Question: Do you have to attend Christian meetings to be a Christian?
Answer: Christians have an obligation to publicly worship God, together; something which is typically done on Sundays.
Catholic Christians take that to a much higher level, worshiping God in spirit and in truth, body, blood, soul and divinity, every hour of every day, every day of every year, in virtually every nation on earth.
So, yes.
Asked and answered today on Yahoo!Answers. Edited for clarity and content.
Question: How do I get myself to focus in church tomorrow and any Sunday?
Answer: The best way to “focus” at Mass is to make sure you understand what’s actually happening up there, on the altar, and why.
During our (properly disposed) participation in the Holy Sacrifice, Jesus becomes present for us, under the auspices of bread and wine, so we might offer him (Jesus, the one time, once for all, perfect and eternal sacrifice, for the sins of the world) up to God the Father, for the needs of the Church and of the whole world.
We also have the opportunity to personally receive Jesus in Holy Communion, becoming (for a time) a living tabernacle, perfected in God’s awesome power and grace.
It doesn’t get any better than that, this side of Heaven.
Asked and answered today on Yahoo!Answers. Edited for clarity and content.
Question: Why do I deserve to burn in hell for eternity? Please explain how I deserve to burn in hell, from a human perspective and how can I possibly follow a religion that doesn’t make sense?
Answer: The problems related to “The Human Condition” are probably due as much to “circumstance” as to the personal “guilt” of we who are alive on earth, today. That said, the problem of sin is and always has been, deadly serious!
Due to the Fall of Man (in the beginning, in the Garden of Eden) the default state of all humanity is to be born estranged from God, totally lacking the divine grace that is necessary to enter Heaven, perpetually enslaved to Satan, sin and death, having a natural attraction to sin, as well as an all too human propensity to commit sin.
The only known antidote to perpetual slavery and eternal damnation, is faith in Jesus Christ, the divine man who has demonstrated (as one of us and on our behalf) his total mastery over Satan, sin and death.
The fact that Jesus voluntarily took on flesh, became man, willingly sacrificed himself and then, rose again from the dead, in order to destroy Satan’s power over us (the power of death and hell) while asking nothing in return, except for our faithful allegiance, should be more than sufficient proof of God’s abiding love and tender mercies.
Christians typically swear faithful allegiance to Jesus Christ by being Baptized into his Holy Catholic (Universal) Church.
The Holy Sacrament of Baptism, followed by a regular program of personal prayer and study, along with a lifetime of full, faithful participation in all the work, worship, sacraments and devotions of the Holy Catholic Church, is the time-tested, “Jesus Approved” method of first, being justified by the grace of God and then, proceeding to live a holy life that will serve to glorify God, while preparing us to (hopefully) spend an eternity with him, in Heaven.
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Question: What is a Catholic priest in reality??? Does anyone know?? Catholic priest or pastor?? Which is “better”??
Answer: The true nature of the Catholic Ministerial Priesthood is that of a man conformed to Jesus Christ, specially consecrated and set apart by God, through the Sacrament of Holy Orders and the laying on of hands, in order to offer acceptable sacrifice to God (most significantly, Jesus Christ, in the Holy Eucharist) on behalf of the whole Church, for the greater glory of God and for the good of the whole world.
As a duly ordained agent/assistant/delegate of the local Bishop, who is a successor of the original Apostles, the responsibilities of the priest also extend to preaching, teaching, sanctifying and governing.
A priest can be a pastor, but only duly ordained Catholic or Orthodox males can be empowered and authorized to act “In Persona Christi” (in the “person” of Christ) as priests.
In contrast, anyone – male or female – can become a Protestant Minister or preacher and/or become the pastor of a Protestant congregation.
But, the power and authority of the Catholic Ministerial Priesthood is reserved to the Catholic Church alone, according to Jesus Christ, the head of the Catholic Church, who personally established the Priesthood and who remains our Heavenly High Priest as well as the one time, once for all, perfect and atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world, continually offered up for the needs of the People of God, on every Catholic altar, in virtually every nation on earth, 24/7 and 365, by means of that same Holy, Catholic Ministerial Priesthood.
In summary, the Catholic Ministerial Priesthood
was personally established by Jesus Christ, at the Last Supper,
some 1500 years before the first Protestant minister/pastor
ever “thumped” a Bible.
When the Protestants chose to separate themselves from the Holy Catholic Church, they also made the conscious decision to separate themselves from the awesome and unique power that God gave to the Holy Catholic Church and the Catholic Ministerial Priesthood alone, for the salvation of souls.
As such, there is no real comparison between an ordained Catholic Priest and a Protestant Minister or pastor. One is a consecrated man who has been given awesome and eternal power, directly from God, through the Holy Catholic Church. The other has only his/her limited, personal understanding of a holy (albeit, totally Catholic) book (the Bible) along with his/her (often, contrary) beliefs about it, on which to “stand”.
Asked and answered today on Yahoo!Answers. Edited for clarity and content.
The Pachamama demon figure: Icon of the “new” Post-Christian papacy
of Jorge Bergoglio and Associates
Definition of the word, cockamamie, courtesy of Dictionary.com:
Adjective Slang.
ridiculous, pointless, or nonsensical:
full of wild schemes and cockamamie ideas.
WORDS RELATED TO COCKAMAMIE
insane, crazy, stupid, incoherent, unreasonable, preposterous, unsound, wrong, ridiculous, absurd, unwise, foolish, aberrant, unimaginable, incredible, astonishing, improbable, outlandish, implausible, impossible
Pic: Jorge Bergoglio’s (a.k.a. Pope Francis)
favorite Pachamama demon figure,
photoshopped into already demonic looking,
real life Vatican Hall, for dramatic effect.)
Question: To any normal person, this sounds very much like the script of a gruesome horror film. The whole idea of “eating Jesus’ body” and “drinking his blood” is grotesque in the extreme. What do you believers have to say about this?
Answer: The Jews were required to eat the flesh of the Passover Lamb, ever since God liberated them from slavery, in Egypt.
Christians have been required to eat the risen and glorified flesh and blood of Jesus Christ – the true, Lamb of God – ever since he liberated all of mankind from perpetual slavery to Satan, sin and death by his atoning sacrifice on the cross, at Calvary and his subsequent, glorious resurrection from the dead.
This is an essential part of a uniquely powerful Eucharistic Celebration/Commemoration (known as the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass) where we Christians joyfully, thankfully and powerfully receive the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ (known as “The Real Presence”) under the more palatable and aesthetically pleasing auspices of ordinary bread and wine.
To put it even more simply:
This is merely one more extraordinary and awesome example
of God’s total self-giving for our salvation.
For those in the know, who possess at least a modicum of true faith, this is historically and traditionally consistent, logical, rational and supernaturally nourishing.
For others, it remains a total mystery and a scandal.
Asked and answered today on Yahoo!Answers. Edited for clarity and content.
Question: In the Gospel of Saint Luke, Chapter 18, verse 9, we read the story of The Pharisee and the Tax Collector. In verse 14, it goes on to say that the Tax Collector went home justified, by God. I thought that prior to Jesus’ atoning sacrifice on the cross, nobody was ever justified, by God. What am I missing?
Answer: Prior to Jesus’ atoning sacrifice for the sins of mankind, God provided many types of opportunities for man to give God thanks and praise and to offer up imperfect forms of animal (and other) sacrifices to God, for various good purposes and intentions.
While none of those “forms” of worship (or even our best attempts at perfectly keeping the Old Law) had the power to destroy Satan’s power over man, or reopen the Gates of Heaven, they did serve to (imperfectly) please/appease God and impute a certain level of righteousness/justification to those who faithfully and correctly practiced them.
The souls of those who God considered to be “justified” in that manner, were supernaturally “marked” for eventual salvation, in Jesus Christ and subsequently detained in a special “place” in the afterlife – known (alternatively) as Hell, or “The Bosom of Abraham” – while they awaited the perfect and atoning sacrifice of our Holy Redeemer, on the cross, at Calvary.
Catholic Tradition informs us that Jesus escorted all those faithful souls to Heaven, while his dead body lay in the tomb, for three days and nights, awaiting his glorious Resurrection.
