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"All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable . . . that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work" (2 Tim. 3:16-17). Scripture equips you for spiritual service. Each week I have the privilege of interacting with more than one hundred students at The Master's Seminary. One of my greatest joys is seeing their determination to do God's work in God's way. That attitude is the key to success in ministry, as Joshua learned when he assumed leadership over the Israelites after Moses' death. At that point, God said to him, "This book of the...

I have read a little and did some research on baptism and if there is a need to get baptized as an adult after being baptized as a child. I looked for the Church’s standing on it and I looked for scripture written about it. My research left me with the half-baked conclusion, in the eyes of the Lord, one only needs baptized once. I was baptized as a small child without any realization of what was happening. In the 40 years to follow there were plenty of times I was lost, sinning, doing the devils deeds with the liquor...

Papal authority cannot be used to promote favored papal causes, no matter how noble. It is to be used to keep the Church one and focused on the one true God. Pope Francis celebrates the opening Mass of the Synod of Bishops on the family in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican Oct. 4. (CNS/Paul Haring) The avalanche of media coverage of the Synod on the Family cannot be escaped, so rather than try to run from it, perhaps now is the time to try to provide some necessary context to what will (and will not) take place in the next few...

Transformation or Misinformation? Are Jesus’ Promises Real? What Hinders the Promises of Christ in Us? Msgr. Charles Pope • October 5, 2015 • A text that was read at daily Mass last week features Jesus describing remarkable blessings received by the disciples. He states these blessings as a simple and obvious fact for them, blessings never before received by anyone!Do you see your life this way? Are your blessings obvious to you? Do they distinguish you from those who never knew Christ? Does your relationship with Jesus Christ grant you obvious transformation or is that just misinformation and exaggeration?Consider the...

When the first Synod of Bishops on the family got underway last October, conservatives concerned with upholding traditional doctrine appeared caught off guard by a progressive push on several fronts, including relaxing the ban on Communion for Catholics who divorce and remarry outside the Church. The leading symbol of that disorientation was the way Hungarian Cardinal Péter Erdő, ostensibly the man supposed to guide the summit’s work in his role as “General Relator,” appeared to be sidelined by more progressive prelates, especially Italian Archbishop Bruno Forte, in producing a controversial interim report calling for greater openness on divorce, homosexuality, and...

October 6, 2015   Tuesday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Jon 3:1-10 The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: “Set out for the great city of Nineveh,and announce to it the message that I will tell you.”So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh,according to the LORD’s bidding.Now Nineveh was an enormously large city;it took three days to go through it.Jonah began his journey through the city,and had gone but a single day’s walk announcing,“Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed,”when the people of Nineveh believed God;they proclaimed a fast...

Please start with this song . . . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPy0ctqMwE0 Beautiful day ~ Jamie Grace My orchestra plays in time with the strings of My heart that is My 7 Spirits of Righteousness in the truth of Who I AM for there is no other :o) Isaiah 11:1-2 Righteous Reign of the Branch 11 Then a Shoot (the Messiah) will spring from the stock of Jesse [David’s father], And a Branch from his roots will bear fruit. 2 And the 1Spirit of the Lord(Love) will rest on Him— The 2 Spirit of wisdom and 3 understanding, The 4 Spirit of counsel...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem Character Studies From The Bible John the Baptist 67 His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied: 68 “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,     because he has come to his people and redeemed them. 69 He has raised up a horn of salvation for us     in the house of his servant David 70 (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago), 71 salvation from our enemies     and from the hand of all who hate us— 72 to show mercy to our ancestors     and to remember his holy covenant, 73     the oath he...

“These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth” (v. 13). - Hebrews 11:13–16 No discussion of suffering could long proceed without addressing the subject of death. History books tell us of numerous events, such as the Black Plague, in which immense suffering culminated in death. But death does not touch us only from a distance through the study of the past. We have all felt the impact of death personally as we have seen friends and...

The head of Poland’s bishops has given a lengthy and hard-hitting interview in which he upholds the Church’s teaching on marriage and the family, voices his opposition to Church decentralization, and calls gender ideology worse than Communism. In the interview broadcast on EWTN Germany, Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki said that the Church “can’t sing with 100 different voices as postmodernity would like it to.” “If the Church were to teach 10 or 100 doctrines,” he added, “she would break apart into 100 churches, but the Church is one, catholic and apostolic.” The archbishop, who is one of three Polish bishops attending...

Cardinal Peter Erdö, general relator for the ongoing Synod on the Family, is saying most of the Synod Fathers are opposed to the idea of giving Holy Communion to civilly divorced and remarried Catholics. In an interview last week with a Hungarian Catholic newspaper, His Eminence said, "The majority is of the conviction that, according to the Church's law, whoever lives in an invalid marriage may not then go to Holy Communion." While he said he believes the Synod will clarify the Church's teaching on marriage, Cdl. Erdö also said the Church must show pastoral care for people who live...

The LORD hath done great things with us; we are rejoiced. Psalm126:3

Psalm 33:18 Behold, the Lord's Eye is upon those who Fear Him [Who Revere and Worship Him with Awe], Who Wait for Him, And Hope in His Mercy and Lovingkindness.

Russia – in the form of the Soviet Union – used to be America’s greatest enemy. Ronald Reagan called it the “Evil Empire.” “One nation under God” was added to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954 in response to “godless Communism.” The United States was different, Americans were told. We believed in God. The Russians were officially atheistic. How times have changed. The following is from “Who’s Godless Now? Russia Says It’s U.S.” “At the height of the Cold War, it was common for American conservatives to label the officially atheist Soviet Union a ‘godless nation.’ “More than two decades...

New York’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade capitulates in a two-decade-long dispute with gay groups. One of New York City’s longest-running civic and political battles came to an end this week, not with a bang but a whimper. The organizers of the New York City Saint Patrick’s Day Parade announced that they would allow the Lavender and Green Alliance—a group composed of gay, lesbian, and transgender people of Irish descent— to participate in the annual march up Fifth Avenue. The group’s application to join the parade had been denied every year since 1994 due, parade organizers said, to its advocacy of...

A key official of the Synod of Bishops set a strongly conservative tone, unambiguously supporting the traditional teachings of the Church on marriage and sexuality, in the opening session of the October meeting. Cardinal Peter Erdo of Budapest—who, as relator general, was responsible for summarizing the main themes of the working document to be discussed by the bishops— tackled some of the most contentious issues directly during his Monday-morning address. The Hungarian cardinal stated that Catholics who are divorced and remarried cannot be admitted to Communion as long as they remain in a second conjugal union. He also rejected the...

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has brought a lawsuit against a Catholic health-care system based in Michigan, seeking to force the Church-run hospitals to perform abortions. The ACLU suit against Trinity Health Corporation alleges that affiliated hospitals, guided by the US bishops’ health-care directives, refused to perform abortions for women who had incomplete miscarriages. The suit claims that in these cases, the breaking of amniotic sac leaves the unborn child defenseless, with no realistic chance of survival, while exposing the mother to risk of complications. ACLU sues Catholic hospital chain over emergency abortions (USA Today)

An unexpected side effect of Pope Francis’ trip to United States came out when the news broke that he had secretly met Kim Davis in Washington. Kim Davis is the Kentucky county employee jailed in the last month because she not only practiced the conscientious objection by refusing to issue marriage licenses for same-sex marriages, she also forbade her staff from issuing them. The several interpretations – and over interpretations – that followed the news of the meeting show a general concern about Pope Francis’ pontificate. It has been depicted as a revolutionary pontificate, but how does this image square...

On August 22, 2015, Schema-Archimandrite Sergius, abbot of St. Tikhon’s Monastery delivered an address to the annual Women’s Retreat sponsored by the Department of Curriculum and Education of the Diocese of Philadelphia and Eastern PA, held at St. Tikhon’s Monastery and Seminary in Waymart, PA, on the topic of “Orthodox Living in the Modern World: Steps to Spiritual Transformation.” In his talk Fr. Sergius spoke on several important themes, including the benefits of pilgrimage for helping us to encounter God, the power of the saints, moving away from an inner monologue towards a dialogue with God beginning with a consistent...

October 5 marks the anniversary of the repose of the renowned Romanian theologian Fr. Dumitru Staniloae. His many works include commentaries on the Church Father, a Romanian translation of the Philokalia, and his 1978 masterpiece The Orthodox Dogmatic Theology. Fr. Dumitru endured several years of imprisonment for his faith at the hands of Communists, after which he began to work for the Romanian Holy Synod and often traveled to international conferences to share his theological vision. He reposed in 1993 at the age of ninety.Below we offer his work on "The Cross as a Means of Sanctification and Transformation of...