November 30, 2010
Categories: Books & Publications, Catholic Q & A, Events . Tags: December 9 2010, Diocese of Joliet, Operation Formation, Rev. John Belmonte, S.J. Ph.D, speaker, Superindendent Catholic Schools . Author: Hosted by Doug Lawrence . Comments: Leave a comment
Out of every ten people, seven can not live their faith in full freedom.
The most persecuted religion is Christianity, with at least 200 million people suffering from discrimination. This was revealed by the report on religious freedom in the world that is published every two years by the Catholic organization “Aid to the Church in Need.”
In 21 of the 194 countries studied, there is hardly any religious freedom. The report notes that there are two types of religious persecution: one by policy and one by members of other religions.
79% of all abortions in New York City over a 10-yr period – 726,845 babies – were Black and Hispanic.
- The number of aborted blacks, according to the Centers for Disease Control, outnumbers the next leading 7 causes of death among blacks combined.
- According to Dr. La Verne Tolbert, former NYC Planned Parenthood board member, Planned Parenthood targets black babies, and there have been 20 million aborted Black babies in the U.S. since 1973.
Novena for the Immaculate Conception
Novena for the Immaculate Conception
O IMMACULATE Virgin! Mary, conceived without sin!
Remember, thou wert miraculously preserved from
even the shadow of sin, because thou wert destined
to become not only the Mother of God, but also
the mother, the refuge, and the advocate of man;
penetrated, therefore, with the most lively confidence
in thy never-failing intercession, we most humbly implore
thee to look with favor upon the intentions of this novena,
and to obtain for us the graces and favors we request.
(Here form your petitions.)
Thou knowest, O Mary, how often our hearts are the
sanctuaries of God, Who abhors iniquity. Obtain for us,
then, that Angelic purity which was thy favorite virtue,
that purity of heart which will attach us to God alone, and
that purity of intention which will consecrate every thought,
word, and action to His greater glory. Obtain also for us a
constant spirit of prayer and self-denial, that we may recover
by penance that innocence which we have lost by sin,
and at length attain safely to that blessed abode of the
Saints, where nothing defiled can enter.
O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.
Editor’s note: Computer users should quickly understand that we weren’t the first to utilize the concept of a “firewall” in order to avoid sabotage or corruption.
If Jesus’ human flesh had been tainted by sin in any way, then his life and his sacrificial death would have been pointless, and we would all still be trapped in our sins, hopelessly destined for an eternity in hell.
Mary is God’s original “firewall” against human sin. Superabundantly graced by God … Mary … even from the moment of her conception … was preserved from all sin (original and otherwise) and as a result of God’s grace (and Mary’s willing cooperation) she never sinned at all … before, during, or after Jesus Christ took on the holy flesh that Mary agreed to provide … flesh that was absolutely necessary for Christ’s mission of reconciliation and redemption.
Submitted by Doria2
Amazing Grace
A recurring them in Christian chat rooms and other types of on-line forums is the Catholic understanding of saintly intercession … especially regarding the role of the Blessed Virgin Mary … and whether such practices can be truly termed Christian.
It’s true that a good number of today’s Catholics and non-Catholics alike, seem to have a great deal of difficulty correlating the literal text of the Bible with Catholic teachings and practices, on this matter.
And while most Protestants choose to concentrate solely on faith, scripture, and Jesus … Catholics may choose all of the above … plus the very substantial “cult” of Mary … along with veneration of angels and all the other saints.
So … who is right … and why?
The awesome power and sufficiency of God’s grace
From Adam’s fall until the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the world was totally devoid of God’s sanctifying grace, with all of mankind enslaved to Satan, sin and death.
In the fullness of time, God provided, through his sovereign power over all creation, the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was conceived without sin … “full of grace” … “highly favored” … the only non-divine person ever proved to be totally immune to the corruption of Satan’s evil, earthly dominion.
It is for this reason that Mary
should be universally honored and venerated,
since … never before or since …
has any other non-divine human being
ever successfully accomplished such a thing …
with or without the help of God’s grace.
The Bible agrees:
Luke 1:46-49 And Mary said: My soul doth magnify the Lord. And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. Because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid: for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. Because he that is mighty hath done great things to me: and holy is his name.
The fact that Mary chose to so closely cooperate with God in all of Jesus’ great, salvific work, is absolute proof of the sufficiency of God’s grace … that his will be done, on Earth, and in Heaven.
This triumphant and extraordinarily successful
behavior is most certainly to be emulated,
since Mary’s close cooperation
with God and his grace
makes her THE “Model Christian” of all time.
God’s grace is also why the Blessed Virgin Mary holds so many titles … including the “Mother of the Church” … and why she has already been crowned the authentic “Queen of Heaven” … ruling and reigning there, at the right hand of her divine son, Jesus … according to the “amazing” power of his grace.
In this regard,
the totality of the biblical promises
that Jesus makes to every faithful Christian
has already been fully realized
in the extraordinary,
grace empowered existence
of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
That is not to say there will be nothing left in Heaven for the rest of us, since God’s abundance is infinite, and he never “runs out” of anything. So we can be sure of receiving all that God has promised us in Heaven, no matter how many billions of other souls might triumphantly enter therein.
While Mary, the Mother of God, enjoys a totally unique and preeminent position in God’s order of grace, there’s nothing preventing God from giving awesome power and authority to angels and/or to all the other saints.
The Book of Revelation lists a number of divine “rewards” that will be bestowed on those who manage to overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil, by voluntarily cooperating with God’s grace:
Eternal life
Revelation 2:11 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches: He that shall overcome shall not be hurt by the second death.
Ruling and Reigning
Revelation 2:26 And he that shall overcome and keep my words unto the end, I will give him power over the nations.
Divine Honor and Recognition
Revelation 3:5 He that shall overcome shall thus be clothed in white garments: and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life. And I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.
Holiness – Being Set Apart by God for His Express Purpose
Revelation 3:12 He that shall overcome, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God: and he shall go out no more. And I will write upon him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God, and my new name.
Theosis – Becoming like God
Revelation 3:21 To him that shall overcome, I will give to sit with me in my throne: as I also have overcome and am set down with my Father in his throne.
Relationship – As God’s Tried and True, Sons and Daughters
Revelation 21:7 He that shall overcome shall possess these things. And I will be his God: and he shall be my son.
The power of God’s grace is the only thing that makes all of this possible.
Why?
Luke 1:37 Because no word shall be impossible with God.
So … why do Catholics think it is OK
… even laudable
to ask Mary and the saints for help?
Because Mary and the saints are already “tried and true” … holy and acceptable to God.
Because only God and his grace made the triumph of Mary and the saints possible.
Because the promises of Christ are practical and salvific, and meant to be an ongoing blessing to all the People of God, wherever they might presently be found.
Because we’re all “family” … related to each other (and to God) through Adam, Jesus Christ, and the Church … and there is solid biblical precedent for the right of “kin” helping (and redeeming) other “kin”.
Because helping others in their time of need is the charitable and Christian thing to do … especially for those who have already been perfected by God’s grace, in Heaven.
Because God respects the dignity of the human race, which he created (in his own image and likeness) by kindly remembering to include us (along with our good works/voluntary cooperation with his grace) in his universal plan of salvation.
Because God loves us, and Heaven poses no barrier at all to the power of divine love and grace.
There’s no doubt that God empowers angels
to assist men, in times of need.
Mary and all the other saints,
by the power of God’s grace,
possess power and authority that is superior
to that of the angels,
so there is absolutely nothing that would prevent
them from using that power for the benefit of souls
still on earth … because, as we all know …
God desires all men to be saved,
and to come to the knowledge of his truth.
(1st Timothy 2:4)
Islam needs to emerge from its’ self-imposed “dark ages” and join the world community.
The days of Muslim Conquest
and the Crusades are behind us.
by Doug Lawrence
Islam claims to be a religion of peace, but so long as Islam continues to harbor terrorists and murderers within its’ ranks, and so long as Islam appears to officially support various types of revenge and brutal discrimination, under the false guise of Sharia and Jihad, few non-Muslims are ever likely to take Islam seriously, as a true world religion … let alone, a religion of peace.
Muslim Sharia Law is an only slightly modified version of the old Mosaic Law of the Jews. The Law actually worked pretty well in the harsh living environment of nomadic desert dwellers … and it should have … since it was originally given to the Israelites by God (Allah) for that express purpose. But when impressed on modern-day urban citizenry by certain fundamentalist Imams, Sharia can easily take on the look and feel of brute totalitarianism.
All of current-day Islam’s inherent violence and its’ serious denials/abuses of personal freedom make Islam look very unappealing and even frightening to the common man. And that should not come as a surprise, to anyone.
I’m betting that the promoters of true Islam can make a logical case for many/most of their fundamental beliefs and practices, but there’s no way they can ever do the same for violent Jihad and brutal, religious persecution and discrimination … simply because that type of behavior is essentially an unjust, corrupt aberration … and it was never a part of original, authentic Islam.
The days of the Crusades are behind us. The world (except apparently, for certain Muslims, and a few others) has moved on. Now, it’s high time for the true leaders of the Islamic world to get together, universally reject violence and terrorism, disown and shun those who can’t or won’t change their Medieval ways, and finally, join the modern family of nations, in peace.
Old Law – Fulfilled and Set Aside By Jesus Christ
Christians Not Under the Old Law
Pius XII: Mystici Corporis, 29: “And first of all, by the death of our Redeemer, the New Testament took the place of the Old Law which had been abolished; then the Law of Christ together with its mysteries, enactments, institutions, and sacred rites was ratified for the whole world in the blood of Jesus Christ…but on the Gibbet of His death Jesus made void the Law with its decrees fastened the handwriting of the Old Testament to the Cross, establishing the New Testament in His blood shed for the whole human race. “To such an extent, then,” says St. Leo the Great, speaking of the Cross of our Lord, “was there effected a transfer from the Law to the Gospel, from the Synagogue to the Church, from the many sacrifices to one Victim, that, as Our Lord expired, that mystical veil which shut off the innermost part of the temple and its sacred secret was rent violently from top to bottom.”
30: “On the Cross then the Old Law died, soon to be buried and to be a bearer of death, in order to give way to the New Testament of which Christ had chosen the Apostles as qualified ministers”
Council of Trent, ch 1, 793: “but not even the Jews by the very letter of the law of Moses were able to be liberated or to rise therefrom”
Council of Trent, Session 6, ch 2: “that He might both redeem the Jews, who were under the Law”
Council of Trent, Canon 1: “If anyone shall say that man can be justified before God by his own works which are done through his own natural powers, or through the teaching of the Law…let him be anathema.”
Council of Florence, DS 695: “There are seven sacraments of the new Law: namely, baptism, confirmation, Eucharist, penance, extreme unction, orders, and matrimony, which differ a great deal from the sacraments of the Old Law. For those of the Old Law did not effect grace, but only pronounced that it should be given through the passion of Christ; these sacraments of ours contain grace, and confer it upon those who receive them worthily.”
Council of Florence, DS 712: “It firmly believes, professes, and teaches that the matter pertaining to the law of the Old Testament, of the Mosiac law, which are divided into ceremonies, sacred rites, sacrifices, and sacraments, because they were established to signify something in the future, although they were suited to the divine worship at that time, after our Lord’s coming had been signified by them, ceased, and the sacraments of the New Testament began; and that whoever, even after the passion, placed hope in these matters of the law and submitted himself to them as necessary for salvation, as if faith in Christ could not save without them, sinned mortally.”
“All, therefore, who after that time observe circumcision and the Sabbath and the other requirements of the law, it declares alien to the Christian faith and not in the least fit to participate in eternal salvation, unless someday they recover from these errors. Therefore, it commands all who glory in the name of Christian, at whatever time, before or after baptism’ to cease entirely from circumcision, since, whether or not one places hope in it, it cannot be observed at all without the loss of eternal salvation.”
Pope Benedict XIV, Ex Quo Primum, #59: “However they are not attempting to observe the precepts of the old Law, which as everyone knows have been revoked by the coming of Christ.”
Pope Benedict XIV, Ex Quo Primum, #61: “The first consideration is that the ceremonies of the Mosaic law were abrogated by the coming of Christ and they can no longer be observed without sin after the promulgation of the Gospel.”
Pius VI, DS 1519-1520 (condemned the following): “Likewise, the doctrine which adds that under the Law man ‘became a prevaricator, since he was powerless to observe it, not indeed by the fault of the Law, which was most sacred, but by the guilt of man, who, under the Law, without grace, became more and more a prevaricator’; and it further adds, ‘that the Law, if it did not heal the heart of man, brought it about that he would recognize his evil, and, being convinced of his weakness, would desire the grace of a mediator’; in this part it generally intimates that man became a prevaricator through the nonobservance of the Law which he was powerless to observe, as if ‘He who is just could command something impossible, or He who is pious would be likely to condemn man for that which he could not avoid’ (from St. Caesarius Serm. 73, in append., St. Augustine, Serm. 273, edit. Maurin; from St. August., De nat, et “rat., e. 43; De “rat. et lib. arb., e. 16, Enarr. in psalm. 56, n. I),– false scandalous, impious, condemned in Baius (see n. 1504).
1520 20. “In that part in which it is to be understood that man, while under the Law and without grace, could conceive a desire for the grace of a Mediator related to the salvation promised through Christ, as if ‘grace itself does not effect that He be invoked by us’ (from Conc. Araus. II, can. 3 [v.n. 176]),– the proposition as it stands, deceitful, suspect, favorable to the Semipelagian heresy.
The above citations were taken from Denziger’s, and were compiled by Bob Sungenis, at Catholic Apologetics International.
Commentary by Doug Lawrence:
Jesus personally gave us the new commandment: Love God. Love your neighbor.
In this, he was anticipating his perfect and atoning sacrifice, which would accomplish what no law ever could.
The old law …. all of it … ceased to exist once Jesus gave us the NEW and BETTER covenant in his blood.
Under the NEW COVENANT, we have the BEATITUDES, which do indeed promise BLESSINGS and REWARDS for laudable behavior.
The Beatitudes are to the new covenant what the law was to the old … only better.
So that begs the question: Which laws are you following? Precisely how does following an obsolete set of laws obtain grace? Why are you not instead seeking ALL the blessings and rewards promised by Christ, in the Beatitudes?
Jesus went on to found the authentic Church, to serve as the infallible guide for every generation of Christians, until the end of time … and to act definitively, as the primary distributor of all his grace, peace, and forgiveness.
The church eventually readopted and readapted the Ten Commandments … to be used as a guide to the spiritual realities and Christian morality of the New Covenant.
But the fact remains: People continue to sin almost constantly, and the law provides no remedy for sin, other than judgment. It never did.
Fortunately for us … God does.
God saves by the grace of the cross, which is freely available to all … primarily through the one, holy, apostolic and universal church that Jesus personally founded, for the purpose of our salvation … the Catholic Church – not by any law.
More … about that “jot and tittle” passage in the Gospel
St. Paul speaks to the Galatians about “the Law”:
Gal 3:1 O senseless Galatians, who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth: before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been set forth, crucified among you?
Gal 3:2 This only would I learn of you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith?
Gal 3:3 Are you so foolish that, whereas you began in the Spirit, you would now be made perfect by the flesh?
Gal 3:4 Have you suffered so great things in vain? If it be yet in vain.
Gal 3:5 He therefore who giveth to you the Spirit and worketh miracles among you: doth he do it by the works of the law or by the hearing of the faith?
Gal 3:6 As it is written: Abraham believed God: and it was reputed to him unto justice.
Gal 3:7 Know ye, therefore, that they who are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.
Gal 3:8 And the scripture, foreseeing that God justifieth the Gentiles by faith, told unto Abraham before: In thee shall all nations be blessed.
Gal 3:9 Therefore, they that are of faith shall be blessed with faithful Abraham.
Gal 3:10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written: Cursed is every one that abideth, not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.
Gal 3:11 But that in the law no man is justified with God, it is manifest: because the just man liveth by faith.
Gal 3:12 But the law is not of faith: but he that doth those things shall live in them.
Gal 3:13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us (for it is written: Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree).
Gal 3:14 That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Christ Jesus: that we may receive the promise of the Spirit by faith.
Gal 3:15 Brethren (I speak after the manner of man), yet a man’s testament, if it be confirmed, no man despiseth nor addeth to it.
Gal 3:16 To Abraham were the promises made and to his seed. He saith not: And to his seeds as of many. But as of one: And to thy seed, which is Christ.
Gal 3:17 Now this I say: that the testament which was confirmed by God, the law which was made after four hundred and thirty years doth not disannul, to make the promise of no effect.
Gal 3:18 For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise. But God gave it to Abraham by promise.
Gal 3:19 Why then was the law? It was set because of transgressions, until the seed should come to whom he made the promise, being ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.
Gal 3:20 Now a mediator is not of one: but God is one.
Gal 3:21 Was the law then against the promises of God: God forbid! For if there had been a law given which could give life, verily justice should have been by the law.
Gal 3:22 But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise, by the faith of Jesus Christ, might be given to them that believe.
Gal 3:23 But before the faith came, we were kept under the law shut up, unto that faith which was to be revealed.
Gal 3:24 Wherefore the law was our pedagogue in Christ: that we might be justified by faith.
Gal 3:25 But after the faith is come, we are no longer under a pedagogue.
Gal 3:26 For you are all the children of God, by faith in Christ Jesus.
Gal 3:27 For as many of you as have been baptized in Christ have put on Christ.
Gal 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek: there is neither bond nor free: there is neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Gal 3:29 And if you be Christ’s, then are you the seed of Abraham, heirs according to the promise.
And similarly … to the Colossians:
Col 2:6 As therefore you have received Jesus Christ the Lord, walk ye in him:
Col 2:7 Rooted and built up in him and confirmed in the faith, as also you have learned: abounding in him in thanksgiving.
Col 2:8 Beware lest any man cheat you by philosophy and vain deceit: according to the tradition of men according to the elements of the world and not according to Christ.
Col 2:9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead corporeally.
Col 2:10 And you are filled in him, who is the head of all principality and power.
Col 2:11 In whom also you are circumcised with circumcision not made by hand in despoiling of the body of the flesh: but in the circumcision of Christ.
Col 2:12 Buried with him in baptism: in whom also you are risen again by the faith of the operation of God who hath raised him up from the dead.
Col 2:13 And you, when you were dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he hath quickened together with him, forgiving you all offences:
Col 2:14 Blotting out the handwriting of the decree that was against us, which was contrary to us. And he hath taken the same out of the way, fastening it to the cross.
Col 2:15 And despoiling the principalities and powers, he hath exposed them confidently in open shew, triumphing over them in himself.
Col 2:16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of a festival day or of the new moon or of the sabbaths,
Col 2:17 Which are a shadow of things to come: but the body is of Christ.
Col 2:18 Let no man seduce you, willing in humility and religion of angels, walking in the things which he hath not seen, in vain puffed up by the sense of his flesh:
Col 2:19 And not holding the head, from which the whole body, by joints and bands, being supplied with nourishment and compacted, groweth into the increase of God.
Col 2:20 If then you be dead with Christ from the elements of this world, why do you yet decree as though living in the world?
Col 2:21 Touch not: taste not: handle not.
Col 2:22 Which all are unto destruction by the very use, according to the precepts and doctrines of men.
Col 2:23 Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in superstition and humility, and not sparing the body; not in any honour to the filling of the flesh.
Healing – Supernatural
by Doug Lawrence
The “Big Picture”
For thousands of years, it was widely accepted and understood that only the inimitable, unknowable, immutable God could forgive sins. Likewise, in spite of man’s knowledge of certain beneficial and even therapeutic natural compounds, the authentic healing arts also remained essentially in the hands of God, alone.
Yet today, thanks to Jesus Christ, the sacraments of his Catholic Church, and the Catholic ministerial priesthood, it is indeed possible to obtain total absolution from sin, and thanks to modern advances in medical care and the sciences (which were also fostered by the Church’s many contributions to Western civilization) it is also possible (in many cases) to obtain genuine physical healing, as well.
And while physical healing has never been the primary role of the church, the link between healing and the forgiveness of sins is one of the oldest and most essential of all, since that link was forged by none other than Jesus Christ, in one of the first public miracles of his earthly ministry.
Luke 5:17-26 And it came to pass on a certain day, as he sat teaching, that there were also Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, that were come out of every town of Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem: and the power of the Lord was to heal them.
And behold, men brought in a bed a man who had the palsy: and they sought means to bring him in and to lay him before him. And when they could not find by what way they might bring him in, because of the multitude, they went up upon the roof and let him down through the tiles with his bed into the midst before Jesus. Whose faith when he saw, he said: Man, thy sins are forgiven thee.
And the scribes and Pharisees began to think, saying: Who is this who speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone? And when Jesus knew their thoughts, answering he said to them: What is it you think in your hearts?
Which is easier to say: Thy sins are forgiven thee; or to say: Arise and walk? But that you may know that the Son of man hath the power on earth to forgive sins (he saith to the sick of the palsy), I say to thee to: Arise, take up thy bed and go into thy house.
And immediately rising up before them, he took up the bed on which he lay: and he went away to his own house, glorifying God. And all were astonished: and they glorified God. And they were filled with fear, saying: We have seen wonderful things today.
For those suffering from chronic or incurable illnesses, who are looking to God for supernatural healing, there is much to be learned from the above passages. Let’s take it “by the numbers”:
“And it came to pass on a certain day, as he sat teaching, that there were also Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, that were come out of every town of Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem: and the power of the Lord was to heal them. “
The Book of Genesis makes it clear that death, along with all human infirmities, are the collective result of Adam’s sin. The prophetic OT books inform us that the promised Messiah would have power over death, hell, and all human infirmities, while none of those things would have even the slightest power over him.
In that same vein, there was absolutely nothing in the Law of Moses, or in the Ten Commandments, which had the power to obtain forgiveness of sins, or to redeem mankind from eternal slavery to Satan, sin, and death. That type of relief is a function of grace … grace could only be obtained by and through Jesus Christ.
The assembled Pharisees and the Doctors of the Law, who were in the habit of “lording” the requirements of the law over the people, primarily for their own aggrandizement, were quite probably loathed to admit this.
“And behold, men brought in a bed a man who had the palsy: and they sought means to bring him in and to lay him before him. And when they could not find by what way they might bring him in, because of the multitude, they went up upon the roof and let him down through the tiles with his bed into the midst before Jesus. Whose faith when he saw, he said: Man, thy sins are forgiven thee.”
Sometimes, it will be necessary to rely on the kindness of friends, family, and even strangers, in order to obtain what we need from God. God most certainly provides, but we must be open to that divine provision, whatever it’s form, and cooperate with it, in every way possible.
Since faith remains absolutely essential in these matters, our most reliable helpers and intercessors will typically be faithful Catholics, who know and love God, and who understand how he customarily operates. Foremost in this regard are the saints in Heaven, followed by the saints on earth … fellow members of the Body of Christ … good people who we personally know, or to whom we are related … by blood, by baptism/grace and by nature. (Not necessarily in that order.)
The men who brought the paralytic to Jesus literally stopped at nothing in order to accomplish their mission. While we know little about their personal traits or proclivities, the fact that they acted definitively and with extreme perseverance in order to bring their friend/relative/loved one to Christ, says it all.
In that regard, it is also quite possible that the afflicted one was unconscious, or that he had little or no real faith of his own, and that the entire episode was the result of one or more unknown, faithful person’s free response to the grace of God, which promptly acted upon, resulted in a genuine (and very famous) miracle.
How many of us would resort to carrying someone up to the roof, chopping a hole, and then lowering a friend down through that hole, in order to bring him to God? It sounds crazy! Do such things even happen any more? No wonder miraculous healings seem to be so rare, in today’s world! Yet under the circumstances, these men did nothing more than what was required. And it certainly appears to “put the lie” to the heretical concept of “faith alone”.
Then, there’s the matter of Jesus choosing to first, forgive the man’s sins, rather than simply heal his physical infirmities … and the fact that Jesus chose to refer to the paralytic as “man” … rather than by his given name.
The name “Adam” literally means “The Man”.
Jesus, the Messiah, came to make “The Man” whole again, by making the forgiveness of sins possible. Only then could the corruption and death that sin inevitably brings, be rightly remedied.
The forgiveness of sins
must logically precede everything else.
(And in God’s system of things, it always does.)
Jesus Christ, faith, church, and grace, as well as personal initiative, would henceforth, always remain as integral parts of our continuing process of reconciliation with God, and our daily struggle against the corrupting forces of evil.
A Plan for Supernatural Healing
1) Go to Confession. Go to Mass.
Receive Holy Communion. Get Anointed.
The Mass and the Sacraments are the most powerful, abundant
and effective channels of God’s grace,
and grace is the means by which ALL supernatural healing occurs.
If you’re too sick to go to church,
ask a priest to come to your hospital or home.
2) Pray.
Go to daily and Sunday Mass.
Make your case with God, in prayer.
Pray the Rosary. “Mom” will take care of you.
Pray for Saintly intercession.
Then … do it all some more … as best you can.
2) Ask friends, relatives and church members
to pray for you.
Ask them to go to Mass, to Confession,
and to receive Holy Communion too,
since the efficacy of their prayers on your behalf is (typically)
dependent on the amount of “respect” God has for them,
and that too, is essentially, a function of grace.
Click here to learn more about “Merit”
3) Cultivate the Cardinal Virtues
of FAITH, HOPE and CHARITY, in your own soul.
Cling to Jesus Christ …
for without him, there can be no real hope.
At the same time, do everything possible to fully cooperate
with your priest, your doctors and your other care-givers.
That way … you’re “good to go” … no matter what!
Believe that God heals … and that the Mass,
the sacraments, and the prayers of the faithful
are truly effective indeed,
according to the order of God’s abundant grace.
Believe that God will answer your prayers
in the best possible way, at the best possible time.
Never fear!
Romans 8:31 What shall we then say to these things?
If God be for us, who is against us?
The Memorare
Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary,
that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection,
implored thy help, or sought thine intercession was left unaided.
Inspired by this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins,
my mother; to thee do I come, before thee I stand,
sinful and sorrowful.
O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions,
but in thy mercy hear and answer me. – Amen.
Look for the love …
Matthew 25:36 Naked, and you covered me:
sick, and you visited me:
I was in prison, and you came to me.
Matthew 25:40 And the king answering shall say to them:
Amen I say to you,
as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren,
you did it to me.
At the very least,
the illness or infirmity of a friend or relative
provides ordinary people
with an opportunity to actually live the Gospel.
At the very least,
illness or infirmity
provides the afflicted with the time and opportunity
to turn to God for supernatural solace and support …
and that is often a very precious commodity
in today’s fast-paced world.
Try to make sense of the suffering.
Suffering remains a great mystery,
yet we know that suffering was an integral part
of Christ’s earthly life,
and particularly of his atoning sacrifice
for the sins of the world,
on the cross at Calvary.
In his letter to the Colossians,
St. Paul explains that our own sufferings might,
when offered up and combined with those of Jesus Christ,
somehow help to save souls,
or serve to alleviate the suffering of others.
Offering up our sufferings to God, to be applied as he sees fit,
is in itself a beautiful act of faith, hope and charity.
On a more practical note,
such devotions help make our sufferings
more endurable …
or might even alleviate them, entirely.
Many believe that earthly suffering
may actually serve to reduce or eliminate
the need for a “stay” in Purgatory, when we die.
Some Catholics who have endured and overcome
extreme suffering have described their ordeal
as “a true gift from God”.
In the order of God’s supernatural grace,
as the Blessed Virgin Mary has already
personally demonstrated,
Nothing is Broken.
Nothing is Missing.
God’s grace is truly sufficient.
Get some right away!
(And remember … God heals all types of afflictions …
not just medical issues.)
Holy Spirit
Bible Study – Physical Manifestations of the Holy Spirit
– From Genesis To Revelation
God has apparently made many more appearances in our realm of existence than most of us can possibly imagine, and even when those events are duly recorded in scripture, they are often missed, or mistaken for something else.
Click the link below to view a 9-page compilation of virtually EVERY appearance God has ever made (at least as recorded in scripture) and be sure to spend a little extra time towards the end … contemplating the events of the first Christian Pentecost, and their direct aftermath.
Catholic Truths for Protestants
My Conversion
HOW CAN I KEEP MY HEART FROM SINGING
Pam Forrester
When I was eight I asked my mom to take me to the little church at the end of our street. She began to drop me off every week for Sunday School. One Sunday, my teacher presented the Gospel and encouraged us to accept Jesus Christ as our savior.
“But,” she told us, “you must be willing to do anything for God, like be a missionary.”
Well, I really wanted to be saved but I did not want to be a missionary! I had to think this over. I went home and thought about it for a while, my little 8 year-old soul struggling against selfish desire. Some weeks later, I convinced myself that I would be willing to be a missionary for Jesus and I asked Him to come into my heart.
For years I had a very fervent faith, even up to my first year in college – when the theory of evolution and the desire to sin enticed me to abandon my faith. I conveniently became an atheist for two years during the 60’s. Then, my mom gave me a copy of The Late Great Planet Earth, a book about the second coming of Christ. After reading it, I decided that perhaps the Bible was relevant after all and not just some dusty old book I could safely ignore. So, I rededicated my life to Christ.
I gave a copy of the Late Great Planet Earth to my boyfriend Mike, a first-year medical student, and he committed his life to Christ too. A year later we took a Bible course called The Bethel Series – a two year overview of the whole Bible. We got married, taught Bethel, led small group Bible studies and studied Scripture in depth. We moved from California to Baltimore so Mike could do his surgery residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital. And then we moved to Houston so he could do specialty training.
***
Since we were convinced that the Bible alone was sufficient for faith and salvation, we wanted to know exactly what words in the Bible meant. I bought a Greek dictionary and a Greek interlinear Bible and taught myself to read the Greek alphabet. When Mike finished his residency we moved to California with our three young children. Mike set up practice in a small town north of San Diego. We found a great church and we joined a weekly Bible study group.
It was here that we first heard about the doctrine of Eternal Security – the belief that a once a Christian is “saved,” he cannot lose salvation no matter what he does. We objected initially, but were assured it was true, our friends firing off memorized Bible verses to support the doctrine. We backed down for a while. Then Mike began his own Bible study by listening to tapes of the Bible while exercising. I also studied, on my own, with my dictionaries, concordances and Greek interlinear. Before long, Mike was using these sources as well. We soon became convinced that there were hundreds of verses that did not align with the “once saved, always saved” doctrine. Our Bible study group swelled to overflowing as Mike taught how Scripture refuted Eternal Security. We were labeled Arminian even though we had never heard of Arminius or what he wrote. But we did reject Calvinism, especially the doctrine of Limited Atonement.
It is a scandal for the Vicar of Christ to discuss casually with a layman, for publication to the world, such matters as condoms and male prostitutes.
Surely what happened here shows why the Vicar of Christ is not at liberty to indulge in “sensational” and “fascinating revelations,” or “profound theological reflection” devoid of all authority, under “persistent” questioning by a journalist who “presses” him for answers and “tempts” him into speculation. The very process involved peril for the Church and thus the world.
That peril is evident at this very moment, when innumerable Catholics have no doubt taken the Pope’s words, spun by the media and “clarified” by his incompetent “spokesman,” as a green light for “safe sex,” the Pope’s nuances having immediately been lost to the wind, as he should have foreseen they would be. And now, in what is just a beginning, it is reported from the Philippines that “Malacañang [the Philippine equivalent of the White House] yesterday said Benedict XVI’s statement could ‘absolutely’ boost support for the RH [reproductive health] bill which seeks to control the country’s population by promoting the use of contraceptives.” That is hardly what the Pope intended, but the exercise of submitting to a journalistic interview touching on matters of faith and morals guaranteed the potential for unintended consequences. And who knows how far those consequences will extend?
Submitted by Doria2
CDC: Of all the males who have been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in the history of the epidemic, 91% of them got it either through having sex with other males or through injection drug abuse.
It’s also worth noting that homosexual behavior is so dangerous and risky that the FDA — hardly a member of the vast, right-wing conspiracy — will not allow a male to donate blood if he has had sex even one time with another male in the last 33 years.
And the CDC — again, not a right-wing think tank — has found that of all the males who have been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in the history of the epidemic, 91% of them got it either through having sex with other males or through injection drug abuse. Clearly, homosexual behavior is as dangerous to human health as shooting up with illicit drugs. No sane society should ever endorse and grant special rights and protections based on either kind of behavior.
Until the Southern Poverty Law Center adds the FDA and the CDC to its list of “hate” groups, there is no reason to think that either the AFA or the FRC belongs on that list. In point of fact, we are “truth” groups, not “hate” groups. And you can’t go wrong telling people the truth about behavior that could destroy them. We’re sticking with the FDA and the CDC on this one.
Writer’s Conclusion: A Significant Number of Pro-Aborts are Psychopaths
In light of the clinical definition of a psychopath, and the historic manifestations of “psychopathic” movements, it is difficult to avoid the comparison between psychopathy and the perspective that is openly expressed by many leaders in the global pro-abortion movement.
Florence Thomas is only one example of the troubled thinking that seems to characterize pro-abortion leaders. Her comparison of her own unborn child to a “tumor,” that is, a diseased piece of tissue, is not only unscientific; it suggests a mind that is unwilling, or perhaps unable, to transcend itself and empathize with the humanity of another. Her claim that a fetus is only human if it is desired by its parents is almost a caricature of ego-centrism, implying that one’s personal wishes confer dignity and rights on other people. The conclusion of Thomas flows inevitably from her premises; she believes that women should be free to kill their unborn children for any reason, in order to preserve their “freedom.”
Thomas’ thinking is echoed throughout the anti-life and anti-family movements of our age. Margaret Sanger, the founder of the modern birth control movement, spoke with the chilling rhetoric of eugenics when she dismissed children who are “unwanted” by their parents, referring to them as “human waste” in her 1920 work, “Women and the New Race.”
“Each and every unwanted child is likely to be in some way a social liability. It is only the wanted child who is likely to be a social asset,” wrote Sanger, who also asked, “Can the children of these unfortunate mothers be other than a burden to society—a burden which reflects itself in innumerable phases of cost, crime and general social detriment?” In another chapter she infamously states that “the most merciful thing that the large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it.”
The famous Princeton “bioethicist” Peter Singer applies the same fundamental principle embraced by Thomas, Sanger, and others, but takes it to a more explicit conclusion. Singer acknowledges that unborn children are human beings, but openly denies that they have a right to life, unless their parents want them. Moreover, Singer extends this reasoning to infants after birth as well, offering a moral endorsement of infanticide.
How psychiatrists and psychiatric institutions become accomplices to abuse, especially by priests.
The Catholic Church has been hurt badly by the bungling of psychiatric advisors. It has been estimated that the scandal’s total price tag for settlements to abused minors has risen to more than $2.7 billion in the U.S. alone. According to the Associated Press, settlements in 2009 totaled $55 million. Other 2009 abuse-related costs included attorneys’ fees (about $29 million); support for clergy offenders, including therapy, living, and legal expenses (nearly $11 million); and psychiatric therapy for victims not covered by settlements (around $6.5 million). In a word, the mental-health and legal industries reaped a bonanza of profits before and after the scandal was uncovered, coming and going.
Pope’s Saturday Homily for Nascent Human Life Vigil
Dear brothers and sisters,
With this evening’s celebration, the Lord gives us the grace and joy of opening the new liturgical year beginning with its first stage: Advent, the period that commemorates the coming of God among us. Every beginning brings a special grace, because it is blessed by the Lord. In this Advent period we will once again experience the closeness of the One who created the world, who guides history and cared for us to the point of becoming a man. This great and fascinating mystery of God with us, moreover of God who becomes one of us, is what we celebrate in the coming weeks journeying towards holy Christmas. During the season of Advent we feel the Church that takes us by the hand and – in the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary – expresses her motherhood allowing us to experience the joyful expectation of the coming of the Lord, who embraces us all in his love that saves and consoles.
While our hearts reach out towards the annual celebration of the birth of Christ, the Church’s liturgy directs our gaze to the final goal: our encounter with the Lord in the splendour of glory. This is why we, in every Eucharist, “announce his death, proclaim his resurrection until he comes again” we hold vigil in prayer. The liturgy does not cease to encourage and support us, putting on our lips, in the days of Advent, the cry with which the whole Bible concludes, the last page of the Revelation of Saint John: “Come, Lord Jesus “(22:20).
Dear brothers and sisters, our coming together this evening to begin the Advent journey is enriched by another important reason: with the entire Church, we want to solemnly celebrate a prayer vigil for unborn life. I wish to express my thanks to all who have taken up this invitation and those who are specifically dedicated to welcoming and safeguarding human life in different situations of fragility, especially in its early days and in its early stages. The beginning of the liturgical year helps us to relive the expectation of God made flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary, God who makes himself small, He becomes a child, it speaks to us of the coming of a God who is near, who wanted to experience the life of man, from the very beginning, to save it completely, fully. And so the mystery of the Incarnation of the Lord and the beginning of human life are intimately connected and in harmony with each other within the one saving plan of God, the Lord of life of each and every one of us. The Incarnation reveals to us, with intense light and in an amazing way, that every human life has an incomparable, a most elevated dignity.
Man has an unmistakable originality compared to all other living beings that inhabit the earth. He presents himself as a unique and singular entity, endowed with intelligence and free will, as well as being composed of a material reality. He lives simultaneously and inseparably in the spiritual dimension and the corporal dimension. This is also suggested in the text of the First letter to the Thessalonians which was just proclaimed: “May the God of peace himself – St. Paul writes – make you perfectly holy and may you entirely, spirit, soul, and body, be preserved blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ “(5:23). Therefore, we are spirit, soul and body. We are part of this world, tied to the possibilities and limits of our material condition, at the same time we are open to an infinite horizon, able to converse with God and to welcome Him in us. We operate in earthly realities and through them we can perceive the presence of God and seek Him, truth, goodness and absolute beauty. We savour fragments of life and happiness and we long for total fulfilment.
God loves us so deeply, totally, without distinction, He calls us to friendship with him, He makes us part of a reality beyond all imagination, thought and word; His own divine life. With emotion and gratitude we acknowledge the value of the incomparable dignity of every human person and the great responsibility we have toward all. ” Christ, the final Adam, – says the Second Vatican Council – by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love, fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear…. by His incarnation the Son of God has united Himself in some fashion with every man. “(Gaudium et Spes, 22).
Believing in Jesus Christ also means having a new outlook on man, a look of trust and hope. Moreover, experience itself and reason show that the human being is a subject capable of discernment, self-conscious and free, unique and irreplaceable, the summit of all earthly things, that must be recognized in his innate value and always accepted with respect and love. He has the right not to be treated as an object of possession or something to manipulate at will, not to be reduced to a mere instrument for the benefit of others and their interests. The human person is a good in and of himself and his integral development should always be sought. Love for all, if it is sincere, naturally tends to become a preferential attention to the weakest and poorest. In this vein we find the Church’s concern for the unborn, the most fragile, the most threatened by the selfishness of adults and the darkening of consciences. The Church continually reiterates what was declared by the Second Vatican Council against abortion and all violations of unborn life: “from the moment of its conception life must be guarded with the greatest care ” (ibid., n. 51).
There are cultural tendencies that seek to anesthetize consciences with misleading motivations. With regard to the embryo in the womb, science itself highlights its autonomy capable of interaction with the mother, the coordination of biological processes, the continuity of development, the growing complexity of the organism. This is not an accumulation of biological material, but a new living being, dynamic and wonderfully ordered, a new unique human being. So was Jesus in Mary’s womb, so it was for all of us in our mother’s womb. With the ancient Christian writer Tertullian we can say: ” he who will be a man is already one” (Apologeticum IX, 8), there is no reason not to consider him a person from conception.
Unfortunately, even after birth, the lives of children continue to be exposed to abandonment, hunger, poverty, disease, abuse, violence or exploitation. The many violations of their rights that are committed in the world sorely hurt the conscience of every man of good will. Before the sad landscape of the injustices committed against human life, before and after birth, I make mine Pope John Paul II’s passionate appeal to the responsibility of each and every individual: ” respect, protect, love and serve life, every human life! Only in this direction will you find justice, development, true freedom, peace and happiness!”(Encyclical Evangelium vitae, 5). I urge the protagonists of politics, economic and social communications to do everything in their power to promote a culture which respects human life, to provide favorable conditions and support networks for the reception and development of life.
To the Virgin Mary, who welcomed the Son of God made man with faith, with her maternal womb, with loving care, with nurturing support and vibrant with love, we entrust our commitment and prayer in favour of unborn life . We do in the liturgy – which is the place where we live the truth and where truth lives with us – worshiping the divine Eucharist, we contemplate Christ’s body, that body who took flesh from Mary by the Holy Spirit, and from her was born in Bethlehem for our salvation. Ave, verum Corpus, natum de Maria Virgine!
Become Catholic
How To Become Catholic
Many people ask about how they can become a member of the Catholic Church, often without realizing that any validly baptized Christian (baptized with water, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit) is already a member of the Catholic Church … just not a full-fledged member.
With a bit of faith, plus some formal training and preparation, just about anyone can easily become Catholic.
Click here for another comprehensive article explaining the process
Bible
Many fail to realize that it was the Catholic Church that originally decided to compile all of the sacred scriptures, that the Catholic Church wrote ALL of the New Testament scriptures under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that the Catholic Church certified ALL of the sacred scriptures as authentic, officially declared the scriptures to be the inerrant, inspired Word of God, translated the scriptures from the original languages into the common language of the people, and did all of this by the end of the 4th century.
Furthermore … since the New Testament was written by Catholics and for Catholics, it necessarily reflects only authentic Catholic beliefs and practices.
This is something non-Catholics often overlook, to their detriment, and at the expense of the truth.
Everyone interested in the Bible … Catholic or not … should spend some time reading these authentic Catholic Church documents on the nature of sacred scripture:
A Catholic Catechism on the Bible
ON THE STUDY OF HOLY SCRIPTURE … PROVIDENTISSIMUS DEUS
DOGMATIC CONSTITUTION ON DIVINE REVELATION … DEI VERBUM
ON THE WORD OF GOD IN THE LIFE AND MISSION OF THE CHURCH … Verbum Domini
The Bible … True … or Not (PDF)?
For a look at a purely secular guide to the Bible, primarily written in order to inform writers and journalists, by The Bible Society in England, click the link below:
Homily in Memorial of Legion of Mary Founder, Frank Duff
Servant of God, Frank Duff
Homily given by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin on Nov. 20, at the 30th anniversary Mass in commemoration of the servant of God Frank Duff, founder of the Legion of Mary:
Frank Duff died thirty years ago. This quiet, personally unassuming man, in quiet simple external circumstances in Dublin, on 7th September 1921 established a movement of prayer, Christian care and Marian spirituality. The Legion of Mary is a movement which has spread worldwide and has enriched the Church in many parts of the world, especially at moments in which the Church was experiencing difficulty and persecution.
We have come to thank God for the charism of Frank Duff: a charism recognized in a special way by the Second Vatican Council which he attended. We thank God for the spiritual enrichment that that charism has brought the Members of the Legion of Mary. We thank God for the Christian care and spiritual formation that millions have encountered through their contact with the Legion of Mary.
We remember especially the tenacity of this outwardly retiring man: tenacity in reaching out unashamedly to bring the message of Jesus to people in the varied circumstances of their livers, a tenacity driven not by human ambition but through a devotion to Mary who in every aspect of her life opened her heart to understand and to do the will of God.
The Church in Ireland is on a path of renewal. Renewal is an essential dimension of the Church’s life at any moment in history. The need for renewal of the Church in Ireland is however particularly urgent at this moment.
The scandals that have been revealed about aspects of the Church’s life have opened our eyes not just to the particular horrors of the abuse of children and of an inadequate response to them. They have opened our eyes to a much deeper crisis within the Church in Ireland.
Society in Ireland has changed. Religious culture in Ireland has changed. Religious practice has dropped at times in staggering proportions. There is disillusionment among many believers. Many have opted for or drifted into a more secularised vision of their life. Many have become indifferent and live as if God did not exist.
The significant role of the Church in serving Irish society, a role assumed in good faith and in a spirit of service which was undertaken with great dedication, is now being re-examined. What emerge are not just examples of evident failure and inadequacy alongside vision and commitment, but of a certain sense arrogance and power seeking, which has alienated many from the very message that such a presence in society was supposed to represent.
We face real crisis of vocations to the priesthood. Last Saturday here in Dublin’s Pro-Cathedral I remembered at Mass 20 priests who had ministered in the Archdiocese and who had died in the previous twelve months. A further dozen or so priests retired from active ministry in the same period. And yet in the past year I ordained just one new priest for the diocese.
But the crisis of the Church is still a deeper one. It is not about the role of the Church in society. It is not about numbers. It is about the very nature of faith in Jesus Christ. It is about our understanding of the message of Jesus Christ. It is about faith in the God revealed in Jesus Christ and about the fundamental question: who is Jesus Christ?
We do not create our own identity for Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ came to bring a message of love. But it was not a message just of being nice to each other. We have to ask: what is it that makes a Christian different in his or her interaction with others? What is it that should mark the Church of Jesus Christ as a people driven by the message of salvation revealed through the death and resurrection of Jesus?
The Church will never be reformed from outside. Historically it must be recognized that the recent shattering revelations about abuse would probably never have come to full light without outside intervention. Renewal and reform of the Church, however, will only come from within the Church, that is from within a community of man and women who listen to the word of God, who come together to pray, who celebrate the Eucharist and are called to share in the very life of Christ himself. The Church is communion. That is not the same as saying the Church is a community, or an association or an institution. The Church is formed by the Word of God and is lived by men and women who allow that word of God to transform them.
The Church is communion. The theme of the forthcoming International Eucharistic Congress to be held in Dublin in 2012 is: Communion with Christ and with one another. It is however the communion of Christ which determines the shape of communion we form with each other. It is not a network of social interaction which determines what our communion with Jesus Christ is or ultimately who Jesus Christ is. The Church is formed through our communion with Christ.
The Gospel we have heard is a complex one. It is an interesting insight into the friendship of Jesus with this family and their practical service to help him in his mission. Jesus on his mission was not just surrounded by the twelve Apostles. There were many who accompanied him on his missionary journeys, there were men and women who served him in different ways yet who together imbibed his teaching and his witness.
Lazarus and his Sisters were close to Jesus in friendship. Friendship with Jesus for us means friendship in his service through understanding his word. Each of us can join with him in his mission and living out in his mission in the great and small tasks of life. Frank Duff could never have been described in terms of what today would be called “a celebrity”. He shunned publicity. He shunned superficiality. Yet his work has spread to so many parts of the world and has affected so many lives through the fruits of constant bonds of friendship with the Lord.
Renewal of the Church is not about media strategies or structural reform. In the Gospel we have just heard, Jesus clearly indicates in the figure of Mary that what is vital – and what can never be substituted by any other merits – is the willingness to know Jesus and to enter into true friendship with him. That means allowing his word to capture our hearts; it means having the same mind that was within Christ Jesus himself. It is about knowing the Father through encountering Jesus.
Renewal in the Church in Ireland will be painful renewal. Jesus message was not that anything goes. There is something radical about the commitment which Jesus requires of us. “Let the dead bury their dead”, is not a message of compromise
There are many indications that the Church in Ireland has lost its way. Let me be very clear: sadly many people, of various ages, no longer really know Jesus Christ. That is not to say that they are not good people, caring people. It is not to say that the Church is only for a holy elite: the Church is a Church of sinners; each of us has to repent day after day; each of us compromises and each of us lets Jesus down and betrays Jesus.
The Church is the Church of Jesus Christ. It is not a vague moralizing agency in society. It is not there to provide some sort of spiritual comfort zone for all comers. The Eucharist and the sacraments are celebrations of faith in Jesus Christ within a Christian community. Allowing the sacramental life of the Church become some just sort of vague social celebrations is allowing the true identity of the Church to become distorted.
I am not saying the active members of the Church community have been authentic followers of Jesus Christ. The Church has indeed been betrayed by its own active members. In the face of such failure the Church has at times given the impression of wishing to be all-embracing and all-forgiving in a simplistic manner.
Where do we go on the path of renewal? Can we be happy to celebrate first communion services which put people into debt for thousands of Euro for empty external expenses, while neither the children nor their parents have been led to a true understanding of the Eucharist and the Eucharistic community which is the Church? Can we be satisfied when confirmation is looked on by many as a graduation out of Church life? In not addressing such issues we are not just deceiving ourselves but we are damaging the integrity of the message of Jesus.
The Church is not a holy elite. It is made up today as always by the humble of heart. Many people with little education have a deeper insight into the message of Jesus Christ than learned theologians or bishops. But in today’s society where the message of Jesus is less and less accessible, the Church must become a place where formation in the Word of God resounds in a way that it has not done so in the Irish Church for generations.
I would like to thank the Legion of Mary in the Archdiocese of Dublin for their generous participation in our diocesan project this year of making the word of God in the Gospel of Saint Luke available to families. I would like to thank the Legion of Mary nationwide for their renewed reflection on the Word of God and its application to daily life. I would like to thank you for your commitment to prayer and to the Eucharist where Jesus is present in our hearts.
I am very happy today to see such a large representation of priests present at our ceremony today. I would like to thank the priests who act as spiritual directors to the Legion of Mary and who provide formation for the spiritual life of the members, helping them day by day to rediscover and to recommit themselves top the charism of the movement. The Legion of Mary is fundamentally a lay movement but the place of the priestly ministry is aloe essential to it. I particularly wish to thank those priests who have so many demands on their time and yet who are so dedicate to the work with the Legion of Mary.
Frank Duff founded the Legion of Mary in 1921 at a critical moment in Irish history. It was a time of political uncertainty which eventually would explode into civil war. It was a time in which this city was marked by very harsh poverty and also of widespread moral impoverishment. Frank Duff was a man who in the face of a major social challenge did something. He did not write a Letter to the Editor. He gathered like-minded men and women around him into a movement of spiritual renewal, prayer and Christian service. He was not discouraged either by the size of the challenge or by the paucity of his means. He was a man of the Church – misunderstood by many in the Church, including Archbishops of Dublin. Like Mary, his model, he never flinched. Frank Duff pondered the Word of God day by day and through him then the Lord worked great things.
Baptism
Infant Baptism – Salvation With No Works At All
Many fail to realize that infant Baptism, as it has always been practiced in the Catholic Church, is the most significant demonstration of salvation without any works at all … since infants can do nothing for themselves.
This makes salvation a truly free gift from God, through his Church, which has always faithfully done God’s will, for the purpose of our salvation.
Let no one doubt that the Holy Spirit … through Baptism … indwelling a human soul of any age … most certainly has the power to remove original sin (and sin of all kinds) … to make one an adopted child of God, a member of the Church, a citizen of Heaven, and co-heir with Jesus Christ.
The sooner … the better!
An interesting related article (with ancient catacomb inscription)
Read what the Catholic Catechism has to say about it
This … from a Yahoo Answers poster (and Catholic Priest):
The Church from the beginning has practiced the Baptism of children. The reasons are very clear in Scriptures.
(Joh 3:5 DRB) Jesus answered: Amen, amen, I say to thee, unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
To the first Christians that baptized their children it was understood by them that Baptism is the doorway to salvation. St. Peter said the following:
(1Pe 3:18 DRB) Because Christ also died once for our sins, the just for the unjust: that he might offer us to God, being put to death indeed in the flesh, but enlivened in the spirit,
(1Pe 3:19 DRB) In which also coming he preached to those spirits that were in prison:
(1Pe 3:20 DRB) Which had been some time incredulous, when they waited for the patience of God in the days of Noe, when the ark was a building: wherein a few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water.
(1Pe 3:21 DRB) Whereunto baptism, being of the like form, now saveth you also: not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but, the examination of a good conscience towards God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The effects of Baptism are the regeneration of the soul (born again), eradication of original sin and actual sin and its effects on the soul. A baby does not have actual sin but does have original sin. Through Baptism we become members of the Body of Christ, of which St. Paul says the following:
(2Co 5:17 DRB) If then any be in Christ a new creature, the old things are passed away. Behold all things are made new
(1Co 3:16 DRB) Know you not that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
Baptism is the sacramental doorway into the Church:
(Mat 28:19 DRB) Going therefore, teach ye all nations: baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.
The Bible teaches that everyone should be Baptized:
(Act 2:38 DRB) But Peter said to them: Do penance: and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of your sins. And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
(Act 2:39 DRB) For the promise is to you and to your children and to all that are far off, whomsoever the Lord our God shall call.
(Act 2:40 DRB) And with very many other words did he testify and exhort them, saying: Save yourselves from this perverse generation.
(Act 2:41 DRB) They therefore that received his word were baptized: and there were added in that day about three thousand souls.
(Act 2:42 DRB) And they were persevering in the doctrine of the apostles and in the communication of the breaking of bread and in prayers.
St. Peter at Pentecost said to the adults to repent but did not exclude children from Baptism, instead saying that everyone should receive the Holy Spirit not just those of age to repent. He said it is “to you and to your children”. That is why people in the early Church brought even their smallest children to be baptized as do parents today.
There is no necessity to repent for children to be Baptized according to Scriptures. The command to repent is not binding on infants nor to mentally incapacitated people as the intent of repentance is not to exclude those incapable of such an act. They are not to be condemned because of their lack of ability to repent. Certainly the same understanding should apply as we understand St. Paul’s statement in 2 Thessalonians 3:10 where St. Paul says that someone who does not work does not eat. Are we to deny children or the mentally handicapped sustenance? Certainly they should not, nor should they be denied eternal life.
The Old Testament required circumcision at eight days old as a sign of the covenant of God. The child had no knowledge of why he was being circumcised yet the parents brought the son to the synagogue to have this done. God accepted the child into the covenant for what the parents had done just as He accepts the Baptism when the parents present their child to be baptized. The Scriptures tell us clearly that Baptism replaced circumcision:
(Col 2:11 DRB) In whom also you are circumcised with circumcision not made by hand in despoiling of the body of the flesh: but in the circumcision of Christ.
(Col 2:12 DRB) Buried with him in baptism: in whom also you are risen again by the faith of the operation of God who hath raised him up from the dead.
We must remember what Christ said when there were those who attempted to forbid the children from coming to Him:
(Luk 18:15 DRB) And they brought unto him also infants, that he might touch them. Which when the disciples saw, they rebuked them.
(Luk 18:16 DRB) But Jesus, calling them together, said: Suffer children to come to me and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.
(Luk 18:17 DRB) Amen, I say to you: Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a child shall not enter into it.
Abortion
Is abortion murder or is it an acceptable form of birth control and family planning? What about the sanctity of human life-no matter how elementary and new that life may be-as a creation in the very image of God? Is abortion an amoral matter of individual choice or is it a moral perversion, a sin, a crime against God and humanity and thus worthy of judgment? When does life begin? Is the baby an individual person separate from its mother, or just a blob of tissue, an extension of the host organism?
In varying degrees, these are questions with which the early church fathers wrestled. While it may surprise modern readers to learn that abortion is not a distinctly twentieth-century phenomenon, they may be surprised even further to learn that the church leaders who dealt with this issue came to virtually the same conclusions that Bible based Christianity has arrived at today.
Doug Lawrence's Catholic Site 