April 4, 2021
Categories: Books & Publications . . Author: Doug Lawrence . Comments: Leave a comment
The Day the Resurrection of Christ became an official dogma of the Church
…On the first Easter Sunday, news began to be circulated that Jesus was alive and had been seen. These reports were, at first disbelieved or at least doubted by the apostles. Various reports from both women and men were dismissed by the apostles. But suddenly in the evening of that first Easter Sunday there is a change and a declaration by the apostles that the Lord had truly been raised. What effected this change?
It would seem that, after the early evening report by the disciples returning from Emmaus, Peter slipped away, perhaps for a walk or some other purpose and according to both Paul (1 Cor 15:5) and Luke (Luke 24:34) the risen Lord appeared to him privately and prior to the other apostles. Peter then reports this to the others and the resurrection moves from being doubted to being the official declaration of the Church. The official declaration is worded thus:
The Lord has truly risen indeed,
he has appeared to Simon!” (Luke 24:34)
The resurrection is now officially declared. Notice, the world “truly” (some texts say “indeed”). It is not an officially attested fact that Jesus has risen. Neither Magdalene, nor the women in general, nor the disciples from Emmaus could make this declaration for the Church. It took the college of apostles in union with Peter to do this. Hence the dogma of the resurrection becomes so on very Catholic terms: The first bishops (the apostles) in union or in Council with the first Pope (Peter) make this solemn declaration of the faith.
Holy Saturday
HOLY SATURDAY – The body of Jesus is in the tomb but His soul is among the dead to announce the kingdom.
The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear it will Live (John 5:25).
Consider what it must have been like for the dead in Sheol to awaken to the voice of Jesus!
Meanwhile The Disciples, heartbroken at the death of Jesus, observed the Jewish Sabbath in sorrow. They had forgotten the promise of Jesus that He would rise.
We cannot forget His promise. We cannot forget. Tonight in our parishes after sundown we gather for the Great Easter Vigil where we will experience Jesus rising from the dead. We gather in darkness and light the Easter fire which reminds us that Jesus is light in the darkness. He is the light of the world.
We enter into the church and attentively listen to Bible stories describing God’s saving work of the past.
Suddenly, the church lights are lit and the Gloria is sung as we celebrate the moment of Christ’s resurrection. He Lives! In the joy of the resurrection we then celebrate the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist for our Catechumens and Candidates who have prepared for many weeks for this night.
As a Church we sing Alleluia for the first time in forty days. Do everything you can to be present on this evening and invite friends and family to join. Our Vigil ushers in an Easter joy that never ends!
Isaiah 61:1-3 The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me: he hath sent me to preach to the meek, to heal the contrite of heart, and to preach a release to the captives, and deliverance to them that are shut up. To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God: to comfort all that mourn: To appoint to the mourners of Zion, and to give them a crown for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, a garment of praise for the spirit of grief: and they shall be called in it the mighty ones of justice, the planting of the Lord to glorify him.
The best and the worst of Good Friday
To be connected with the Catholic Church is to be associated with scoundrels, warmongers, fakes, gluttons, hateful, gossips, child-molesters, murderers, prostitutes, publicans, double-minded, slothful, adulterers and hypocrites of every description.
It also, at the same time, identifies you with the greatest saints and the finest persons of heroic soul of every time, era, country, race, and gender. Men and women who surrendered their will to God’s will, who willingly without shame stood in place of the weak and those who without regard to self laid down their lives for even those who hated them, and all this for the love of Jesus and for glory unto God.
To be a member of the Catholic Church is to carry the mantle of both the worst sin and the finest heroism of soul because Christ’s Church always looks exactly as it looked at the original crucifixion:
God hung among thieves.
– Anonymous
Submitted by Doria2
Pope Francis continues to deliberately disrespect the Blessed Virgin Mary
… let us pause to consider for a moment the troubling words of the Holy Father when he states that Our Lady, with regards to her Son, “is more His disciple than His mother.”
What does this mean? Is Our Lady less Mother of God and more mere disciple, like the rest of us? Or how else should we understand such a seeming semi-negation?
A simple faithful Catholic cannot but be disheartened and troubled by words such as these.
When we consider what the Church Tradition teaches us, that all the titles and honors which are given to the Blessed Virgin are rooted in her essential role as Mother of God, as taught in the Council of Ephesus in 431, how can we not be taken aback by such off-the-cuff remarks?
When we think, just a moment, of what Church history tells us of the great battle which was waged in order for this important dogma to be solemnly proclaimed, how can we not wonder how the likes of Saint Cyril of Alexandria would react to such a dismissive remark?
Considering the significance of this dogma for our Faith as a whole, how can such a careless remark not shock us or do anything other than pierce our hearts devoted to Our Lady’s Heart?
Editor’s note: This and more, uttered on the great Feast of the Annunciation, after many months of the ongoing, shameless, Pachamama idolatry, in the Vatican, by a “Judas Pope” who is also responsible for the outright betrayal of the Church in China, to the godless Communists.
Priest: Exorcisms now, often ineffective
… in a recent talk by Father Ripperger — a renowned Exorcist — he explained that prior to 1963, it was quite the norm that exorcisms would effect deliverance of the soul from diabolic possession in 2-3 days– 7 days at most.
But that beginning in 1963 “overnight…like someone threw a switch”, this was no longer the case, and that it began to take at least 10 months to 2 years of concerted priestly effort to effect deliverance.
Father Ripperger then goes on to say that now it is virtually impossible to effect deliverance of a soul from diabolic possession.
Father Ripperger also explained that this adverse impact on the efficacy of exorcisms is directly related to the state of the Church.
NOTE: the problem began right at the onset of Vatican II — overnight — and has only gotten worse and worse to the point of suppressing the efficacy of exorcisms altogether.
Essentially, the potency of the Church’s power to exorcise demons has now been reduced to virtual powerlessness against the demonic…because “one cannot cast out demons by Beelzebub” as Our Lord taught us.
Pope’s negative statement regarding homo unions was probably a necessary concession to his Muslim colleagues
The Pope’s recent visit to Iraq was mostly about economics and climate change. If Francis hopes to make any inroads on those fronts, he’ll have to “play ball” with the Muslims on homosexual issues. Quid Pro Quo. I think that’s a Latin term!
Praying Without Ceasing and the Language of Love
Watching my five-year-old grandson interact with my son,
a.k.a. “Daddy” close behind:
Entering unexplored territory:
“Daddy?”
“Yes, Theodore.”
Climbing up the ladder on a slide, which turned out to be a bit higher and steeper than it looked:
(Grunting) “D-a-d-d-y-?”
(Ready to catch him) “Y-e-s, Theodore.”
Emerging safe and victorious at the bottom of the same slide:
“Daddy!”
(Congratulating) “Yes! Theodore!”
Fording the shallow creek that runs through the area:
“Daddy?????”
(Watchfully) “Yes, Theodore!!!
Theodore wandering off limits:
“________”
(Daddy, somewhat sternly) “T-h-e-o-d-o-r-e ?!?!”
All tired out and ready to go home:
(Arms lifted up and out-stretched): “Daddy!?!”
(Taking Theo into his arms and carrying him home):
“Y-e-s-s-s, Theodore …”
1st Thessalonians 5:17 Pray without ceasing.
Mark 10:15-16 Amen I say to you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall not enter into it. And embracing them and laying his hands upon them, he blessed them.
Galatians 4:6 And because you are sons, God hath sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying: Abba, Father. (a.k.a. “Daddy”).
Eighty-six Catholic women from 25 countries issued a letter Monday opposing what they called “abortion-tainted” Covid-19 vaccines
“The evil of using aborted fetal cell lines involves not just the original murder, but the ongoing commercialization of the child’s body, as well as the ultimate refusal to bury his desecrated remains,”…
No priest of Jesus Christ, truly called, would ever bow down to a pagan idol and no Pope would ever tolerate it, let alone be present at it.
As you gaze upon this abomination that took place in St. Peter’s Basilica in October 2019, reflect for a moment on what has happened in the year and a half since. Think of the diabolical experimentation on bat viruses that leaked out from a laboratory in Wuhan whether accidentally or intentionally.
Think of the deaths of people, the suffering and the economic toll on hundreds of millions because of the actionsof a Satanic regime whom the man in white in the above photograph, and his minions, laud.
Remember, for a moment, how this malefactor, Bergoglio, sold out the faithful Catholics of China and how it has worked out for all Christians there since. It has not gone so “well.”
Think of the infringement of civil and religious rights imposed by our governments and worse, adhered to by our corrupt, weak, effeminate and ineffectual Shepherds.
Contemplate for a moment how the Bishop of Rome, the alleged successor of Saint Peter, the alleged Vicar of Christ, presided in the garden, as shown above, where people bowed down in worship to pagan idols.
Look at the backside of the Satanic priest in brown robes, a Franciscan, but not a son of St. Francis, more a son of Satan – for no priest of Jesus Christ truly called would ever bow down to a pagan idol and no Pope would ever tolerate it, let alone be present at it.
Now consider this event, the actual enthronement by the Bishop of Rome of a symbol of the Pachamama idol on the High Altar of St. Peter’s Basilica, an altar over the very tomb of Peter and dedicated only for the re-presentation of the Sacrifice of Our Lord Jesus Christ, not the worship of a demon, “For all the gods of the Gentiles are demons but the LORD made the heavens.”
Tucker Carlson handily exposes the real reason behind the Dr. Seuss controversy
A reader comments: Tucker Carlson explained it perfectly. It is not that Dr. Seuss is racist, it is that he is anti-racist. Crucially, Dr. Seuss targets our children with these classic moral tales and … our children belong to the leftist hive. So, he is their greatest enemy because he is so effective at the level of a child.
Seuss’ The Sneetches show simply and profoundly how stupid racism is and how dumb it is to attach caste to a superficial thing (a star/skin color). The Sneetch star is racist when one side says it’s important but also racist when the other side identifies the star’s absence as important. Both are wrong, both are “racists”.
And that’s Theodore’s simple message: see the Sneetch beneath and not what he’s wearing on his chest (or not). The Dr. Seuss message of seeing the person and not their “badge” cuts to the CRT leftists’ quick, I think, and makes their conscience suffer. And that is why he (Seuss) must be cancelled.
Today’s question: In the Book of Acts, why did the Christians get together and pool their money and goods?
Question: In the Book of Acts, why did the Christians get together and pool their money and goods?
Answer: According to Zacchaeus, at least one of them was a little short.
Asked and answered today on Yahoo!Answers
Why are you glad you’re a Catholic?
God lavishes all his love and grace on the faithful members of the Holy Catholic Church.
Catholic Sacraments constitute a close, extremely intimate, personal encounter with the risen Jesus, by the awesome power of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass allows Catholics to personally participate in the Last Supper, the Crucifixion and the Resurrection, through Jesus Christ, who becomes truly present on the altar for us; the one time, once for all, perfect and atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world. It doesn’t get any better than that, this side of Heaven.
All of this is free of charge.
The Holy Catholic Church provides everything any Christian might ever need, for every stage of their human existence, including eternity.
All of this was ordained by God the Father, through the grace of Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, because God is kind and merciful and he wants only the best for us.
Asked and answered today on Yahoo!Answers
BAPTISM DURING COVID?
Answer from a Catholic Priest:
Here’s the Church’s teaching on this: The Code of Canon Law, the official “rulebook” of the Church, says, “Parents are obliged to take care that infants are baptized in the first few weeks” (No. 867).
Several months is just too long to wait for the child to be missing the graces and blessings that come with the sacrament. I think parents have grown a bit too casual about this — perhaps due in part to what the Church is currently saying about limbo.
It used to be the common belief of Catholics that children who died before being baptized went, not to be with God in heaven, but to a state of natural happiness called limbo.
But in 2007, the Church’s International Theological Commission, with the approval of Pope Benedict XVI, concluded that there are “theological and liturgical reasons to hope that infants who die without baptism may be saved … even if there is not an explicit teaching on this question found in Revelation.”
But for me, that “hope” is just too chancy. If it were my own kid, I’d want him baptized as soon as possible. And don’t worry — a parish will take caution in making sure that the baptismal ceremony is safe.
Several months is just too long to wait for the child to be missing the graces and blessings that come with the sacrament.
Today’s Question: Was Jonah swallowed by a whale or by a ‘big fish’?
Interpretations differ. Here’s another one: Jonah died while he was inside the big fish.
After three days, Jonah’s lifeless corpse was disgorged by that same fish, on the sea shore, near the city of Nineveh.
God raised Jonah from the dead and sent him on his mission to the Ninevites, still smelling heavily of fish.
As things turned out, the Ninevites worshiped Dagon, who was a pagan, “fish god”. The intense, fishy odor gave Jonah the necessary “street cred” to successfully accomplish his assigned mission.
The Ninevites repented and for a time, they were spared. Jonah wasn’t pleased, but God was pleased and Jesus had a future sign pointing to his glorious resurrection – without the fishy odor, of course.
Asked and answered today on Yahoo!Answers
It would appear that double dose vaccines, given all at once, may supercharge the immune system, causing it to attack the Covid, plus everything else, including key bodily organs and structures.
The newly developed m/RNA Covid vaccines by Pfizer and Moderna are said to require two shots, administered about a month apart, to achieve the desired potency and effect.
This is typically characterized by the manufacturers as a positive feature.
Maybe, it is. Maybe it’s not. Maybe it’s simply a “slick” marketing ploy.
It seems possible (in at least some cases) that if a single, “full” dose were administered, rather than the prescribed, double, widely spaced, “half” doses (especially if the Covid virus was already present) it could “hype up” the immune system to such a degree that it wouldn’t know when to quit, or it would be incapable of precisely discriminating, as to what it should and what it should not target.
In the interest of full disclosure, in order to increase the acceptance of such vaccines and eliminate uncertainty, I would like to see clearer and more pertinent data on this matter, from the CDC and the drug companies.
Editor’s note: I’ve received dose one of the Moderna vaccine.
Woman recovers from Covid-19 after judge orders hospital to administer old, cheap, safe, widely available, Ivermectin
The patient’s son, Michael Smentkiewicz, said hospital officials had told him and his sister, Michelle Kulbacki, on Dec. 31 that their mother’s chance of survival – as an 80-year-old Covid-19 patient on a ventilator – was about 20%.
He said doctors at the hospital also told the family that Smentkiewicz would probably be on a ventilator in the Intensive Care Unit for at least a month.
“We did a lot of our own research, we read about Ivermectin … The results sounded very promising, and we decided we had to try something different,” Michael Smentkiewicz said. “We pressured the doctor in the ICU to give it to her. He finally agreed.”
On Jan. 2, Smentkiewicz was given her first dose of Ivermectin, and according to court papers filed by her family, she made “a complete turnaround.”
“In less than 48 hours, my mother was taken off the ventilator, transferred out of the Intensive Care Unit, sitting up on her own and communicating,” Kulbacki said in a court affidavit.
But after her mother was transferred to another hospital wing away from the ICU, doctors in that unit refused to give her any more doses of the drug, and her condition quickly declined, the family said in court papers.
“We were astounded when they refused to give her any more doses,” Michael Smentkiewicz said. “That’s why I called Ralph Lorigo and we took the hospital to court.”
