According to an ancient tradition, which is rooted in manifold sources and quite beyond dispute, the Gospel according to St. Mark is very much the Gospel of St. Peter.
The Prince of the apostles did not compose his own Gospel, but instead left it to his close disciple St. Mark to put his preaching into text.
It should be abundantly clear to all
that Jesus wasn’t kidding when he said,
“Thou art Peter (Rock) and upon this Rock
I will build my Church.”
On Sept. 25, 2013, protestant Rev. Bresciani wrote “Has the pope taken his first steps into Last Days apostasy?” for Renewamerica.com an online publication.
What I am going to do is tell the TRUTH where Bresciani told anti-Catholic lies. And I will do it using a PROTESTANT BIBLE, so the protestants can’t complain about the interpretation of a Catholic version of the Bible.
2 Peter 1:16-21 For we have not by following artificial fables made known to you the power and presence of our Lord Jesus Christ: but we were eyewitnesses of his greatness. (17) For he received from God the Father honor and glory, this voice coming down to him from the excellent glory: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye him.
(18) And this voice, we heard brought from heaven, when we were with him in the holy mount. (19) And we have the more firm prophetical word: whereunto you do well to attend, as to a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts.
(20) Understanding this first: That no prophecy of scripture is made by private interpretation. (21) For prophecy came not by the will of man at any time: but the holy men of God spoke, inspired by the Holy Ghost.
Topic: What Was St. Paul Actually Calling “Doctrines of Demons?”
In A Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture, the 1953 classic for Scripture study, Fr. R.J. Foster gives us crucial insight into what St. Paul was writing about in I Timothy 4:
[B]ehind these prohibitions there may lie the dualistic principles which were already apparent in Asia Minor when this epistle was written and which were part of the Gnostic heresy.
Evidently, St. Paul was writing against what might be termed the founding fathers of the Gnostic movement that split away from the Church in the first century and would last over 1,000 years, forming many different sects and taking many different forms.
Question: Why is the mainstream media (and the rest of the world) so interested in all the recent goings on inside the Vatican?
Read the true story of the discovery of the mortal remains of St. Peter and why Jesus Christ really wasn’t kidding when he said, And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:18)
During his regular weekly audience in the Vatican, the Pope spoke about prayer, in particular, “The Little Pentecost”:
The kings of the earth stood up: and the princes assembled together against the Lord and his Christ. For of a truth there assembled together in this city against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, To do what thy hand and thy counsel decreed to be done.
And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants that with all confidence they may speak thy word, By stretching forth thy hand to cures and signs and wonders, to be done by the name of thy holy Son, Jesus.
And when they had prayed, the place was moved wherein they were assembled: and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost: and they spoke the word of God with confidence. And the multitude of believers had but one heart and one soul. Neither did any one say that aught of the things which he possessed was his own: but all things were common unto them. And with great power did the Apostles give testimony of the resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord: and great grace was in them all. (Acts 4:26-33)
Editor’s note: We could use some spectacular, public healing miracles right about now to help illustrate the folly of the Obamacare mandate, and to reaffirm Catholic teachings on chastity and sexual morality.
Years ago, some of my best friends left the Church to follow, what they believed to be, a more “biblical” path. Their incessant character assassinations of Catholicism led me to investigate their claims.
I’m not a scholar or theologian. This may seem simplistic to some, but in the end, it was the mere existence of Eastern Orthodoxy that provided, what to me at least, was the greatest worldly proof that Catholicism is the one, true Church instituted by Jesus Christ.
I began by temporarily removing the Catholic Church from the equation and looking only at the two schisms, one in 1054 and the other in 1520, and examined their fruits in the modern age. They are profoundly different.
On the one hand, you’ve got one multinational Church, united under one Patriarch, that has remained unified and consistent in its doctrine, liturgy and traditions for nearly a millennium.
On the other hand, the Protestant Reformers couldn’t agree from day one. There were Radical Reformers (Calvinists and the like) and Magisterial Reformers (Lutherans and Anglicans). All of which have splintered into the 25,000+ denominations we have today.
All of these schismatics are Christians and none of them are Catholic, so why has one remained unified and consistent, while the others have fractured and splintered into so many varied parts as to be nearly unrecognizable as one religion? What is it that the Orthodox Church has that the Reformers do not?
I think the answer lies in the Apostolic priesthood. Because the Orthodox retained a valid, Apostolic priesthood and all seven Sacraments, as well as a devotion to Mary, they had the perpetual protection of the Holy Spirit to keep them from chaos, confusion and division. Without that divine protection, I don’t think it would have been possible for them to last a century, let alone a millennium. A thousand years of consistency is just not possible for humanity alone. We are not even consistent in our interpretation of the US Constitution after two hundred years.
If I had any useful math skills, I’d try to calculate the odds. Two separate Churches agree on 99% of their doctrines then go their separate ways. After 50 generations apart, they come together in 1965 to discover that the only doctrinal difference they have is the very same 1% that they had a thousand years before. How does that happen, when Calvinists couldn’t last one generation, and Pentecostals can’t even do it on the same day in two churches a mile apart from each other?
In the end, I was left with, not 25,000 denominations to choose from, but two. Since Jesus clearly gave authority to Peter and not to Andrew, the choice was obvious. The current custodian of the keys to heaven is Pope Benedict XVI.
According to an ancient tradition, which is rooted in manifold sources and quite beyond dispute, the Gospel according to St. Mark is very much the Gospel of St. Peter. The Prince of the apostles did not compose his own Gospel, but instead left it to his close disciple St. Mark to put his preaching into text.
From Wikipedia:
Quo vadis? is a Latin phrase meaning “Where are you going?” or “Whither goest thou?”
The modern usage of the phrase refers to Christian tradition, related in the apocryphal Acts of Peter (Vercelli Acts XXXV), in which Saint Peter meets Jesus as Peter is fleeing from likely crucifixion in Rome.
Peter asks Jesus the question “Quo vadis?”
Jesus’ answer, “I am going to Rome to be crucified again.” (Eo Romam iterum crucifigi) prompts Peter to gain the courage to continue his ministry and eventually become a martyr.
Quo Vadis, John Corapi?
The day finally arrived…Forrest Gump dies and goes to Heaven. He is at the Pearly Gates, met by St. Peter himself. However, the gates are closed, and Forrest approaches the gatekeeper.
St. Peter said, “Well, Forrest, it is certainly good to see you. We have heard a lot about you. I must tell you, though, that the place is filling up fast, and we have been administering an entrance examination for everyone. The test is short, but you have to pass it before you can get into Heaven.”
Forrest responds, “It sure is good to be here, St. Peter, sir, but nobody ever told me about any entrance exam. I sure hope that the test ain’t too hard. Life was a big enough test as it was.”
St. Peter continued, “Yes, I know Forrest, but the test is only three questions.
First: What two days of the week begin with the letter T?
Second: How many seconds are there in a year?
Third: What is God’s first name?”
Forrest leaves to think the questions over. He returns the next day and sees St. Peter, who waves him up, and says, “Now that you have had a chance to think the questions over, Give me your answers”.
Forrest replied, “Well, the first one — which two days in the week begins with the letter “T”? Shucks, that one is easy. That would be Today and Tomorrow.”
The Saint’s eyes opened wide and he exclaimed, “Forrest, that is not what I was thinking, but you do have a point, and I guess I did not specify, so I will give you credit for that answer. How about the next one?” asked St. Peter.
“How many seconds in a year? Now that one is harder,” replied Forrest, “but I thunk and thunk about that, and I guess the only answer can be twelve.”
Astounded, St. Peter said, “Twelve Forrest, how in Heaven’s name could you come up with twelve seconds in a year?”
Forrest replied, “Shucks, there’s got to be twelve: January 2nd, February 2nd, March 2nd.. “
“Hold it,” interrupts St. Peter. “I see where you are going with this, and I see your point, though that was not quite what I had in mind…..But I will have to give you credit for that one, too. Let us go on with the third and final question. Can you tell me God’s first name”?
“Sure,” Forrest replied, “it’s Andy.”
“Andy?” exclaimed an exasperated and frustrated St Peter. “Ok, I can understand how you came up with your answers to my first two questions, but just how in the world did you come up with the name Andy as the first name of God?”
“Shucks, that was the easiest one of all,” Forrest replied. “I learnt it from the song,
ANDY WALKS WITH ME,
ANDY TALKS WITH ME,
ANDY TELLS ME I AM HIS OWN.”
St. Peter opened the Pearly Gates, and said: “Run Forrest, run!”
Q: Why do we not hear about the Pope in the Bible, since he seems to be “God´s Right Hand”?
A: St. Peter was the first pope, and the Bible correctly states that it was God the Father’s idea.
Jesus (while he still walked the earth) uniquely endowed the pope with the awesome and virtually unrestricted power of binding and loosing on earth and in heaven, as well as giving him the “keys” to the kingdom of Heaven.
I challenge anyone to try to top that. For further proof that Jesus wasn’t kidding, see St. Peter’s basilica, in the Vatican … where the biggest church in the world really IS (literally) built on St. Peter … the Rock … whose bones are actually buried beneath the main altar, there.
And since Jesus is known as the good shepherd, he would certainly never even think of going away and leaving his flock unattended.
Remember … Catholics were there when Jesus, Mary, and all the apostles were still living in 1st century Palestine … and we’ve been here ever since … eye witnesses to authentic, world-wide, universal Christianity … courtesy of the Holy Spirit.
We didn’t just show up 1500 years late … and read about it in a (Catholic) holy book (the Bible).
A priest dies and is waiting in line at the Pearly Gates.
Ahead of him is a guy who’s dressed in sunglasses,
a loud shirt, leather jacket, and jeans.
Saint Peter addresses this cool guy,
‘Who are you, so that I may know whether or not
to admit you to the Kingdom of Heaven?’
The guy replies,
‘I’m Jack, a retired airlines pilot, from Houston.’
Saint Peter consults his list.
He smiles and says to the pilot,
‘Take this silken robe and golden staff and enter the Kingdom.’
The pilot goes in to Heaven.
Next, it’s the priest’s turn.
He stands upright and booms out,
‘I am Father Bob, pastor of Saint Mary’s in Pasadena,
for the last 43 years.’
Saint Peter consults his list.
He says to the priest,
‘Take this cotton robe and wooden staff
and enter the Kingdom.’
‘Just a minute,’ says the good father.
‘That man was a pilot and he gets a silken robe
and golden staff, yet I get only cotton and wood.
How can this be?’
‘Up here – we go by results,’ says Saint Peter.
‘When you preached – people slept.
When he flew, people prayed .’
Submitted by Bob Stanley
How do some people come to have faith? Do they just decide to believe without any reason for believing, as if they took a leap and jumped up onto a cloud? If so, then their faith would have as solid a foundation as a cloud! That method is not for a rational person. It is for such unreasonable and unreasoning ones as Kierkegaard, the Danish Existentialist, who says faith is precisely a leap;1 or Bultmann, grandfather of Form Criticism, who thinks it even sinful to want to have any basis for faith. Rather, says Bultmann, the man of faith, “has nothing in his hand on which to base his faith. He is suspended in mid-air.”2
The Catholic Church does not ask for or even permit such unreasonable thinking. Vatican Council I, quoting Romans 12:1, taught that our faith should be a “reasonable service of God,” not an irrational leap.3 The First Epistle of St. Peter says the same. “Always be ready to give a defense to anyone who asks of you a reason for the hope that is in you.”(1 Peter 3:15).
One of the hallmarks of the Catholic faith is our belief that
the Pope is God’s designated and true representative on earth.
Firmly rooted in Scripture and confirmed
from the earliest times by Apostolic Tradition,
the primacy of Simon Peter,“the Rock”
whose office and authority lives on today
in Benedict, our current Pope,
remains the solid earthly foundation
on which the Roman Catholic Church is built.
When God made Aaron, the brother of Moses,
the first high priest, he set up the office of priest in perpetuity
(a man so ordained would remain a priest forever
and the office of the priesthood would continue forever):
Exodus 29:9-11
To wit, Aaron and his children,
and thou shalt put mitres upon them;
and they shall be priests to me by a perpetual ordinance.
The high priest was endowed with awesome
responsibilities, special powers and extraordinary authority.
A high priest normally served for life
(until later times, when that was changed).
He was in charge of all the other priests,
as well as the administration of the Tabernacle or Temple.
When he died, his office was to be handed down to his successor:
Exodus 29:29-30
And the holy vesture, which Aaron shall use,
his sons shall have after him, that they may be anointed,
and their hands consecrated in it.
He of his sons that shall be appointed high priest
in his stead, and that shall enter into
the tabernacle of the testimony to minister in the sanctuary,
shall wear it seven days.
It was also normal for the high priest to prophesy.
His prophetic words were considered to come straight from God.
This was true even for corrupt high priests:
John 11:49-53
But one of them, named Caiphas,
being the high priest that year, said to them:
You know nothing. Neither do you consider
that it is expedient for you that one man
should die for the people
and that the whole nation perish not.
And this he spoke not of himself:
but being the high priest of that year,
he prophesied that Jesus should die for the nation.
And not only for the nation,
but to gather together in one the children of God
that were dispersed. From that day therefore
they devised to put him to death.
Crucifixion of St. Peter
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Tradition holds that St. Peter was jailed in Rome’s maximum security Mamertine Prison before he was crucified upside down and buried on the hill where St. Peter’s Basilica was later built. And now after recent excavations in Rome’s oldest prison, archaeologists say they have uncovered evidence that, while not providing direct proof, does support that belief.
At the Vigil Mass of today’s Feast of Saints Peter and Paul was read the story of a paralyzed man whom Peter and John encounter just outside the Temple at the Gate called “Beautiful.” This paralyzed man’s story is our story and as we read it we learn something of our own spiritual journey to the Lord and to heaven, symbolized here by the Temple. Let’s look at this moving story which is not merely an event of 2000 years ago but is our story. (N.B. The Beautiful Gate is the gold plated doors in the foreground of the picture).
The earliest known icons of the Apostles Peter and Paul have been discovered in a catacomb under a modern office building in Rome.
The images, which date from the second half of the 4th century, were discovered on the ceiling of a tomb that also includes the earliest known images of the apostles John and Andrew.
They were uncovered using a new laser technique that allowed restorers to burn off centuries of thick white calcium carbonate deposits without damaging the dark colors of the original paintings underneath.
…On the first Easter Sunday, news began to be circulated that Jesus was alive and had been seen. These reports were, at first disbelieved or at least doubted by the apostles. Various reports from both women and men were dismissed by the apostles. But suddenly in the evening of that first Easter Sunday there is a change and a declaration by the apostles that the Lord had truly been raised. What effected this change?
It would seem that, after the early evening report by the disciples returning from Emmaus, Peter slipped away, perhaps for a walk or some other purpose and according to both Paul (1 Cor 15:5) and Luke (Luke 24:34) the risen Lord appeared to him privately and prior to the other apostles. Peter then reports this to the others and the resurrection moves from being doubted to being the official declaration of the Church. The official declaration is worded thus:
The Lord has truly risen indeed, he has appeared to Simon!” (Luke 24:34)
The resurrection is now officially declared. Notice, the world “truly” (some texts say “indeed”). It is not an officially attested fact that Jesus has risen. Neither Magdalene, nor the women in general, nor the disciples from Emmaus could make this declaration for the Church. It took the college of apostles in union with Peter to do this. Hence the dogma of the resurrection becomes so on very Catholic terms: The first bishops (the apostles) in union or in Council with the first Pope (Peter) make this solemn declaration of the faith.
Doug Lawrence's Catholic Site 