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Says right under the post: "TOPICS: Catholic; General Discusssion; Prayer; Theology"

Excerpt:

From Scripture, it is clear that God not only created and has complete control over the stars, but named them and gave them not only for seasons, days and years, but, as said, "for signs."

Job 38:31-33 Shalt thou be able to join together the shining stars the Pleiades, or canst thou stop the turning about of Arcturus? 1 Canst thou bring forth the day star in its time, and make the evening star to rise upon the children of the earth? Dost thou know the order of heaven, and canst thou set down the reason thereof on the earth?

King David, in his 18th Psalm (or the 19th in Bibles with Masoretic numbering), asserts that the Heavens "shew forth," "declare," and "uttereth" -- that their "voices" go unto the ends of the earth and can be "heard" by all men:

Psalm 18:2-5 The heavens shew forth the glory of God, and the firmament declareth the work of his hands. Day to day uttereth speech, and night to night sheweth knowledge. There are no speeches nor languages, where their voices are not heard. Their sound hath gone forth into all the earth: and their words unto the ends of the world.

And here is the most fascinating thing: according to St. Paul, it seems that King David wasn't merely being poetic; when speaking about the potential for salvation of those who have never heard the Gospel from the Church, he says, in Romans 10:11-18:

For the Scripture saith: Whosoever believeth in Him shall not be confounded. For there is no distinction of the Jew and the Greek: for the same is Lord over all, rich unto all that call upon Him. For whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved.

How then shall they call on Him in Whom they have not believed? Or how shall they believe Him of Whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they be sent, as it is written: How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, of them that bring glad tidings of good things? But all do not obey the gospel. For Isaias saith: Lord, who hath believed our report? Faith then cometh by hearing; and hearing by the word of Christ.

But I say: Have they not heard? Yes, verily: Their sound hath gone forth into all the earth: and their words unto the ends of the whole world.

Who is the "they" whose sound has gone forth into all the earth, and words unto the ends of the whole world, said words being the same as having heard word of Christ? It seems to be the "they" of the Psalm which St. Paul was quoting very precisely: "they" are the stars of Psalm 18:2-5, which I urge you to read again since St. Paul uses those exact words:

The heavens shew forth the glory of God, and the firmament declareth the work of his hands. Day to day uttereth speech, and night to night sheweth knowledge. There are no speeches nor languages, where their voices are not heard. Their sound hath gone forth into all the earth: and their words unto the ends of the world.

Could St. Paul possibly have meant to say that all one has to do is look to the stars to see not just the glory of God's creation, but the Gospel message itself? Could the original names of these stars, given by God to Adam in Eden, have been designed to tell a story?

The best page out there on offering things up. Redemptive Suffering: Offering it up.

The Covenant with the Jews wasn’t “revoked”; it was FULFILLED when Christ suffered, died, and resurrected. The Catholic Church has ALWAYS taught that we are saved by the grace of Christ ALONE, not through faith alone and not by works alone. Jews need Jesus as much as anyone else does, and the idea that they have some sort of sacred DNA is racist. The Pope, who is NOT speaking ex-cathedra, or infallibly, here is w-r-o-n-g. Plain and simple wrong. Catholic are to spread the Gospel to ALL.

The early Church Fathers always saw Jesus revealed in the Old Testament. That's how the Catholic (and Orthodox) Church has always read the Bible. See Typology off the Fisheaters page on Lectio Divina (divine reading, or reading the Bible).

Seriously good information of both Advent customs and Christmas customs from a trad point of view: Traditional Catholic Advent and Christmas Customs. Merry Christmas!

God does not want this to happen. Folks who've been taught to believe according to dispensationalism are so very, very wrong it hurts. Please see this page: Dispensationalism. And for something extremely fascinating, see also What Happened When the Jews Tried to Rebuild the Temple under the Christian-hating Julian the Apostate (A.D. 331-363), 4th successor to Constantine.

See:

End Times: http://www.fisheaters.com/endtimes.html

Dispensationalism: http://www.fisheaters.com/dispensationalism.html

Yes — if a person can get to Jerusalem, that is! But this DVD is the next best thing, the actual path that Jesus took on the first Good Friday, with all the stations visited. Pretty cool video.

There are a few verses from Sacred Scripture I pray every Catholic thinks very deeply about -- and prays even more deeply about. They are:

These verses are good to use as "proof text" against the Protestant idea of "Sola Fide" or "Faith Alone" -- the idea that "Faith Alone" saves -- one of the two pillars of "the Reformation," the other being "Sola Scriptura," or "the Bible alone" as the source of authority  But they tell us about a lot more than the necessity of making our faith alive through works. The specific words I pray you focus on right now are "the devils also believe and tremble."

Contrary to the idea many Protestants have that all we have to do is intellectually conclude that Jesus is the Son of God and we will thereafter be assured of salvation, Sacred Scripture tells us that even the demons know Who He is. Think about this: the devils know Who Lord Christ is. And their knowing Who He is won't save them.

The point of all this is to say that walking the path of salvation is not a matter of just coming to an intellectual conclusion. In no way is the Holy Faith a mere philosophy! There are reasons for the Faith, of course, and one can find support for Catholic beliefs in everything from sociology to psychology to physics. And you can be certain that faith and reason will never contradict each other. There are certainly, too, times in which the Faith must be defended through debate and argument. But ultimately, having faith is a supernatural gift that must be lived in love in order for it to be a true faith, a pleasing and effective faith that is radically different from the demons' mere "knowing." In other words, true faith requires a conversion of the heart, which we term "metanoia." It requires our seeing the faith as a gift we've not earned at all as opposed to treating it like a great intellectual achievement that just proves how bright we are, how right we are. It requires our "putting on Christ," "taking up our crosses," and following Him, becoming like Him, repenting of our sins, pursuing virtue and, above all, following "the Two Great Commandments" by loving God with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength, and loving our neighbor as we love ourselves: 

In Mark 12:31, He tells us that "There is no other commandment greater than these"!

But, sadly, in all the years I've been doing what I do as an online teacher of Catholicism, I've seen so many self-professed Catholic turn the Holy Faith into something merely to debate about. I've seen folks so assured of their intellectual "rightness" that they've missed the Gospel message entirely.

Visit link for the rest. It's powerful stuff.

You guys, I'm hoping to get you check out this DVD about the Via Dolorosa. I'm hoping you consider getting this DVD so you can make the Stations of the Cross -- especially on Good Friday (we've only got 4 Fridays left 'til then, with Good Friday being the 4th Friday, on April 18).

I don't stand to make any money from any sales of this, but I've watched the video (made by a Hebrew Catholic friend I have in Israel) and it is -- well, it's the ACTUAL Way of the Cross, IN Jerusalem, and it makes the Passion come alive. You virtually walk to each Station, led by Francsican Friars, and accompanied by alllllllllllll sorts of religious (the different habits are a nice thing to see in themselves!) and lay-people of all types. The video gives great close-ups of the many churches and much of the art found at the different Stations, and some of them are breath-taking (some of the statues of Our Lady will make you weep).

Most of the prayers are in Latin, praise God.

At the end of the video, they visit the Church of the Resurrection -- but, blessedly, don't refer to it as "the 15th Station" or anything. But I'm glad it's included -- especially because the bells peal there, like at the Easter vigil (my favorite Church moment!), and it's so beautiful to see His actual tomb.

I think this would make a great Good Friday "thing to do," especially with family. I can see it helping children visualize the reality of what happened on the original Good Friday. Plus, making the Stations with a video forces you to slow down, too, so you're not rushing. You're sort of "forced" to contemplate (the video lasts 28 minutes and some seconds). The filmmaker has DVDs IN the USA, so if you can't get one now, you can get one closer to Good Friday and would likely have it in time. But once you have it, it's yours forever and you can make the Stations any time you want.

For newbies wanting more information about the Stations of the Cross, see this FishEaters page: The Stations of the Cross

See the original link for a trailer of the video. It's very nice!

If this page doesn't explain things, then nothing will: Mary

Many have complained about "Link Nazis" who use lack of citations as a thinly-veiled excuse to remove any material they disagree with. Interestingly, unsupported (or unsupportable) claims in line with, shall we say, a liberal viewpoint are often left unmolested. The "Neutral Point of View" that is supposed to be the site's guiding principle is a bad joke in practice.

This is all too true. Little "cabals" of editors own certain pages and there's no getting around them. A few who control a lot of the Catholic pages won't let FishEaters.com (a generic trad website) link on any of the Catholic entries. FE has a page on that at fisheaters.com/wikipedia2.html

Fascinating reading: what happened when they tried to rebuild the Temple under Julian the Apostate (who was baptized Christian as a child, but became pagan and went on to hate and persecute Christians).

The Fish Eaters: The Whys and Hows of Traditional Catholicism site is tailor-made for people who are wanting to learn how to worship in the traditional ways. These pages (from their "Being Catholic" section) about attending the traditional Mass might help you:

• Mental and Spiritual Preparation
• Attire and Etiquette
• Order of the Mass (with instructions on when to sit, stand, look in the Missal or at handouts for the Propers, etc).

The ultimate Ember Days pages.

See page to read more and to see how the Perseid meteor showers play a role in St. Lawrence's feast day.

Magnificent! That reading by St. Ephraem was particularly beautiful. Thanks for posting this!

May God heal him if it is His will, and I pray it is...