The Catholic Church not only ranks its members in a hierarchy, but its buildings too. Not every large and impressive church is a cathedral, and not every small local church you attend Mass at may be a parish.

I said in an article a few weeks ago that Auxiliary Bishops are bishops of their own dioceses; however, the "titular dioceses" these bishops belong to no longer have any jurisdiction over a geographical area or any people.

Immediately after recalling Jesus' Last Supper, [Sacrosanctum Concilium (SC) of the Second Vatican Council] speaks of the Eucharist in Augustinian terms. For Christians, taking part at the Lord's table means being "instructed by God's word and ... nourished ... [giving ] thanks to God"(cf. SC, 48) ... The Eucharist is the sacrament of the Kingdom that is to come. It is the Bread for the journey that leads us to our heavenly homeland, until that blessed day when "God will be all in all" (1 Cor 15:28).

The Church has two types of public prayer it offers to God on behalf of all the world: the Holy Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours. The Liturgy of the Hours, also known as the Divine Office, is the daily prayer of the Church, marking the hours of each day and sanctifying the day with prayer. The Hours are a meditative dialogue on the mystery of Christ, using scripture and prayer.

Last week we looked at the 24 different Catholic Churches united under the Pope, but what is a "pope?" Also last week, I said Phoenix was a rare example of one city having two cathedrals, but why is that? This can all be explained by exploring the Hierarchy of the Catholic Church.

Most people, when they think of or refer to the "Catholic Church," are speaking of the Latin or Roman Church, but often forget that while the Latin Church is by far the largest one, there are actually 24 separate churches of the Catholic Church, The other 23 are referred to as the Eastern Catholic Churches, with the Latin Church being the sole Western Catholic Church.

For many Catholics, one of the most recognizable liturgical orations is the Collect for Corpus Christi, also used at the conclusion of Benediction: "O God, who in this wonderful Sacrament have left us a memorial of your Passion, grant us, we pray, so to revere the sacred mysteries of your Body and Blood that we may always experience in ourselves the fruits of your redemption, Who live and reign ... " This prayer asks the Lord Jesus to allow us, members of the Church, to revere the Eucharist so that we may "always experience in ourselves the fruits of [his] redemption."

This weekend, our nation celebrates the 250th anniversary of its establishment as an independent nation with the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Though the writers of the Declaration were not Catholic, many of the ideas espoused in it of what a nation should be find their home in Catholic thought.