One of the recurring misconceptions that other Christian sects have about Catholicism is that the Catholic Mass is not biblical and Catholics do not read the Bible.

Let’s take the Mass, for instance.

Scott Hahn, a world-renowned Catholic theologian converted from evangelical Calvinism, surreptitiously attended a Catholic Mass in Wisconsin in the early 1980s before his conversion. Bible in hand, he began to follow this “strange” liturgy in an attempt to take notes and return to his students to show how the Catholic Mass was the ultimate sacrilege.

Long story short, Hahn states that “something hit me.” He realized that the words on the liturgy of the Mass were coming from the open Bible beside him. A line from Isaiah, another from Paul, another from a psalm.

Hahn learned later that during the Liturgy of the Word, Catholics, over a three-year period, hear the Scriptures proclaimed from the Old and New Testaments and the four Gospels. Furthermore, Hahn points out, during the Eucharistic Liturgy part of the Mass, the believer is drawn not only into the Last Supper but also into the glorious New Heavenly Jerusalem of the Book of Revelation with all its hymns and praises.

God sustains his people – often on a very personal level.

In Florida, a female student survived a rampage by notorious serial killer Ted Bundy, who murdered other girls in her sorority house but stopped in his tracks upon entering her room.

Later, Bundy said “a mysterious force” stopped him.

The student was praying the Rosary.

HOW TO PRAY THE HOLY ROSARY

1st page: Doug “walks” you through:
step-by-step, bead-by-bead and prayer-by-prayer.

2nd page: Complete, traditional diagram:
includes all the prayers and mysteries,
as well as which days to pray them.

3rd page: How to pray a “Stripped Down, Emergency Rosary”
that almost anyone can do, in virtually any situation;
In case JESUS suddenly returns,
NUKES fly, the proverbial ASTEROID hits,
or … whatever!

How To Pray The Holy Rosary – Free Download (PDF)

Seriously misguided Atlantic Magazine writer labels Catholic Rosary devotions and the Catholics who practice them, a clear and present danger

A “Ranger Rosary” popular with armed forces, all around the world

This writer totally fails to fully appreciate the real, substantial difference and authentic purpose between a Catholic who relies on Divine Providence, Truth, Power, Law and Justice, in close cooperation with God’s grace, compared to someone who chooses the utter blasphemy of the world, the flesh and the devil, by subscribing to the insipid, impotent and thoroughly unholy, “Radical Wokeness” of these times.

Or perhaps he does, since he seems to be so very afraid of it?

This man was known to pray the Rosary on a daily basis. By invoking the Holy Spirit before the Polish people, who also were known to regularly pray the Rosary, Saint Pope John Paul II managed to bring down the “Evil Empire” of the old Soviet Union and free all of Eastern Europe from Communism, without a single shot being fired, in anger – something all of the world’s “Greatest Powers” – working together – had never been able to accomplish.

I wonder why no one seems to be invoking the intercessory power
of Saint John Paul II and the Rosary, in the present day,
Russia/Ukraine conflict?

Read the article

For the record: The Rosary is infinitely more powerful, as a weapon, than an AR-15 rifle, but the two operate on entirely different levels.

Further study from Bob Stanley’s “The Catholic Treasure Chest”:

Saint Dominic and the Rosary

‘Wonder not that you have obtained so little fruit by your labors, you have spent them on barren soil, not yet watered with the dew of Divine Grace. When GOD willed to renew the face of the earth, He began by sending down on it the fertilizing rain of the Angelic Salutation. Therefore preach my Psalter composed of 150 Angelic Salutations and 15 Our Fathers, and you will obtain an abundant harvest’. (The original, 15 decade Rosary devotion.)

The Miracle At the Battle of Lepanto

… at dawn on October 7, 1571–as Vatican Archives later revealed–Pope Pius V, accompanied by many faithful, was praying the Rosary in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. From dawn to dusk the prayers continued in Rome as the Christians and the Moslems battled at Lepanto. When it was all over the Moslems had been defeated. Of some 270 Moslem ships, at least 200 were destroyed. The Turks also lost 30,000 men while Christian casualties numbered between 4,000 and 5,000. The Rosary had won a great military victory.

How To Pray the holy Rosary (PDF)

The Rosary and the Scapular are inseparable

Bob Stanley’s “The Catholic Treasure Chest” website is fully operational in English and Spanish; including the new, custom search feature. Try it!

Click Here For Bob Stanley’s
“The Catholic Treasure Chest” Website
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

Once a Catholic, always a Catholic – you hope!

One of the sweet things about being a priest is being able to minister at a person’s deathbed. The veil between this world and the next is very thin at that point, and you can see so much. When I say you can “see” so much what I mean is that so much is revealed. At that point the person who is dying is usually very vulnerable and open. Their worldly facade is fading. Their accomplishments and pride are forgotten. They realize that all the stuff of this world will soon be left behind.

Often the person is quietly sleeping. The family is gathered around and there is no response as the last rites are given. On the other hand, sometimes the process is very conscious. More than once I’ve been called to visit a man or woman who has called the parish office specifically because they know they are dying and they want to see a Catholic priest.

So I once made my way to a small apartment in a not so good part of town. I was admitted to find a man in his sixties with a haggard expression gasping for air. Call him Ralph.

Read more

Pope Francis violates his own standards, by enumerating his Twitter followers.

“Dear Followers I understand there are now over 10 million of you!” the pontiff wrote on his nine accounts, which publish simultaneously in languages including Latin, Polish and Arabic. “I thank you with all my heart and ask you to continue praying for me.”

Link

Editor’s note: Rampant Pelagianism has evidently penetrated to the highest level of the Catholic Church.

Related link: Pope Francis “dissing” Catholic group that prayed 3,525 rosaries on his behalf – merely for mentioning the number of rosaries that were prayed!

One of the recurring misconceptions that other Christian sects have about Catholicism is that the Catholic Mass is not biblical and Catholics do not read the Bible.

Let’s take the Mass, for instance. Scott Hahn, a world-renowned Catholic theologian converted from evangelical Calvinism, surreptitiously attended a Catholic Mass in Wisconsin in the early 1980s before his conversion. Bible in hand, he began to follow this “strange” liturgy in an attempt to take notes and return to his students to show how the Catholic Mass was the ultimate sacrilege.

Long story short, Hahn states that “something hit me.” He realized that the words on the liturgy of the Mass were coming from the open Bible beside him. A line from Isaiah, another from Paul, another from a psalm.

Hahn learned later that during the Liturgy of the Word, Catholics, over a three-year period, hear the Scriptures proclaimed from the Old and New Testaments and the four Gospels. Furthermore, Hahn points out, during the Eucharistic Liturgy part of the Mass, the believer is drawn not only into the Last Supper but also into the glorious New Heavenly Jerusalem of the Book of Revelation with all its hymns and praises.

Read more

Tyler Flowers, catcher for the Chicago White Sox: I love praying the Rosary.

I love to pray rosaries, which are very Christ-centered. In fact, Jesus’ name is literally at the center of the Hail Mary. It’s been said that praying the rosary is learning about Jesus at the school of Mary.

When you consider what Jesus said about becoming like a little child in order to enter the kingdom of heaven, it’s easy to see the importance of placing ourselves at the feet of our spiritual mother, Mary.

Everyone knows it’s perfectly normal to see a child with his mother in the natural order, but the same is also true in the spiritual order: Children of God the Father need a mother, and they have one in Mary. When you become more devoted to Mary, you will inevitably become more devoted to Jesus in the Eucharist.

Read more

Editor’s note: The Cubs could use a few guys like this.

Proclaiming God’s truth when nobody cares to hear (or heed) it

Honolulu’s Catholic Bishop Larry Silva has issued an “urgent” appeal against gay marriage in Hawaii, arguing bluntly that some forms of discrimination are acceptable — including discrimination against same-sex couples.

The prelate’s appeal came as Gov. Neil Abercrombie is being urged to call a special session of the Hawaii Legislature to legalize marriage equality.  Six states including Washington have legalized same-sex marriage in the past year, and a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling has brought marriage equality back to California.

“The language of the proponents is meant to convince us that this is a civil rights issue and that anyone who does not agree is bigoted,” Silva wrote.  “Do not be led astray with such language, and do not allow yourself to be bullied by it.”

The Honolulu bishop is — literally — urging his flock to hit the beads.  Silva told Catholics they should pray the rosary daily against same-sex marriage, and “if possible” recite their prayers around the State Capitol block in Honolulu.

Read more

Editor’s note: Ever since the homosexual community managed to dodge the primary responsibility for the spread of the HIV virus – and induce the government to pay the tab for both the care and the restorative therapies – it was apparent (to me) that some type of malevolent, even demonic force was at work in the body politic.

The demeanor of many homosexuals and homosexualist groups – including the Democratic Party – seems to confirm this, so Bishop Silva’s approach is absolute correct and eminently practical.

We should all join in his Rosary campaign.

Old Protestant heresy that refuses to die: Did Jesus ever use the term “vain repetition”?

When it comes to Catholic prayer, repetition is anything but vain

by Doug Lawrence

In the Gospels, we find Jesus praying quite often, just as he trains and encourages his apostles and disciples to do.  He also delivers a caution:

Matthew 6:7-8 And when you are praying, speak not much, as the heathens. For they think that in their much speaking they may be heard. Be not you therefore like to them for your Father knoweth what is needful for you, before you ask him. (Douay-Rheims Catholic Bible)

Some 1500 years later, our Protestant brethren decided to translate the same passage (in their King James Bible) thusly:

Matthew 6:7-8 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen [do]: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.

As if mis-translating the Holy Writ wasn’t  bad enough, they went on to apply their twisted logic to traditional Catholic prayers and devotions – like the Rosary and the Mass – deeming them “unbiblical”.

That is and always was pure, virulently anti-Catholic “BS”!

Jesus simply wanted his disciples to know that even a vast number of prayers – combined with any number of  incantations, sacrifices, dances and chants – to false, pagan gods – could never accomplish a thing – and he certainly didn’t want his disciples to be out in public, looking like pagans, scandalously wasting their time and committing grave sin – by praying to false gods.

That’s one reason Jesus gave us “The Lord’s Prayer” – a short, simple method of placing 7 key petitions before our Father in Heaven – petitions which effectively address virtually every human need.

St. Paul reminds us in 1st Thessalonians 5:17 to “Pray without ceasing.”

Does any of this sound like “vain repetition”?

How many times can a person recite “The Lord’s Prayer” before it becomes “vain repetition”? How many times can someone sing “Amazing Grace” or “How Great Thou Art” before it becomes “vain repetition”? How many times a day can we elevate our minds and hearts to God, before it becomes “vain repetition”?

Without repetition human beings find it extremely difficult to learn and/or perfect just about anything. Our Creator God, of all persons, would certainly know that. But those who showed up a thousand years late and in order to promote their novel religious practices, chose to deny the sacred Tradition of the Catholic Church and co-opt the text of the Catholic Bible, apparently didn’t. Many of them apparently still don’t.

To put it simply – no amount of prayer, faithfully offered up to the one, true God, according the grace of Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit – can ever be “in vain” – although through our own fault, our  prayers may not always prove to be completely effective. (Study this link to the Catechism about The Lord’s Prayer for important terms, limitations and conditions.)

Call Your Mother…

Submitted by Bob Stanley

Mystical vision explains what happens as we pray the Rosary

Father Gabriel Amorth, Chief Exorcist of the Vatican writes:

One day a colleague of mine heard the devil say during an exorcism:
“Every Hail Mary is like a blow on my head. If Christians knew how powerful
The Rosary was, it would be my end.”

The secret that makes this prayer so effective is that the Rosary is both
Prayer and meditation. It is addressed to the Father, to the Blessed
Virgin, and to the Holy Trinity, and is a meditation centered on Christ.

I write in addition to the above:
Please enunciate each word of the Rosary clearly and distinctly.
Do not trample on the heels of the words of anyone with your words.
Do not speak over the leader if you are following
Or the respondent if you are leading the Rosary.

Remember that they also are having a conversation with Mary Our
Mother and it is not polite to speak when someone else is speaking.

In the  case of the public Rosary there are only two people speaking:
The Leader and the respondents.
Each is speaking to the Blessed Mother and listening
Carefully to her response within their hearts as they meditate on the scene
Before them in their consideration of the mystery being spoken of and
Interpreted and translated into their lives.

Spread this powerful prayer of
Exorcism, the Rosary, which contains the Our Father, the Perfect Prayer,
Prayed five times in the recitation of each set of the Rosary’s Mysteries,
Backed up by the powerful prayers of Our Mother
Who prays with us as we pray 53 Hail Mary’s.

The Eternal Father described to a group of us,
Through a Visionary Friend of Mine,
What happens when we pray the Rosary,
Saying, “When you pray Holy Mary Mother of God,
Pray for us sinners now…..,
The Blessed Mother comes instantly to your side to pray with you.
And she does not come alone.

She brings angels with her.
And not just one or two for she is the Queen of Angels,
So choirs of angels come with her. And she and Jesus are joined at
The heart and cannot be separated so she brings Jesus with her.
And Jesus  Cannot be separated from the Trinity so
He brings the Father and the Holy Spirit with Him.
And where the Holy Trinity is, all of creation is,
And you are surrounded by such beauty and light
As you cannot imagine in this life. 

Your Mother comes as Our Lady of Grace with her hands outstretched.
Rays of Light emit from her hands piercing your body, healing you
And filling you with graces.

This is your inheritance which was poured out from the heart of
Jesus on the Cross, when the centurion pierced His Heart with the spear,
Into the only pure vessel ready to receive such graces at that time,
Your Mother.

Now as you pray the Rosary, or even just recite one Hail Mary,
You receive your portion of these graces.
He also said at this time, “Anyone who goes to Mary and prays the Rosary
Cannot be touched by Satan.
“Is it any wonder that anyone who prays the Rosary from the heart
Is so blessed and protected and powerful in their prayers for others?

Submitted by Jola S.

God sustains his people – often on a very personal level.

In Florida, a female student survived a rampage by notorious serial killer Ted Bundy, who murdered other girls in her sorority house but stopped in his tracks upon entering her room. He later said a mysterious force stopped him. She was saying the Rosary.

Link

A former evangelical learns to love the Rosary…

I was brought up in a devout Protestant, Evangelical home in Pennsylvania. We weren’t exactly anti-Catholic, but we thought Catholics needed to “get saved.” After college in South Carolina, I moved to England and became an Anglican priest. It was my habit to make my annual retreat at the Benedictine Abbey of Quarr on the Isle of Wight. Just as I was about to leave for retreat, a parishioner gave me a rosary. She had just come back from a pilgrimage to the great Marian shrine of Walshingham, and she had felt led to buy me this gift. I had never used the rosary, and was prejudiced against it.

My first instinct was to reject this “Catholic superstition.” However, one of my guiding principles was a little saying I had discovered while a student. It is, “A person is most often right in what he affirms and wrong in what he denies.”

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The Value of the Most Holy Rosary for the Family

The family benefits immeasurably when it recites together the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Almighty God is praised, Our Lady is venerated, the needs of the family are presented and the members of the family prayerfully experience the bond of charity that unites them.

By praying the Most Holy Rosary the family comes to know who the Ever-Virgin is and her mission as well as why the family should recite the Most Holy Rosary.

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The Rosary, “Saint Luke on a chain”

During the month of October, we thank God for giving us the Most Holy Rosary through our Blessed Lady. Have you ever noticed that the Rosary is based more on the writings of St. Luke than on those of any other biblical author?

This is part of what makes the Rosary such a precious prayer – it is one of the best ways of meditating upon Sacred Scripture and is, thereby, a means of entering into truly contemplative prayer. Recognizing the scriptural roots of the Rosary, we might even call it “St. Luke on a chain”.

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Crossroads pro-life walker was praying the Rosary when he was hit by a car and killed.

July 20, 2012 (LifeSiteNews,com) – A young man praying the rosary while participating in the Crossroads Pro-Life walks across America was killed when struck by a car in Indiana early Friday morning.

Andrew Moore, 20, of California, was walking along U.S. 40 near Stilesville, Indiana at 5 a.m. when the incident occurred, according to IndyStar.com. Moore died at the scene.

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Editor’s note: Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners. Now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Justice Scalia: have “the courage to have your wisdom regarded as stupidity” by society’s sophisticates.

The 75-year-old Scalia said that today one can believe in a creator and the teachings of Jesus without being the brunt of too much ridicule, but that to hold traditional Christian beliefs that Jesus is God and He physically rose from the grave is to be derided as simple-minded by those considered leading intellectuals.

Traditional Catholics, Scalia said, are seen as peasant-like in their saying the Rosary, kneeling before the Holy Eucharist and indiscriminately following the teachings of the pope.

“(Yet) the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight,” Scalia said, quoting the Bible.

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A man of faith, the Rosary, small town politics … and Jesus

Last year, he and a group of others prayed the Rosary outside the rectory of a local church, but this year, Casey, the owner of a hardwood-floor company, asked the township if he and a group of others could pray the Rosary in the town common. “Part of the Rosary is penance, and praying in public is part of that,” he explained recently.

The town told him they’d consider his request. They also told him not to bother coming to the town meeting. They told him they’d email him their decision. Well, Casey didn’t exactly like the sound of that, so he went anyway. And he couldn’t believe what happened.

“When my agenda item came up, all three of them unanimously denied my request,” he said. “They said they didn’t want to offend anyone in the town.”

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