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Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem Jobs In The Bible Metal Forger (New International Version (NIV) 2 Zillah also had a son, Tubal-Cain, who forged all kinds of tools out of bronze and iron. Tubal-Cain’s sister was Naamah. (Genesis 4:22)

More than a thousand evangelical pastors and others—gathered for a three-day conference to steel the resolve of Christians who preach that gay relationships are sinful—were asked a simple question: How many live in a state that recognizes same-sex marriage? Hands rose all across the convention hall. “This moral revolution is happening at warp speed,” said the Rev. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. “This is a real challenge to us on biblical authority.” Speakers at the event said they understood they were on the losing end of the culture war on marriage. But they were prepared to...

F r. Benedict Groeschel, whose death we all mourn, lived at Trinity House in Larchmont, a hundred yards from my late mother-in-law. Coming from Cologne, Germany, where Jews had good relationships with the Catholic Church, my late mother-in-law chose to continue that tradition. Whenever she cooked for the Jewish holidays, a portion was sent down the block to Fr. Benedict. Whenever objects had to be disposed of, they went to Fr. Benedict. In this way, everything, from used clothing to used cars, was recycled to the poor through Fr. Benedict. We always visited him on the days before Christmas with...

October 29, 2014Wednesday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time    Reading 1 Eph 6:1-9 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.Honor your father and mother.This is the first commandment with a promise,that it may go well with youand that you may have a long life on earth.Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger,but bring them up with the training and instruction of the Lord. Slaves, be obedient to your human masters with fear and trembling,in sincerity of heart, as to Christ,not only when being watched, as currying favor,but as slaves of Christ, doing...

Senior theologians in Anglican Communion and Oriental Orthodox Churches recently made history by signing an agreement on their mutual understanding of Christ's incarnation. This was not just a minor point of theology, rather it was a subject that divided the Church following the Council of Chalcedon* in 451 AD, leaving the Oriental Orthodox Churches separated from the Eastern Orthodox Churches and the Church of Rome. The work to reconcile these branches of the Christian family on the question of how the two natures, human and divine, were united in one human being: Jesus Christ began in earnest in the 1990s....

Erbil, Iraq, Oct 28, 2014 / 02:01 am (Aid to the Church in Need).- Bombs are falling and the sound of the explosion is sending shock and fear into the hearts of the people. Amid the sound of crying and frenzied activity, people pack up what belongings they can carry and make off into the night. In the midst of it all, on the night of Aug. 6, stands Martin Baani, a 24-year-old seminarian. It’s dawning on him that this is Karamlesh’s last stand. For 1,800 years, Christianity has had a home in the hearts and minds of the people...

In 1973 the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision legalized abortion. It was projected that the decision would not just replace illegal abortions with legal ones, but that the total number of abortions would dramatically increase (it turned out by approximately a million a year). It was clear that there were only two remedies: the Supreme Court reversing it; or a constitutional amendment proposed by Congress and ratified by the states to overturn it. This required the election of presidents who would nominate Supreme Court justices not interested in creating constitutional rights to legal abortion, and the election of pro-life...

The recent session of the Synod on the Family has been likened not a few times by commentators as an attempt at a mini-Vatican III. And this appellation has some validity, for the past year or more has seen the re-appearance of such personages as Hans Küng (albeit not in vigorous form), Gustavo Gutierrez, and, at least in spirit, Karl Rahner, and, in the flesh, the indefagitable Cardinal Kasper, all examples of those who seemed to be disappointed that Vatican III did not follow closely after Vatican II to accomplish unfinished business: to get the Church firmly on the same...

Overcome with Good Today's Scripture “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:21, NIV) Today's Word from Joel and Victoria The scripture says, “We overcome evil with good.” In other words, when somebody’s rude or inconsiderate, don’t sink down to their level. Don’t be rude and inconsiderate back to them. No, if you are going to rise higher, if you are going to overcome, you have to do just the opposite. You have to show kindness, grace and mercy. It isn’t always easy; in fact, it’s almost never easy. It takes a lot of...

Justification by Faith " If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life —Romans 5:10 " I am not saved by believing— I simply realize I am saved by believing. And it is not repentance that saves me— repentance is only the sign that I realize what God has done through Christ Jesus. The danger here is putting the emphasis on the effect, instead of on the cause. Is it my obedience, consecration, and dedication that make me right with...

The Powerful Faith and Intercession of St. Jude Daniel Stewart When I first moved to Texas, I was baffled by the religious candles for sale in the supermarkets. Somewhere between the paper towels and the batteries, every store had a small section of tall candles with pictures of Jesus or a saint pasted to the outside of the glass. Not yet Catholic, I found this practice strange enough. But I was also perplexed by the selection of images: Jesus holding a heart, St. Michael slaying a dragon, the Virgin of Guadalupe, and …Saint Jude.Mentioned only in passing in the gospels,...

The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel. Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers? Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation. That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten.(Joel 1:1-4)The prophet Joel saw an actual locust invasion, and...

In an exciting declaration, Pope Francis I stated that God should not seen as a “magician with a magic wand,” while unveiling a statue of his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. Pope Francis also stated that evolution and the Big Bang theory are both true and not incompatible with the church’s views on the origins of the universe and life. “When we read about Creation in Genesis, we run the risk of imagining God was a magician, with a magic wand able to do everything. But that is not so,” Francis said, according to the...

"If I make you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I'm putting you on a light stand. Now that I've put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand--shine!" — Matthew 5:15 How should I live my life on this earth? What purpose does God have in mind for me, now that I have received His Son, Jesus Christ, into my heart? These are questions every believer should ask, because if you have no goals or purpose, you can waste your life. As I have often said, if you aim at...

Two stories battled for my attention recently, and both of them broke my heart. The first was about Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old woman with brain cancer who moved from California to Oregon to gain access to legal suicide-inducing drugs. She is planning to die in bed, surrounded by her family, on Nov. 1 (the solemnity of All Saints), two days after her husband’s birthday. The second story was about the singer Glen Campbell, who decided to go public with his struggle against Alzheimer’s disease. With his children on stage with him for a final, 151-stop musical tour, and the cameras...

(CNSNews.com) -- Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson and his eldest son Alan Robertson, both of whom are Christian ministers, released The Duck Commander Faith and Family Bible today, which is a New King James Version of the Bible complete with testimonials, selected indexes on Jesus’s life, weekly readings, and devotional commentary from both men throughout the book.While noting the joys of duck hunting, family, and Miss Kay’s cooking in the study Bible’s introduction, Phil and Al Robertson say that “what really gets us fired up – what’s the foundation of our daily lives and all that we do – is...

Consider the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ and his disciples: Mark 5:1–15 They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. Night and...

The Gospel of life must be proclaimed, and human life defended in all places and all times. The arena for moral responsibility includes not only the halls of government, but the voting booth as well. (American Bishops, “Living the Gospel of Life”)by Bishop Thomas Tobin: Prior to the recent primary election I received a heartfelt letter from a member of the Diocese who had just discovered that the candidate for whom she had intended to vote was “pro-choice and for same-sex marriage.” She wrote: “Dear Bishop Tobin, for whom do I vote? Do I vote at all?”I responded to my...

Pope Francis urged an international gathering of grassroots social activists to struggle against the "structural causes" of poverty and inequality, with a "revolutionary" program drawn from the Gospels. "The poor no longer wait, they seek to be protagonists, they organize, study, work, demand and, above all, practice that special solidarity that exists among those who suffer, among the poor," the pope said Tuesday to a Vatican-sponsored World Meeting of Popular Movements. The pope said solidarity entails struggling "against the structural causes of poverty, inequality, the lack of work, land and shelter, the denial of social and labor rights," and confronting...

A young Kurdish refugee from Kobane, the Syrian town attacked by ISIS (CNS) More than 100 Muslim leaders — clerics and laypeople alike — have signed an open letter criticising terrorist group ISIS.In the 17-page letter, the leaders quote extensively from the Quran to rebuke ISIS’s tactics and actions.Since the letter was issued last month more than 125 Muslim leaders around the world have signed the letter. Twenty of them come from the United States, where the Council on American-Islamic Relations circulated the letter.More signatories hailed from Egypt than anywhere else, although signers also came from Jerusalem and Palestine, as...