Free Republic

Finding Forgiveness Through the Magnificence of Mercy - A Homily for the 24th Sunday of the Year Msgr. Charles Pope • September 16, 2017 • The Gospel this Sunday draws us into a remarkably sensitive area of the faith, that of forgiving others who may have harmed us. There are many who been authentically hurt and others who in offering forgiveness will become vulnerable to further harm. Forgiveness is something we experience as a very personal call; in some cases, it may be the most challenging thing we are ever asked to do.I have titled this Homily carefully; if...

There is a Fountain Filled with Blood, is song A-Capella the second day after cataract sugary that was so wonderful, I can see so very well. Thanks for watching.

Twelve seconds of silence is an awkward eternity on television. Amr Adeeb, perhaps the most prominent talk show host in Egypt, leaned forward as he searched for a response. “The Copts of Egypt … are made of … steel!” he finally uttered. Moments earlier, Adeeb was watching a colleague in a simple home in Alexandria speak with the widow of Naseem Faheem, the guard at St. Mark’s Cathedral in the seaside Mediterranean city. On Palm Sunday, the guard had redirected a suicide bomber through the perimeter metal detector, where the terrorist detonated. Likely the first to die in the blast,...

The first three visions of Zechariah must have comforted the remnant of the nation of Israel, as they picked through the ruined walls of Jerusalem, once known as, “the city of the Great King”. Jerusalem was in ruins, in appearance she was far from being “the Joy of the Whole earth” , “the city of our God”, rather she was like a shattered and ruined widow, sitting in the ashes of her mourning. How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess...

Milo Milburn, "Letting go of grudges". Weds Jan 11 at 8 PM Eastern EWTN Live Streaming PLAYER Click Here Photo, License Frame: 'Grudges Don't Hurt Them'"It happened 60 years ago. She's been dead for 10 years. She's not coming back. Get over it." My Aunt Mary held a grudge against my Mom, Betty. Mary blamed Betty due to her belief Betty had caused their parents to split up for a few months. Mary was in a faction in her own mind, with one parent in her mind against another. IT HAPPENED IN 1932!Betty died in 1989. Mary was holding it...

Milo Milburn, letting go of grudges. Weds Jan 11 at 8 PM Eastern EWTN Live Streaming PLAYER Click Here Photo, License Frame: 'Grudges Don't Hurt Them'"It happened 60 years ago. She's been dead for 10 years. She's not coming back. Get over it." My Aunt Mary held a grudge against my Mom, Betty. Mary blamed Betty due to her belief Betty had caused their parents to split up for a few months. Mary was in a faction in her own mind, with one parent in her mind against another. IT HAPPENED IN 1932!Betty died in 1989. Mary was holding it...

VATICAN CITY, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Pope Francis on Monday extended indefinitely to all Roman Catholic priests the power to forgive abortion, a right previously reserved for bishops or special confessors. Francis, who has made a more inclusive and forgiving Roman Catholic Church a characteristic of his papacy, made the announcement in a document known as an "apostolic letter" after Sunday's close of the Church's "Holy Year of Mercy". He said he wanted to "restate as firmly as I can that abortion is a grave sin, since it puts an end to an innocent life" but "there is no sin...

Pope Francis is allowing all priests to absolve the faithful of the "grave sin" of abortion, extending indefinitely the special permission he had granted for the duration of the just-ended Holy Year of Mercy...

NORTH LITTLE ROCK,Ark.--The mother of an 18-year-old murder victim says she forgives the man accused of killing her daughter. The shooting rattled a North Little Rock neighborhood earlier this week; many called it an act of domestic violence. The mother of the victim says this is not the first time she has dealt with the murder of a loved one. She says she is relying on family and her faith after seeing her brother, her husband and now her daughter murdered in the last few years. Family pictures lined the table inside the home of an 18-year-old whose life was...

We are Christians. Let's teach America and the World about Repentance and Forgiveness. From today's Old Testament Reading-- 2 Kings 5:14-17, "His flesh became again like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean of his leprosy.".....Someone out there, ask Donald J. Trump (as a Christian to Ask for Forgiveness). Then, we can all move on from these terrible words uttered 11 years ago. Remember, Donald uttered terrible words and his heart was in a bad place. They were words. No one died as in Bengazi, due to the selfish acts of Hillary. Hillary has not admitted to...

"[Love] does not take into account a wrong suffered" (1 Cor. 13:5). If you love someone, you won’t keep a record of their offenses. It is reported that when the Moravian missionaries first went to the Eskimos, they couldn't find a word in their language for forgiveness. They had to combine a series of shorter words into one compound word: Issumagijoujungnainermik. Although the word appears formidable, its meaning is beautiful, being translated: "Not-being-able-to-think-about-it-anymore." You've probably noticed that unforgiving people usually have good memories. Some can hold a grudge for a lifetime. But love never keeps a record of wrongs committed...

"In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: . . . And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven." (Colossians 1:14, 20) John introduced Jesus to the world at His baptism by saying, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). He was known prophetically as a lamb even before then. "He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep...

Acting on forgiveness While we shouldn’t harbor anger, we also don’t need to continue a relationship with one who has hurt us Msgr. Charles Pope Question: I am a contractor who did some work for some cousins. They cheated me out of a significant amount of money. Strangely, I still get invited to family functions by them as if nothing happened. But I don’t want anything to do with them. Does forgiveness require me to accept invitations and be friendly?— Name, location withheld Answer: Forgiveness involves letting go of the need to change the past. Through forgiveness, we are able...

Oh Troubler, why do you trouble us? We had just talked to you, we thought you were doing better… Why did you take your eyes off of Him who comes to us in the midst of every storm? What did you see, when you gazed at the Babylonian garment? What misery was so great that you were willing to sell out, just to relieve it? Did it work? Are you better now? Now, we who love you are miserable? Wouldn’t it be better to suffer than to sin? Which is worse, suffering or sin? Which is the cause and which...

Do some people voting for Rubio see it as forgiveness for hating on him for all his amnesty lies?

After months of reflection, Donald Trump says he still doesn't regret his decision not to ask God for forgiveness for his sins. In an interview on Sunday with CNN, the Republican presidential frontrunner said that he does not regret never asking God for forgiveness, partially because he says he doesn't have much to apologize for. "I have great relationship with God. I have great relationship with the Evangelicals," Trump said in the interview before pivoting to his poll numbers among Evangelical voters. "I like to be good. I don't like to have to ask for forgiveness. And I am good....

Jesus asked God the Father to forgive others. He never asked anyone to forgive Him. Well, okay, he asked Mary Magdalen to forgive Him, but that was only a movie. To be serious, there is a simple and obvious reason why Jesus never asked anyone to forgive Him: He never committed a sin. That's because, while fully man, he was also fully God, and God doesn't commit sins, even, you know, small ones. Incredibly, the Pope (the Pope!) doesn't seem to understand or believe this. In his homily for the feast of the Holy Family he claimed (emphasis in red):...

None of us is 'innocent.' We have all gone our own way and done our own thing with disastrous results. In spite of the foolish notion often portrayed by some, no nation, no culture, no individual is 'basically good.' This world is filled with evil, and at one time or another, we've all had a hand in it. As the prophet Isaiah puts it, 'We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.' Isaiah wasn't merely painting a picture of sinful...

After making threats for weeks, anonymous hackers have released the private information of millions of users of the Ashley Madison website, billed as the “most successful website for finding an affair and cheating partners” and boasting that it is “the world’s leading married dating service for discreet encounters.” So much for being discreet. What lessons can we learn from the release of millions of names of users looking for adulterous hookups? 1) Sooner or later, your sin will find you out (Numbers 32:23). Whether in this world or the world to come, if we don’t turn from our sins and...

One of the most unpopular and difficult virtues of Christianity is forgiveness. As C.S. Lewis put it, “Every one says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive.” Sadly, our personal lives recently have been an exercise in forgiving the unforgivable.