Answers to a Very Important Question