Nearly 50 years ago, an Episcopal priest shocked his listeners during a Palm Sunday sermon at St. Mark’s Church in Van Nuys, Calif. On April 3, 1960, the Rev. Dennis Bennett announced he had received ...

Recently we’ve heard a lot about the rapid worldwide growth of Pentecostal and charismatic groups. Researcher David Barrett and his team have been reminding us for years that these groups have passed ...

Parents who prefer not to baptize their children in the hopes that they will "understand and ask for baptism" as adults lack faith that the Holy Spirit will act in their child's life, Pope Francis ...

John the Baptist himself clearly distinguished the baptism of repentance through water and the baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire that Jesus received and will give to those who ask for it. “He will ...

Pope Francis arrives for an audience with faithful from the Italian dioceses of Bologna and Cesena in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican April 21. (CNS/Angelo Carconi, EPA) The sacrament of baptism isn ...

Justification in Catholic soteriology is ongoing, as I discussed in my previous article. One might draw an analogy to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. He is first received through baptism: “Be ...

In order to explain to his listeners that he was not the expected Messiah, but only the precursor, John the Baptist told his listeners that, whereas he himself only baptized with water, the Christ ...

A baptism in the Catholic Church. (Credit: Archdiocese of Montreal.) Listen This Sunday, as we continue to make our way through the season of Lent, the church gives us the biblical account of the ...

Francis urges faithful to look up the date of baptism and celebrate it as their "second birthday", the day of their “rebirth". To baptize children because with Baptism "the Holy Spirit enters that ...

FROM what we have already covered, we know John the Baptist baptised with water to identify and present Jesus to the audience. As we go along, we are seeing more people accepting the spirit and intent ...