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E N G L I S H – I N G L E S
Bob Stanley’s
“The Catholic Treasure Chest”
provides practical, well written and clearly explained
Catholic answers to a host of faith questions.
The site is fully up and running here at AskMeAboutGod.org
in English and Spanish, in both HTML
and downloadable, PDF formats.
Your advice, suggestions and prayers are greatly appreciated.
May God richly bless you and yours.
Click Here For Bob Stanley’s
“The Catholic Treasure Chest” Website
S P A N I S H – E S P A N O L
Today’s question: How do you know that God is real?
Question: How do you know that God is real?
Answer: Many years ago, I decided to take some time off and devote two full years to the study of all world religions, after which I chose to be Catholic.
Then, I spent another ten years studying the faith while working in Catholic parishes; teaching, doing social work and heading up various offices and initiatives, just to see how things actually worked.
Today, I answer questions on-line and operate a Catholic website: http://www.askmeaboutgod.org.
I know God is real because he reveals himself to me in many different ways; particularly through study, worship and sacraments, through fellowship with other Christians and through occasional miracles of various kinds.
Once you come to know God it’s a fairly simple matter to pray without ceasing; staying in constant touch with the Almighty, in a very intimate, complete and powerful way.
The power of that relationship extends also to my friends and family; some of whom are not yet believers. I trust that, by the grace of God, all soon will be.
To sum it all up:
God answers my prayers.
God provides for all my needs.
God speaks to me when I need to hear from him.
God blesses me beyond measure.
God gives me hope.
For my part, I do my best to know, love and serve God,
every way I can, and to give him the thanks,
praise and worship that he is due.
Question of the day: Do you have to attend Christian meetings to be a Christian?
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.
An Open Letter of Apology to the Gay Community (From A Christian)
I’m seeing quite a few open letters of apology from Christians to the gay community in light of the recent Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage. At first, I was angry. “What are we apologizing for again?!?,” I thought. As a conservative Christian, I was annoyed. It seemed – at first – to be capitulation on a very important issue. After reading more than a few of these open letters of apology, however, my heart has softened on the issue. I realize that conservative Christians like myself are in the clear minority. The Supreme Court has ruled. Other churches, like the Episcopalians just yesterday, have found it in their heart to soften from their historic, traditional opinions. And as much as religious people love the past, I’ve had to come to grips with the reality that this – gay marriage – is our present and no doubt, our future.
There comes that moment – even for Christians steeped in conservative traditions – to recognize when the times have changed…and the times have changed. Taking a cue from other Christians who find a sense of closure in writing an open letter of apology to the gay community, I will follow suit and apologize for several things on behalf of not just myself, but my fellow Christians.
Snake bit: Figuring out (the hard way) which Bible texts apply specifically to you – and which do not.
Jamie Coots, one of the stars of National Geographic‘s reality show Snake Salvation, died Saturday of a venomous snake bite. According to reports he refused medical attention after being bitten in his Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name in Middlesboro, Kentucky and died shortly thereafter in his home.
At length he (Jesus) appeared to the eleven as they were at table: and he upbraided them with their incredulity and hardness of heart, because they did not believe them who had seen him after he was risen again.
And he said to them: Go ye into the whole world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved: but he that believeth not shall he condemned.
And these signs shall follow them that believe: In my name they shall cast out devils. They shall speak with new tongues. They shall take up serpents: and if they shall drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. They shall lay their hand upon the sick: and they shall recover.
And the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God. But they going forth preached every where: the Lord working withal, and confirming the word with signs that followed. (Mark 16:14-20)
*******
And when Paul had gathered together a bundle of sticks and had laid them on the fire, a viper, coming out of the heat, fastened on his hand. And when the barbarians saw the beast hanging on his hand, they said one to another: Undoubtedly this man is a murderer, who, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance doth not suffer him to live.
And he indeed, shaking off the beast into the fire, suffered no harm. But they supposed that he would begin to swell up and that he would suddenly fall down and die. But expecting long and seeing that there came no harm to him, changing their minds, they said that he was a god. (Acts 28:2-6)
*******
But he, (Jesus) considering their guile, said to them: Why do you tempt me? (Luke 20:23)
What is it like to be a Christian?
A woman was asked by a coworker, ‘What is it like to be a Christian?’
The coworker replied:
‘It is like being a pumpkin. God picks you from the patch, brings you in, and washes all the dirt off of you. Then He cuts off the top and scoops out all the yucky stuff. He removes the seeds of doubt, hate, and greed. Then He carves you a new smiling face and puts His light inside of you to shine for all the world to see.’
Submitted by Bob Stanley
A response to Hundreds of Proofs of God’s Existence by “Godless Geeks”
Hundreds of (not very good) Proofs of God’s Non-Existence
TRANSCENDENTAL ARGUMENT
(1) If reason exists then God does not exist.
(2) Reason exists.
(3) Therefore, God does not exist.
COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT
(1) If I say something does not have a cause, it does not have a cause.
(2) I say the universe does not have a cause.
(3) Therefore, the universe does not have a cause.
(4) Therefore, God does not exist.
ONTOLOGICAL ARGUMENT (I)
(1) I define God to be something inconceivably absurd.
(2) Since I cannot conceive of that, it must not exist.
(3) Therefore, God does not exist.
ONTOLOGICAL ARGUMENT (II)
(1) St. Anselm has a proof for God’s existence.
(2) I look at the proof and laugh.
(3) I’m not quite sure how to disprove it.
(4) But I laugh at it all the same.
(5) Therefore, God does not exist.
ONTOLOGICAL ARGUMENT (III)
(1) The Ontological Proof for God’s existence relies on the assumption
that existence is greater than non-existence.
(2) But existence is not greater than non-existence.
(3) Existence is the worst thing there is.
(4) Therefore, God does not exist.
MODAL ONTOLOGICAL ARGUMENT
(1) God is either necessary or unnecessary.
(2) God is not necessary, therefore God must be unnecessary.
(3) If something is unnecessary, then, necessarily, it does not exist.
(4) Therefore, God does not exist.
Miraculous survival, guardian angels and saintly relatives who have gone to their eternal reward
by Doug Lawrence
There is a horrific accident. Some people die. Some are spared.
Is it just a random game of numbers, or is there more to this than meets the eye?
Catholics and even some non-Catholic Christians will tell you about their guardian angels – powerful, pure spirit beings, personally assigned by God almighty, to keep us safe from harm.
Even less understood and appreciated are the “Kinsman Redeemers” who step forward to right wrongs and save their people from poverty, starvation, death – and worse.
Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God made man, is the ultimate Kinsman Redeemer, but the Bible shows us many more. The story of Ruth and Boaz is probably the next most significant, since through their timely meeting and subsequent marriage, the sacred blood line of the coming Messiah was preserved. (See 4:22, below.)
Ruth 4:9-22
(9) And he said to the ancients, and to all the people: You are witnesses this day, that I have bought all that was Elimelech’s, and Chelion’s, and Mahalon’s, of the hand of Noemi:
(10) And have taken to wife Ruth, the Moabitess, the wife of Mahalon, to raise up the name of the deceased in his inheritance lest his name be cut off, from among his family and his brethren and his people. You, I say, are witnesses of this thing.
(11) Then all the people that were in the gate, and the ancients, answered: We are witnesses: The Lord make this woman who cometh into thy house, like Rachel, and Lia, who built up the house of Israel: that she may be an example of virtue in Ephrata, and may have a famous name in Bethlehem:
(12) And that the house may be, as the house of Phares, whom Thamar bore unto Juda, of the seed which the Lord shall give thee of this young woman.
(13) Boaz therefore took Ruth, and married her: and went in unto her, and the Lord gave her to conceive, and to bear a son.
(14) And the women said to Noemi: Blessed be the Lord, who hath not suffered thy family to want a successor: that his name should be preserved in Israel.
(15) And thou shouldst have one to comfort thy soul, and cherish thy old age. For he is born of thy daughter in law: who loveth thee: and is much better to thee, than if thou hadst seven sons.
(16) And Noemi taking the child, laid it in her bosom, and she carried it, and was a nurse unto it.
(17) And the women, her neighbours, congratulating with her, and saying, There is a son born to Noemi, called his name Obed: he is the father of Isai, the father of David.
(18) These are the generations of Phares: Phares begot Esron,
(19) Esron begot Aram, Aram begot Aminadab,
(20) Aminadab begot Nahasson, Nahasson begot Salmon,
(21) Salmon begot Booz, Booz begot Obed,
(22) Obed begot Isai (Jessie), Isai (Jessie) begot David.
Nor are Kinsman Redeemers required to be presently alive, here on earth. Catholics will explain the concept of the Communion of Saints – that great cloud of faithful witnesses who have gone before us – now in Heaven – eternally perfected in God’s power, grace and mercy. These holy souls have the right to approach the throne of the Most High God with their petitions – hopefully, interceding with him for us – their beloved progeny and “kin”.
This goes much, much further and it is much more powerful than we might imagine – since by virtue of our baptism, we are all adopted children of God – brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, the Lord – with his mother – the Blessed Virgin Mary, also ours.
Saint Paul sums things up quite nicely:
Romans 8:28-39
(28) And we know that to them that love God all things work together unto good: to such as, according to his purpose, are called to be saints.
(29) For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be made conformable to the image of his Son: that he might be the Firstborn amongst many brethren.
(30) And whom he predestined, them he also called. And whom he called, them he also justified. And whom he justified, them he also glorified.
(31) What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who is against us?
(32) He that spared not even his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how hath he not also, with him, given us all things?
(33) Who shall accuse against the elect of God? God is he that justifieth:
(34) Who is he that shall condemn? Christ Jesus that died: yea that is risen also again, who is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
(35) Who then shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation? Or distress? Or famine? Or nakedness? Or danger? Or persecution? Or the sword?
(36) (As it is written: For thy sake, we are put to death all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.)
(37) But in all these things we overcome, because of him that hath loved us.
(38) For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor might,
(39) Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
So, the next time things turn out miraculously better than you might ever have expected, don’t forget to thank God, thank your guardian angel, and thank your “extended family” in Heaven. (But why wait? Take a moment to give God thanks and praise, right now!)
Remember too … All Souls Day and All Saints Day are rapidly approaching!
The article that inspired this post:
Toddler cheats death after car crashes into buggy and crushes it against wall
Saint John Berchmans Cathedral Parish: Authentic Catholicism in the “heart” of the “Bible Belt”
by Doug Lawrence
We traveled to northwestern Louisiana this past weekend to attend a family reunion. On arrival, it became abundantly clear that the people living in and around the Shreveport area tend to be very religious – but mostly – NOT Catholic.
Out of the estimated eighty or ninety who attended the reunion, only six Catholics assembled early Sunday morning, in order to attend Mass at the Cathedral of Saint John Berchmans, originally constructed in Shreveport, Louisiana, in 1902. (Saint John Berchmans – pronounced “Berkmans” – is the patron saint of altar servers.)
A Cathedral is considered to be the principal church of a diocese and it is also typically, the “seat” (cathedra) of the local Bishop.
Near as I can tell, most everyone else at the family reunion was Baptist, but the thing that I noticed most was the sheer diversity of Christian denominations in the area, along with the fact that most of the AM radio band and more than half of the FM band seemed to be devoted solely to religious programming – and NOT just on Sundays! (Thank God for Sirius Satellite Radio!)
Non-Catholic Christian churches could be observed on almost every block, while Catholic churches were comparatively rare.
Here’s the mix:
Apostolic Churches (4)
Lutheran Churches (6)
Assembly of God (20)
Baptist Churches (333)
Bible Churches (6)
Methodist Churches (37)
Nazarene Churches (5)
Non-Denominational (15)
Catholic Churches (21)
Orthodox Churches (3)
Christian Churches (11)
Pentecostal (13)
Church of Christ (17)
Presbyterian (13)
Church of God (32)
Reformed Churches (1)
Seventh Day Adventist (2)
Episcopal Churches (5)
Vineyard Churches (1)
Evangelical (1)
Other Churches (23)
Source: USA Church
But while the Catholic “profile” in the area appeared to be definitively low, the quality of the Catholic faith experience there turned out be pleasantly high – at least, at Saint John Berchmans Cathedral Parish!
Here’s a little of what we experienced, this past Sunday:
The church was traditional and beautiful – as were most all cathedrals of similar – 1920’s “vintage”.
We were suitably impressed by the vaulted ceilings; the detailed wood and plaster work; the abundant and exquisite stained-glass windows; the deep-breathing, antique pipe organ;, the marble columns and the genuine stone (not wood) altar; along with the traditional statuary – which was both elegant and easily recognizable.
The tabernacle could be found in the very center of the sanctuary, directly behind the main altar. There was a raised pulpit/ambo for proclaiming the Word of God and the sanctuary was fully provisioned for a quick turn around and transformation, in the rare event of a TLM (Traditional Latin Mass.)
We observed altar boys/servers (not altar girls) – and the servers were NOT wearing the usual dreaded, gaudy, overly casual – popular but seriously out of place athletic shoes. Coincidentally, this parish also produces more than the average number of new, priestly vocations.
The congregation appeared to be well rounded and diverse, spanning the ages from eight months to around eighty years – with a number of young families in attendance.
The standard Novus Ordo liturgy was celebrated reverently and totally “by the book” – with no shenanigans.
A small group of RCIA catechumens occupied reserved seating. They seemed very happy and privileged to be there, reverently filing out at the appropriate time.
A Deacon proclaimed the Gospel and delivered a homily that was both technically excellent and distinctly on-point.
Afterwards, I began to wonder if the nine of ten lepers
who never returned to thank Jesus for their healing
might have suffered a relapse at some point in the future!
The Prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel was led by the priest and deacon, immediately following the official end of the liturgy.
Saint Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle.
Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray;
and do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host,
by the Divine Power of God,
cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits
who roam throughout the world seeking the ruin of souls.
Compared to some very disappointing similar experiences in New York, Minnesota, California and Washington State, I would rate this as one of the best. A very pleasant surprise, in a part of the world where the Catholic Church remains seriously under-appreciated!
The parish website will tell you much more, as will this Wikipedia post.
I suggest you also take a few minutes to watch a very nice video presentation on the saint, the cathedral and the parish.
So much negative Catholic stuff comes across my desk every day.
It’s nice to be able to post something almost entirely positive,
for a change!
T H A N K Y O U, J E S U S!
Christian University president spells out reasons why provisions of Obamacare violate the U.S. constitution
At Oklahoma Wesleyan University we are filing suit against the Obama Administration, Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius and the Affordable Care Act because we believe. We believe whether you are Catholic or Jewish or whether you are Mormon, Methodist, Mennonite or Muslim that you should be free to follow your faith in matters of morality and contraception. We believe women should be free from any obligation to pay for a drug they find immoral and will never use. We believe that the racial genocide at the hands of a racist abortion industry must be stopped. We believe in personal privacy that no judge, legislator or President has any right to violate. We believe our nation’s girls and their sexuality should be treated with dignity rather than being degraded. We believe in a culture of life and not a culture of death.
We are filing suit because we believe God is God, not the government and that “we must obey God rather than men.” (Acts 5:29)
Submitted by Francis V.
It’s official: the European Union hates Jesus Christ
One of its most celebrated artistic works, the Christ Pantocrator of the Romanesque church of Sant Martí de la Cortinada, had been chosen as one of the images of a new coin.
That was too much for the European Union and the European Central Bank, that ordered Christ removed from the coin. It could not even remain as an iconic work of art of an area that was historically poor and treasured its few artistic relics from the past – no, imagery that can be considered offensive to the “principle of neutrality in the matter of religious beliefs” is to be removed. It does not matter, apparently, that the image is in the heart of the self-understanding of a people, and of all peoples of Europe.
Now, just a bell tower will remain; bell towers are probably not religious enough… The tiny nation that has a Bishop as one of its heads of State could not resist the orders, as Slovakia successfully did in defense of the sainthood of Saints Cyril and Methodius in a commemorative coin.
Editor’s note: The bell tower motif was probably approved because it resembles a Muslim minaret.
Irrefutable historical proof of Jesus’ existence – from multiple sources
You would expect a movement that began and then spread far and wide in only a few decades to have a founder, and—absent very strong evidence to the contrary—it does not make sense to reject the movement’s claim about who its founder was.
From non-Christian sources alone, we could have predicted that Christianity likely had a founder who lived some time in the first half of the first century.
When we find Christian sources agreeing with this and identifying that founder as Jesus of Nazareth, we have reason to credit this claim and to conclude: Jesus of Nazareth existed.
Remains of the Armenians are so prevalent in the area that all you need to do is scratch the sand along the river banks and you will find pieces of human bones that have been there for 98 years.
The lack of respect given to the Armenian genocide is shocking when you consider the scope and brutality of the event that killed 75 percent of the Armenians — a predominantly Christian group.
The accounts of the atrocities committed against the Armenians is as brutal and disgusting as any you have heard about from Hitler’s attempts to exterminate the Jews from Germany and the world. Small children and old people were marched over mountains and in circles, without food and water, literally until they died. Young Christian girls were defiled by the Turkish soldiers. There are reports that many killed themselves after being raped. The barbaric treatment of the Armenian women went even further.
Text, photos, video (Warning: graphic violence)
Lesbian ‘queer theory’ feminist professor finds the Christian faith
There’s much more to this article than you might think. It’s well worth reading.
On the Current Christian Apocalypse in Egypt and the Middle East
…thirteen years before the “Arab Spring,” I could feel in my bowels that the end was near; that the apocalypse of Egyptian Christendom was coming. And curiously enough, I sensed this, too, in many of the more articulate Copts I spoke with: that there was something different in kind, in spirit, about the Islamist threat, now even coming from within the Mubarak government, which nominally protected them.
Over the centuries there had been persecution enough, and occasional pogroms; there had been constant pressure on Christians to convert to Islam, by which a nation still probably majority Christian at the time of the first Crusades gradually became overwhelmingly Muslim. Yet all this had been mostly against a background of “live and let live.” Now, perceptibly, the ground rules were changing. “Islamism” wasn’t “Islam” any more.
Heart rending testimony of a former abortion clinic worker who left her job and has since become a Christian.
My official title at the mill was “health worker.” I did various duties-lab work, leading groups (deceiving women about their abortions), “advocating” (deceiving women during their abortions), and assisting the abortionist, which included helping during the abortion and checking to make sure all the parts of the baby were there in the collection jar afterwards. I will never forget, in the second-trimester abortions, holding those little feet up to a chart on the wall to make sure of the age of the baby.
Just like everyone else employed there I laughed at the pro-lifers outside the mill and hardened my heart against the truth. If I thought about what was really happening, it became overwhelming. So, I treated the whole issue as a joke-but somewhere along the line God started working on my heart. I started to read literature left by the pro-lifers, and pro-life books. I began to see what I was doing in a whole new light. I saw these babies for what they were-human beings. It was very hard for my heart and head to accept because I had been leaving both my heart and head at home for so long to work there.
I began looking towards God and sometimes visiting church and reading the Bible. I know that the only thing keeping me from accepting Christ into my life was the fact that I was involved in murder-the murder of those made in His image. After working there eight months, I could no longer resist God-He had awakened me to the ugliness of abortion. I knew that in every abortion a living human being is killed, and I believe that a part of the mother is killed too. In May of 1991 I left the mill and believed that I had shut the door on my abortion experience.
Everything you’ve heard about the supposed Pagan origin of Christmas is false.
It is much hyperventilation over nothing really. Not only is it false, but it is based on such poor scholarship that it ought to be embarrassing to anyone who embraces it. Sadly, it would seem the whole modern world has embraced this error, a serious error, which ought to give use some pause.
One of our regular readers sent me a nice (and very timely) sample of his poetry. I think you’ll like it.
Mystic Priest – Coming Into the Presence of God, by D.B. Wilde is a themed collection of Christian poetry. It reflects a period where a priest of this world and subsequent afterworld brought life’s spiritual happenings to the forefront of awareness.
It’s obviously not your usual type of Christian stuff.
Buy it at Amazon. It’s also available from Barnes and Noble (Nook), ibooks/itunes (iPad).
Locals remember when Father Louis Guanella, an Italian priest from the 1900’s opened the miracle door in America, while the world peaked in.
MIRACLE DOOR
In America’s town
a skateboarder crashes
resulting in brain trauma.
A youth inside looking out
pleads to “bring me home,”
while doctors remove
his front temporal lobe.
Survival, meet vegetative state,
injected lunch with eyelids closed
a mother’s tears fall, resolved by faith
bound by love, a prayer request
brings Blessed Louis Guanella
across the divide to the healing line,
bone relics arrive first
banded around the wrist.
Faith breeds a miraculous recovery,
reborn youth discusses his ordeal
over a cup of tea
as befuddled doctors
vouch to The Higher Power
and a Blessed is made a Saint.
******
Saint Louis (Luigi) Guanella was canonized on October 23, 2011. His Feast Day is coming up on October 24th.
Don Guanella Village was founded in the mid 70‘s in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It includes a school for teenagers with developmental delays. So when Don Guanella performed a miracle recently in a nearby town, it was extra special.
Read more about this saint and the religious order he founded
******
A couple more poems by D.B. Wilde …
On a hot summer night, guided by the light of a full moon, I invited several Saints to walk and pray the rosary. It was such a memorable walk, I promised the Saints they would be in the poem collection. Well here they are!
WALKING THE ROSARY
Walking down the road,
no digital reminder
as invitees show up
to pray the rosary.
Norbert greets the arrival of Katharine Drexel; Ignatius Loyola laughs with Francis Xavier; Catharine Laboure pours love to Rita of Cascia; Gianna Molla races to John Neumann and Elizabeth Ann Seton.
Philomena engulfs the group
with Mystic Priest in hand,
souls streaming by moonlight,
all side by side
walking down the road
praying the rosary.
Coming forward is Paul the Hermit, Thomas of Villanova, Thomas Aquinas; alas Augustine arrives with Padre Pio and Francis of Assisi. Enter patron Basil the Great alongside Macrina the Younger, Anthony of Padua,
Vincent de Paul and Patrick of Ireland.
Joined by soldiers at play;
Archangels Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael,
are elated and smiling widely
for our glorious Queen Mary
is walking among us.
******
THREE HEAVENS
Satan walks proud and visible
having previously defined
his authority over First Heaven
by what was given to him,
he flaunts it, offering
wayward minds carnal delights.
God buffets between
heaven and earth
seemingly everywhere,
teaching Saints
omnipresence. Ignatius, a pupil
in God’s Seven Stars class,
leaves divine love snippets
to the earthly Jesuit community
to counteract Satan’s deeds.
First Heaven’s liquid moon
illuminates the night sky,
as sunrise lifts the day,
life’s transformation begins
from time, space and nature
to another state of being.
By His presence,
eagles soar
beyond the cirrus clouds
into the exosphere,
the enigmatic Second Heaven,
the galactic battleground
of raging divine warfare
within interstellar black holes.
In the Third Heaven
elliptical eyes
suspended in space, float inside
the new Jerusalem, a heaven merged
with a jeweled earth
a paradise with no sun and no moon.
Oneness with His presence,
the Cosmic Christ manifests Himself
into our non-human form
whenever and wherever
He wishes.
Doug Lawrence's Catholic Site
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