What should be the attitude of Catholics towards those who do not belong to the True Church?

Catholics should observe an attitude of understanding towards them, because the majority of those who do not belong to the True Church are in good faith.

Catholic teachings are not easy to understand at first sight; many Catholic practices require sacrifice. Towards such a religion there is bound to be prejudice.

To be obliged to go to Mass every Sunday under pain of mortal sin; to have to confess to a priest, who is another human being like ourselves; to condemn divorce and birth control; to observe fasts and abstinence;-these are not easy doctrines.

No wonder in looking for relief, man often, however unconsciously, seeks motives for not accepting the Church that commands its members to obey such precepts, to accept such doctrines.

When Our Lord first announced the institution of the Holy Eucharist, many of the disciples said, “This is a hard saying. Who can listen to it?” (John 6:62). And they no longer went with Jesus.

Read more from My Catholic Faith

A prayer of apparent contradiction from Msgr. Charles Pope

How baffling you are, Oh Church,
and yet how I love you!
How you have made me suffer,
and yet how much I owe you!
I would like to see you destroyed,
and yet I need your presence.

You have given me so much scandal
and yet you have made me understand what sanctity is.
I have seen nothing in the world more devoted to obscurity,
more compromised, more false,
and yet I have touched nothing more pure, more generous, more beautiful.
How often I have wanted to shut the doors of my soul in your face,
and how often I have prayed to die in the safety of your arms.

No, I cannot free myself from you,
because I am you, though not completely.
And besides, where would I go?

Would I establish another?
I would not be able to establish it without the same faults,
for they are the same faults I carry in me.
And if I did establish another,
it would be my Church,
not the Church of Christ.

(from The God Who Comes, by Carlo Carretto)

Read the entire article

A “Classic” Exorcism Event

THE EXORCISM OF NICOLA AUBREY
By Father Michael Muller, C.SS.R.

It is indeed a remarkable fact that, as the devil made use of Luther, an apostate monk, to abolish the Mass and deny the Real Presence; in like manner, God made use of His arch-enemy, the devil, to prove the Real Presence.

He repeatedly forced him publicly to profess his firm belief in it, to confound the heretics for their disbelief, and acknowledge himself vanquished by Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.

For this purpose, God allowed a certain Mme. Nicola Aubrey, an innocent person, to become possessed by Beelzebub and twenty-nine other evil spirits. The possession took place on the eighth of November, 1565, and lasted until the eighth of February, 1566.

Her parents took her to Father de Motta, a pious priest of Vervins, in order that he might expel the demon by exorcisms of the Church. Father de Motta tried several times to expel the evil spirit by applying the sacred relics of the holy cross, but he could not succeed; Satan would not depart. At last, inspired by the Holy Ghost, he resolved to expel the devil by means of the sacrament of Our Lord’s Body and Blood.

Read more

Courtesy of Our Lady of the Rosary Library

Today’s “Gem” From Bob Stanley’s “The Catholic Treasure Chest”: Sacred Scripture and Tradition

It is generally accepted that Moses wrote the first few (5) books of the Old Testament. His time was many hundreds of years later than the time of Adam and Eve, and others in these first books. He had no ‘Bible’ with which to refer while writing Genesis, but he was inspired by GOD, and he did have ‘Tradition’, handed down to him from generation to generation.

Jesus Christ taught orally, the ‘spoken word’. He did not write a book. The only record that He wrote anything at all is in Jn 8:6-8: “Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground.” We do not even know what He wrote.

The first book of the New Testament was written many years after His death. Where did the New Testament writers get their source, Sola Scriptura? There was no Scriptura to draw from at that time, so ‘Tradition’ had to have played a big role in the writing of these books.

If you had no Tradition, you would have no Bible.

There were many books written before and after the New Testament. The Bible does not say that it is the only book to be believed. Many say Peter was not the first Pope, because the Bible does not say he was ever in Rome. It does not say he wasn’t there either. Many other writings of the same era (Eusebius Pamphilius, for example), say he was indeed in Rome, and he died there. This was shown to be true, as his tomb was found under St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

In Matthew 1:1-17, we have the ‘begats’, the genealogy of Jesus Christ (v1,17). It is interesting to note that the genealogy is for Jesus’ foster father, St. Joseph, who was not His real Father and not a blood relation.

(The term “as supposed”, found in some Bible translations, refers to what we would call “in-laws”.)

The genealogy of Mary, His real mother, a blood relation, who gave Him birth is not stated in Matthew’s begats. After all, the substance of the blood that flowed through the veins of Jesus came from Mary. It was ‘TRADITIONAL’ for the Jews to show the genealogy of the males and not the females. This clearly shows that ‘Tradition’ played a big role in the written Word of the Holy Bible.

• Note! The Bible does show Mary to be of the house of David. If you will compare: Gen 3:15, “I will put enmity between thy seed and her ‘SEED’ (Jesus)…” Rom 1:3, “Concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the ‘SEED’ of David according to the flesh.” Lk 1:32, “…and the Lord GOD will give Him the throne of David His father, and He shall be King over the house of Jacob forever.” Also see, Isa 7:13-14, Jn 7:42, Acts 2:29-30, 13:22-23, 2Tim 2:8, Rev 5:5.

Some other words, with a similar meaning to the word, ‘Tradition’, are used throughout the Bible.

Some examples are: Mt 28:20, “TEACHING them to OBSERVE ALL THINGS WHATSOEVER I HAVE COMMANDED YOU.”

Jn 15:20, “REMEMBER the Word that I have spoken to you.”

Jn 15:27, “And you also shall BEAR WITNESS, because you have been with Me from the beginning.”

1Cor 11:2, ‘Now I praise you brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ORDINANCES (the Greek text says, ‘keep the TRADITIONS’), as I delivered them to you’.

1Cor 15:2, ‘By which ye are saved, if ye keep in MEMORY what I preached to you, unless ye have believed in vain’.

Isa 59:21, ‘…My words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and forever’.

Isaiah said it all… See also, 2Tim 1:13, 2Tim 2:2, 2Tim 3:14, 1Pet 1:25, 1Jn 2:24, 2Jn 1:12

Another verse using the word, ‘tradition’ (human tradition) is Gal 1:14: “And I made progress in the Jew’s religion above many of my equals in my own nation, being more abundantly zealous for the traditions of my fathers.” 

Read more

And more …

Go To Bob Stanley’s “The Catholic Treasure Chest”

Editor’s note: “Small t tradition” is the Thanksgiving turkey/Christmas ham, kind of tradition. “Big T (Sacred and/or Apostolic) Tradition” is the Holy Spirit actively, powerfully and infallibly working in the life of the Church, kind of Tradition.

Today’s “Gem” from Bob Stanley’s “The Catholic Treasure Chest”: The Law of First Mention and the Primacy of Saint Peter

The Law of First Mention…
When something is first mentioned in the Bible, the meaning of it remains the same throughout the rest of the Bible.

When GOD gave authority to someone in Scripture, HE changed the name of that person.

1. GOD renamed Abram to Abraham when He made him the ‘Father of a Multitude of Nations’, in Gen 17:5. HE gave Abraham ‘primacy’ over all other men.
2. GOD renamed Sara to Sarah when HE made her the ‘Mother of Nations’ in Gen 17:15-16. HE gave Sarah ‘primacy’ over all other women.
3. GOD renamed Jacob to Israel, the name of the Jewish Nation, and Jacob became the first Israeli in Gen 32:29, 35:10.
4. GOD renamed Simon to Peter in Matt 16:18, thus giving him ‘primacy’ over all of the Apostles. Why else would GOD give a new name to Simon?

The ‘Law of First Mention’ as applied to Abraham, Sarah, and Israel, works very well indeed. Why then do some believe it does not work for Simon-Peter?

Read more

Go To Bob Stanley’s “The Catholic Treasure Chest”

To Read or Not to Read The Mystical City of God?

“The Lady In Blue” is said to have frequently bilocated from her convent in Spain to America

It was Our Lord himself Who ordered Mother Mary of Agreda to write the volumes to make His Blessed Mother better known in the tumultuous centuries to come. Our Lord told her: “Many mysteries pertaining to my Mother and the Saints have been made manifest in the Church Militant, but many are still hidden, especially the interior secrets of their lives, and these I wish now to make known, and I desire thee to put them down in writing as they are directed by Most Pure Mary.”

Our Lady and the Angels revealed the mysteries of the life of Mother of God in relation to her Divine Son, and Mother Mary of Agreda faithfully recorded them at the command of her confessor from 1637 to 1645. Later, obedient to a new confessor, she burned all those writings.

But Our Lady commanded her to rewrite the work, and, at the order of her next confessor, she wrote those books again from 1655 to 1660. In 1670, five years before her death, they were printed for the first time under the title The Mystical City of God: Life of the Virgin Mother of God, after consulting the most prominent theologians at several Universities and Tribunals, all of whom found the work to be immune from any dogmatic error. The work quickly spread throughout Spain and was extolled and welcomed by both clergy and the people.

Venerable Mary of Agreda (1602-1665), is also well known for her 500 bilocations from her convent in Spain to instruct in the Catholic Faith the Jumano Indians in Texas, Arizona and New Mexico and prepare them for Baptism.

Read more from Tradition In Action

Read Mystical City of God – Conception (PDF)
(Free Download – Volume 1 of 4 – 650 pages – 29.7 MB)

The Surrender Novena: Let Jesus Take Care of Everything

Don Dolindo received from Jesus the words of Surrender Novena. It is a prayer that is especially timely now, when world events feel out of control, and we are trying to grow in trust and abandonment to God’s providence.

“You see evil growing instead of weakening?” Jesus says in this prayer. “Do not worry. Close your eyes and say to me with faith: ‘Thy will be done, You take care of it.’ I say to you that I will take care of it, and that I will intervene as does a doctor and I will accomplish miracles when they are needed.”

It’s also timely when our own personal suffering is threatening to overwhelm us and steal our peace.

“Repose in me, believing in my goodness, and I promise you by my love that if you say, ‘You take care of it,’ I will take care of it,” Jesus’ words in the prayer assure us.

Read more from Catholic Exchange

Editor’s note: Our site motto at AskMeAboutGod.org
has always been: God Loves You. God Will Provide. Relax!

16 Things Catholics Do Not Believe

16 Things Catholics DO NOT Believe

That the Pope is God and can do no wrong;

That anybody or anything may be
worshipped or adored besides the True God;

That the Blessed Virgin is equal to God;

That images may be worshipped;

That indulgences give permission to
commit sin;

That a Mass can be bought;

That forgiveness of sin can be bought;

That sin can be forgiven without true sorrow;

That scapulars, medals, crucifixes, and
other sacramentals can give graces without
proper dispositions on the part of the user;

That non-Catholics will all be damned;

That all Catholics will go to heaven;

That the Bible is the only rule of faith;

That anybody may interpret the Bible;

That Our Lord Jesus Christ established many Churches;

That outward piety is profitable without charity of the spirit;

That all religions are the same.

Courtesy of My Catholic Faith Website

Free Email Subscription To This Site

Click here to automatically receive all new posts in your email
Not arriving? Check your SPAM file.

Click here for free access to 150 other good Catholic websites

Go To Bob Stanley’s “The Catholic Treasure Chest”

<<< Scroll down to see much, much more >>>

If one splits the atom … tremendous physical disaster results … And if one splits the family … tremendous social disaster results…

“Promiscuous cultures rot quickly from within; many a great empire was felled by its unrestrained sexual mores. This is happening today to the whole Christian West,” he wrote. He noted particularly the “ominous fact that the gay movement is having its way of life redefined as a simple variant of normal sexuality and woven into the fabric of society.” These “abnormal human activities…point up the moral landslide that is burying the family and society.”

Read the whole article

Why “Saints”?

Illustrated Study On the Holy Catholic Church (PDF)

Go To Bob Stanley’s “The Catholic Treasure Chest”

Knowing God

Illustrated Study On the Holy Catholic Church (PDF)

Go To Bob Stanley’s “The Catholic Treasure Chest”

Faith + Baptism = The Blessed Hope of Eternal Salvation In Jesus Christ

Illustrated Study On the Holy Catholic Church (PDF)

Go To Bob Stanley’s “The Catholic Treasure Chest”

“The Gates of Hell” = “The Power of Death”

Illustrated Study On the Holy Catholic Church (PDF)

Go To Bob Stanley’s “The Catholic Treasure Chest”

The Primary Purpose(s) of the Catholic Ministerial Priesthood

Illustrated Study On the Church and the Priesthood (PDF)

Go To Bob Stanley’s “The Catholic Treasure Chest”

You might be a domestic terrorist in the eyes of the FBI (and its network of snitches) if you:

express libertarian philosophies (statements, bumper stickers)

exhibit Second Amendment-oriented views (NRA or gun club membership)

read survivalist literature, including apocalyptic fictional books

show signs of self-sufficiency (stockpiling food, ammo, hand tools, medical supplies)

fear an economic collapse

buy gold and barter items

subscribe to religious views concerning the book of Revelation

voice fears about Big Brother or big government

expound about constitutional rights and civil liberties

believe in a New World Order conspiracy

Much like the Gestapo infiltrated communities in order to spy on the German citizenry, the FBI routinely infiltrates political and religious groups, as well as businesses.

Read more

Has the negative spiritual energy currently and openly subverting the United States finally become so manifest as to warrant physical resistance?

It would seem that the Left fears so, hence why Panneton, The Atlantic, and many others are doing their best to pretend that “good” Catholics and Christians in general never, under any circumstance, turn to militancy, but rather remain Doormats, forever “turning the other cheek,” while wickedness runs rampant, which is precisely what has been going on over the last few decades.

Read the article at Frontpage Mag

Jesus Christ: The only divinely acceptable, atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world

Learn more (PDF)

Today’s “Gem” from Bob Stanley’s “The Catholic Treasure Chest”: How and why we need to ABIDE in Jesus Christ, the True Vine, if we hope to obtain eternal Salvation

Jesus said:
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.

Every branch of mine that bears no fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

You are already made clean by the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.

I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

If a man does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.” John 15:1-7

Wow! In those seven verses, the word ABIDE is mentioned seven times. The context of those verses provides us with a lot of light as to what is required of us by GOD for our eternal salvation.

Jesus said:
“Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” Matt 7:13-14

So we must not only ABIDE in Him but we must also strive to enter by the narrow gate. If we do not ABIDE in Him, then it is obvious that we are not on the path to the narrow gate of salvation, but on the path to the wide gate and to eternal destruction.

So Jesus said that if we do not ABIDE in Him (the Vine) then we will be taken away from the Vine by the Father, and will be cast off only to wither, to be gathered, and then to be thrown into the fire and burned.

Now that I have your attention, shouldn’t we now find the meaning of the word ABIDE?

Read more

Go To Bob Stanley’s “The Catholic Treasure Chest”

Everything you ought to know about the Brown Carmelite Scapular, from the EWTN Catholicism Library

Read the article by Father Kieran Kavanaugh, O.C.D.

Father Kavanaugh is the English translator of the writings of both St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross. He is a member of the Institute of Carmelite Studies and was the vice postulator for the canonization of St. Edith Stein.