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Individuals who have not received the coronavirus vaccine “aren’t listening to God,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) declared during remarks before Brooklyn’s Christian Cultural Center on Sunday. “I prayed a lot to God during this time and you know what – God did answer our prayers,” Hochul stated, before denigrating those who have not yet received a coronavirus shot. He made the smartest men and women, the scientists, the doctors, the researchers – he made them come up with a vaccine. That is from God to us and we must say, thank you, God. Thank you. And I wear...

If you ever want to study a book of the Bible that will give you great insight from a prophetic point of view, may I suggest you study the Book of Isaiah. Isaiah wrote what many have called the miniature Bible in the Bible. Like all Scripture, Isaiah is inspired by God. However, Isaiah is unique in it's arrangement. Something I believe was divinely inspired to be so. Consider the following. How many books does the Bible have? Sixty-six. How many chapters does Isaiah have? Sixty-six. How many books are there in the Old Testament? Thirty-nine, and twenty-seven in...

In Rome lies the Santi Apostoli church, cared for by Franciscan brothers for more than 500 years. For more than 1500 years, this site has held the believed remains of two of the earliest Christians and Jesu apostles: St. Philip and St. James the Younger - relics of the Holy Catholic Church... The skeletons are today far from complete. Only fragments of a tibia, a femur and a mummified foot remain. The tibia and foot are attributed to St. Philip, the femur to St. James. It appears likely that this has been the case since the sixth century... The researchers...

Hi everyone! I usually post these on Wednesdays but in the holiday rush I haven't had much time so either film a video or write a new blog. So I decided to just make the last Why the New Testament Was Written video as a substitute for my usual Saturday blogs.I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! This week's concluding video is on why Revelation was written. Rather than delve into the divisive theological issues of eschatology, I decided to focus solely on the historical context of John's vision and the book's authorship.Why John...

Hi everyone! I can't believe I've already made 14 of these!This week's "Why the New Testament Was Written" vlog focuses on Peter's first epistle (if you couldn't tell by the title). We'll talk about when it was written, why it was written, and to whom it was written (and I say this knowing full well someone's going to comment "Because the Spirit told him to").Why I Peter Was WrittenVideo clocks in at 10:05.

Franciscan Media Image: Sant Bertolomeu | Bernat Jiménez Saint Bartholomew Saint of the Day for August 24 (b. 1st century)  Saint Bartholomew’s Story In the New Testament, Bartholomew is mentioned only in the lists of the apostles. Some scholars identify him with Nathanael, a man of Cana in Galilee who was summoned to Jesus by Philip. Jesus paid him a great compliment: “Here is a true Israelite. There is no duplicity in him” (John 1:47b). When Nathanael asked how Jesus knew him, Jesus said, “I saw you under the fig tree” (John 1:48b). Whatever amazing revelation this involved, it...

White Double IT SEEMS FITTING that the Octave of the Princes of the Apostles should not end without the appearance on the sacred cycle of some, at least, of those brilliant satellites that borrow light from them, and continue their work throughout the course of ages. Twin stars this day arise on the heavens of holy Church, illumining by the radiant beams of their apostolate immense tracts of country. Seeing that they start from Byzantium; one is at first led to suppose that their evolution is going to be performed independently of the laws which Rome has the right...

Red Greater Double FIRMLY RESTING UPON PETER, the Church turns to him whom the Spouse has given to be her Head, and testifies to him no less veneration and love, than obedience and fidelity; such is the craving of her gratitude. Moreover she is fully aware of what is thus expressed by St. Peter Damian (or as others say by a disciple of St. Bernard), “none may pretend to intimacy with our Lord, unless he be intimate with Peter.” How admirable is this unity in God’s advance towards his creature! but, at the same time, how absolute is the...

Red Semidouble PETER AND PAUL cease not to hearken to the prayer of their devout clients throughout the world. Time has wrought no change in their power; and in heaven, no more than formerly on earth, can the gravity of the general interests of holy Church so absorb them, as that they should neglect the petition of the humblest inhabitant of the glorious city of God, of which they were constituted, and still are, the Princes. One of the triumph gained by hell, at this day, is the lulling to sleep of the faith even of just men; hence...

Red Semidouble ALTHOUGH AMONGST THE SAINTS there is none who is undeserving of earth’s humble homage, or whose intercession is powerless in our behalf, yet the cultus rendered to each one, and the confidence evinced, necessarily vary in proportion to what we know of his or her glory. It is therefore only just, as Saint Leo remarks in today’s Office, that we should honor in a most special manner those whom divine grace has exalted so far above all others, that they are considered, as it were, the two brilliant eyes of Christ’s Mystical Body, the Church, giving light...

Red Double of the First Class (with an Octave) SIMON, SON OF JOHN, lovest thou me? Behold the hour when the answer which the Son of Man, exacted of the Fisher of Galilee, re-echoes from the seven hills and fills the whole earth. Peter no longer dreads the triple interrogation of his Lord. Since that fatal night wherein before the first cock-crow, the Prince of the apostles had betimes denied his Master, tears have not ceased to furrow the cheeks of this same Vicar of the Man-God; lo! the day when, at last, his tears shall be dried! From...

Violet   JOHN THE BAPTIST, placed on the confines of the two Testaments, closes the prophetic age, the reign of Hope, and opens the era of Fiath which possesses the long expected God, though as yet without beholding him in his Divinity. Thus even before the Octave is ended, wherein we pay our homage to the son of Zachary, the apostolic confession comes grafting itself on the testimony rendered by the Precursor to the Word, the Light. Tomorrow all heaven will re-echo with the solemn protestation first heard at Cesarea Philippi: Thou art Christ, the Son of the Living...

Red Double of the Second Class TWO OF THE FAVORED WITNESSES of our beloved Jesus’ Resurrection come before us on this first day of May. Philip and James are here, bearing testimony to us, that their Master is truly risen from the dead, that they have seen him, that they have touched him, that they have conversed with him, during these forty days. And, that we may have no doubt as to the truth of their testimony, they hold in their hands the instruments of the martyrdom they underwent for asserting that Jesus, after having suffered death, came to...

On Jesus’ Merciful Call of St. Matthew, a Great Sinner Msgr. Charles Pope • September 20, 2017 • On this Feast Day of St. Matthew, we must acknowledge a great mercy in Jesus’ call. As a tax collector, Matthew was considered a great sinner. In fact, the term “tax collector” was a biblical euphemism for great sinner. Yet despite this, Jesus called him to be an Apostle.In our times, many set mercy and the fact that we are sinners in opposition to each other, but the Lord Jesus unites these realities together. For the Lord, mercy is necessary because...

September 21, 2017 Feast of Saint Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist Reading 1 Eph 4:1-7, 11-13Brothers and sisters:I, a prisoner for the Lord,urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received,with all humility and gentleness, with patience,bearing with one another through love,striving to preserve the unity of the Spiritthrough the bond of peace:one Body and one Spirit,as you were also called to the one hope of your call;one Lord, one faith, one baptism;one God and Father of all,who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each of usaccording...

Why Is a Psalm of Creation Proclaimed on the Feasts of the Apostles? Msgr. Charles Pope • October 27, 2016 • The Mass for today’s feast of Saints Simon and Jude, like that for almost all of the Apostles, contains passages from Psalm 19. This has always intrigued me because this psalm is not a reference to human preaching or witness at all, but rather a reference to the wordless witness of creation.The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There...

After decades of searches by archeologists in the upper Jordan Valley, the lost Roman city of Julias, believed to be the birthplace of Jesus’s apostles Andrew, Peter and Philip, may have recently been unearthed. The discovery was made during excavations at Beit Habek, located in Bethsaida, by archeologist Dr. Mordechai Aviam, head of the Kinneret Institute for Galilean Archeology at Kinneret Academic College. Bethsaida was once a fishermen’s village on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee, and is mentioned in several New Testament books as the home of at least three of Jesus’s most important apostles, reports the...

Christian tradition maintains that after Rome nearly burned to the ground, Nero engaged in a brutal crackdown on Christians which led to the executions of Peter and Paul. On the evening of July 18, in the scorching summer of 64 CE, a fire started in a shop under the Circus Maximus in Rome. The fire quickly spread to nearby homes and businesses and the Circus itself. The fire burned for six days, ravaging the city. It left only four of Rome’s fourteen quarters untouched. The reigning emperor, Nero, a man known for his cruelty and love of theater, scapegoated the...

It’s Not About You: A Meditation on the Abrupt End of the Acts of the Apostles Msgr. Charles Pope • May 26, 2016 • Last week as we finished the Easter Cycle and crowned it with Pentecost. We also finished the lengthy reading of the Acts of the Apostles. There are two parts of the Acts of the Apostles: The Acts of Peter and those of Paul. But to be honest, the book has an unfinished quality to it. Let’s consider that.First, a quick summary: The second part of Acts is focused on the evangelical mission of St. Paul...

The Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called was the first of the Apostles to follow Christ, and he later brought his own brother, the holy Apostle Peter, to Christ (John 1:35-42). The future apostle was from Bethsaida, and from his youth he turned with all his soul to God. He did not enter into marriage, and he worked with his brother as a fisherman. When the holy Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist John began to preach, Saint Andrew became his closest disciple. Saint John the Baptist himself sent to Christ his own two disciples, the future Apostles Andrew and John the Theologian,...