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From Despair to Deliverance: The Journey of Jairus – A Homily for the 13th Sunday of the Year Msgr. Charles Pope • June 27, 2015 • The gospel today focuses on a man named Jairus and a journey he makes from despair to deliverance, with the help of Jesus. Of course Jairus is not merely a synagogue official who lived two thousand years ago. You are Jairus and his journey is your journey. We also meet in this gospel a woman of great faith, to whom the Lord points as an exemplar. If you are ready to accept it, she also...

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-y0MtreTb4A routine hip operation turned into one of those life changing moments for David Horowitz. The surgeon damaged his sciatic nerve, leaving him with a paralyzed left foot and a reservoir of neuropathic pain, Horowitz divulges in the opening chapter of “You’re Going to Be Dead One Day: A Love Story.” In the midst of his suffering, however, the author found time for reflection.  Horowitz is an accomplished author, speaker, and freedom fighter. One of his most well known works, Radical Son, described the transformation he underwent from a radical leftist to a conservative activist. Recently, however, his physical...

Nothing so moved so many in the aftermath of the Charleston, South Carolina, massacre than the heartfelt expressions of grace and forgiveness for Dylann Roof by the families of the slain. Nothing so astonished the rest of us than the expressions of pity and pleas for mercy for the young man standing before the judge at his bond hearing. "Every fiber in my body hurts," said Felicia Sanders, whose son Tywanza was killed, "and I will never be the same. But as we say in Bible study, we enjoyed you. But may God have mercy on you." "I forgive you,"...

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal addresses a legislative luncheon held as part of the “Road to Majority” conference in Washington on June 19, 2015. Photo courtesy of REUTERS/Carlos Barria*Editors: This photo may only be republished with RNS-JINDAL-FAITH, originally transmitted on June 24, 2015.  This image is available for web and print publication. For questions, contact Sally Morrow. (RNS) Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal on Wednesday (June 24) became the latest Republican to throw his hat into the presidential ring — and in this case, “last” may also mean “least.” Jindal, 44, is currently bringing up the rear in the polls among...

Many political experts will not take Donald Trump's quest for the Republican presidential nomination seriously, possibly for good reason. Trump, most notable for his vast real estate empire, wealth, bankruptcies, reality TV show, high profile divorces, and of late, his brash political statements, professes to be a Christian. As The Christian Post reported Tuesday, he even claims he would be "the greatest jobs president God ever created." While Trump might not be popular with a large segment of the Republican Party, many voters no longer feel connected to Washington or what they see as a professional and entrenched political class....

Speaking to a group of Christian conservatives on Thursday, senator Ted Cruz was the only candidate to dispense with his stump speech. Instead, his remarks focused entirely on religious liberty, which he said will be the central issue of the 2016 presidential election. The speech, which Cruz delivered at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority Conference, was indicative of the crucial role social conservatives and evangelicals will play in Cruz’s bid for the Republican nomination. The Texas senator has, during his three years in Washington, tried to define himself as the most conservative man in the race. Perhaps...

To utterly despair of oneself is infinitely more difficult for a man than to invent some kind of good works.generated self-salvation project. Human beings irresistibly gravitate toward a works or karma-based system because it gives man the false hope that his redemption is within his own reach. But a salvation that is all of grace, a gift earned by Someone else, is so utterly offensive to human nature, so humbling to our pride, that only a supernatural work of grace will bring a person to yield to it.Contrary to popular and cultural concepts of God, the Bible declares that...

As you may recall, when we left Martin Luther last week, he was bewailing and bemoaning the theological chaos that came about early on in the Reformation. There are as many sects and beliefs as there are heads. This fellow will have nothing to do with baptism; another denies the Sacrament; a third believes that there is another world between this and the Last Day. Some teach that Christ is not God; some say this, some say that. There is no rustic so rude but that, if he dreams or fancies anything, it must be the whisper of the Holy...

Erbil, Iraq, Jun 9, 2015 / 12:03 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Despite the potential threat from the nearby Islamic State, several monks and students in northern Iraq have found refuge in an ancient monastery, certain they are in God's hands no matter what happens. Erbil’s Chaldean Archbishop Bashar Warda said that those who have chosen to remain in the fourth century Monastery of Saint Matthew have “expressed their faith that this is a secure place.” He told CNA June 8 that although these Christians are now being protected by the Kurdish military, their sense of safety is not only due to...

People who live in liberal states search for psychologists on Google 50% more, per capita, than people from conservative states. Vermont has the most searchers for mental health help, at 74% greater than the national average, which makes sense, since it is a far-left state with a socialist Senator, Bernie Sanders, who likes to talk about the joys of rape. People in liberal Massachusetts and far-left New York search 55% and 56% more often for therapists as well (California, which you would expect to be worst of all, is "only" 41% above average). By contrast, in Idaho, (adjusted for population...

As far as Obama is concerned the notion of Good vs Evil is just another conspiracy theory The most destructive, finish-them-off style damage coming from the deadly arsenal of President Barack Obama is his persistence to ‘disappear’ steadfast belief in God and in anything good. As far as Obama is concerned the notion of Good vs Evil is just another conspiracy theory. This is a Messiah who covets everyone’s belief in the Creator, and also their belief in the inherent goodness of America that was always there and even in the tumult he deliberately dishes out from the Oval Office...

“If the Eucharist is considered [simply] a meal we share in and that nobody can be excluded from it, then the sense of Mystery is lost”. So says Cardinal Robert Sarah, the new Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments, in an intervention given at the John Paul II Pontifical Institute for the Studies on Marriage and the Family, at his presentation of: “The Family – a work in progress”, a compilation of essays published by Cantagalli, in view of the upcoming Synod in October. A compilation intent on stimulating a discussion which touches on...

The Obama Administration is poised to require faith-based recipients of federal grants to accept applications from LGBT individuals, according to a report published today by the Center for Family and Human Rights (C-Fam). By executive order last summer, President Obama amended the Johnson-era federal order on non-discrimination in hiring by federal contractors to include non-discrimination based on “sexual orientation and gender identity.” That order has roiled faith-based groups. A confidential source tells C-Fam that the White House has directed federal agencies to include “sexual orientation and gender identity” as

Instead, many in America have turned sex and its expression into a walking and diseased 'side show.' I pray we will not become another 'Rome' but we are swiftly on our way It appears the gift of ‘sex’ and sexuality has been forced over a cliff and shattered into a thousand pieces of broken and perverted expression. Experts are everywhere and those who demand to change our legal, religious, educational and political core. We must become another creature…void of Godly morals, laced with experimental sexual drives and controlled by feelings, Government and liberal agendas. “Act out, do it again and...

One year after authorities sent excavators to tear down the large Sanjiang Church in Wenzhou, China, officials have returned to remove crosses from the top of churches in Zhejiang province, even drafting regulations banning crosses from the cityscape. Dozens of churches in Lishui city had their crosses removed in May, with one cross burning up as the cutting machinery malfunctioned, according to ChinaAid. The demolitions come after a months-long break in the Zhejiang campaign that saw more than 425 churches lose their crosses or have their entire buildings destroyed.

"This is a Christian nation," said the Supreme Court in 1892. "America was born a Christian nation," echoed Woodrow Wilson. Harry Truman affirmed it: "This is a Christian nation." But in 2009, Barack Hussein Obama begged to differ: "We do not consider ourselves a Christian nation." Comes now a Pew Research Center survey that reveals the United States is de-Christianizing at an accelerated rate. Whereas 86 percent of Americans in 1990 identified as Christians, by 2007, that was down to 78 percent. Today only 7 in 10 say they are Christians. But the percentage of those describing themselves as atheists,...

I recently attended a service that might help solve the riddle of the fantastic decline of American Christianity. It was a different church from the one I normally go to. Let me set the scene, perhaps it will sound familiar: I walked in and immediately realized that IÂ’d inadvertently stumbled upon a totally relaxed, convenient, comfortable brand of church. The first hint was the choir members dressed in shorts and flip flops. Sweet, bro. So chill. There were a bunch of acoustic guitars and drums and tambourines and a keyboard. Before the service/concert began, some guy came out to rev...

A young Alabama boy brought a group of Waffle House diners to tears when he asked his mother to buy dinner for a homeless man he saw outside - and then sang a blessing with him at the table. Ava Faulk said her son Josiah Duncan, 5, wouldn't stop asking her questions when he spotted a disheveled man holding a bag with his bike outside the restaurant in Prattville. When Faulk explained the man was homeless, little Josiah asked 'What does that mean?' Faulk told Josiah that it meant he didn't have a home, to which her son responded, 'Where...

A recent Pew Research Center study found there has been a big drop since 2007 in the number of Americans who identify as Christian. Although 70 percent of Americans still describe themselves as Christian, more people are identifying with no religion at all.The survey found Americans who call themselves atheist, agnostic, or of no particular faith showed the largest increase jumping from 16 percent in 2007 to nearly 23 percent in 2014. In the same period, Christians dropped from 78 percent to just under 71 percent.Though not an affirmed Christian, George Washington realized the importance of religion in maintaining our...

What is the war: It when the wife of your 'sworn brother' has a Birthday, and all platoon gathers money so that he could buy her a gold chain and a pendent. - it when you have tea in the morning with a friend, and at lunchtime you learned that he died. - it when faithless people cross themselves and thank God after each mine bows up and did not get them. - it is when the church questions is it right or wrong to help a soldier who fights with weapons in hand, while sinful people are selling their...