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I Corinthians 10:1-13 1 For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. 2 They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 They all ate the same spiritual food 4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. 6 Now these things...

Shallow and Profound "Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" —1 Corinthians 10:31 Beware of allowing yourself to think that the shallow aspects of life are not ordained by God; they are ordained by Him equally as much as the profound. We sometimes refuse to be shallow, not out of our deep devotion to God but because we wish to impress other people with the fact that we are not shallow. This is a sure sign of spiritual pride. We must be careful, for this is how contempt for others...

The Priesthood and the Mass Theologian Notes the Priest's Privileged Role By Father Mauro Gagliardi VATICAN CITY, NOV. 20, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI proclaimed, as everyone knows, the Year for Priests (June 2009-June 2010), on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the "dies natalis" of the holy Curé d'Ars. The purpose is "to deepen the commitment of all priests to interior renewal for the sake of a stronger and more incisive witness to the Gospel in today’s world"[1]. St. John Mary Vianney, besides concretely representing a supreme model of the priesthood, always proclaimed with clarity and incomparable emphasis the...

The world is under attack on numerous levels. But Christians live, not under demonic attacks, but under God's grace. When you go to sleep at night, thank God for His protective grace. When you wake up in the morning, thank God for His fatherly mercy watching over you.

In the various Christian traditions Marian doctrine and devotion take shape in manifold and diverse ways. Since the Second Vatican Council the Church has striven to promote a new and more careful study of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, in the mystery of Christ and of the Church; to encourage theological faculties in the pursuit of knowledge, research, and piety with regard to Mary of Nazareth. The Mother of the Lord is understood as a "datum of revelation" and a "maternal presence" always operative in the life of the Church. [1] The history of theological reflection witnesses...

One of the more commonly shared experiences of Protestant converts to the Catholic Church is the discovery of verses “we never saw.” Even after years of studying, preaching, and teaching the Bible, sometimes from cover to cover, all of a sudden a verse “we never saw” appears as if by magic and becomes an “Aha!” mind-opening, life-altering messenger of spiritual “doom”! Sometimes it’s just recognizing an alternate, clearer meaning of a familiar verse, but often, as with some of the verses mentioned below, it literally seems as if some Catholic had snuck in during the night and somehow put that...

Featured Term (selected at random):CANONICAL AGE The age of reason, fixed by canon law, when a person is permitted or required to receive the sacraments. It differs for various sacraments. For penance and the Eucharist it is commonly assumed to be at the age of reason. For religious profession and holding certain ecclesiastical offices the canonical age if further specified and widely varies. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Presentation Of The Blessed Virgin MaryFeast, November 21(Novena, November 12-20)1. Mary, Mother of God, tradition tells us that when you were three years of age, your parents, Joachim and Anne, took you to the Temple in Jerusalem to fulfill their vow. The holy couple offered you to God by the ministry of the priest in charge, who invoked the blessing of God upon you and your parents. How fervently your mother and father thanked God for having given you to them and begged Him to accept the offering which they were making! They then left a small offering of...

  Folks, after several false stars, we continue now with our exploration of Jewish and Christian themes with an examination of Christian and Jewish similarities convergences and divergences on the subject of prayer. I found the subject matter vast, fascinating, but somewhat complicated. I apologize because this brief study will hardly do any justice to the subject but I hope it will serve as a starting point for further, deeper study and reflection on this matter. Also, please, note that I had to further subdivide this subject into three posts. Otherwise it would’ve become long, boring, and unwieldy. I expect...

'It is Finished!' "I have finished the work which You have given Me to do" —John 17:4 The death of Jesus Christ is the fulfillment in history of the very mind and intent of God. There is no place for seeing Jesus Christ as a martyr. His death was not something that happened to Him— something that might have been prevented. His death was the very reason He came.Never build your case for forgiveness on the idea that God is our Father and He will forgive us because He loves us. That contradicts the revealed truth of God in...

Prior to the opening of formal conversations between officials of the Holy See and leaders of the Lefebvrist Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), which began on Oct. 26, the mainstream media frequently misrepresented these discussions as a negotiation aimed at achieving a compromise that both sides can live with. That was to be expected from reporters and commentators for whom everything is politics and everything is thus negotiable. Alas, similar misrepresentations came from “Vatican insiders” who suggested that the teaching of the Second Vatican Council was under joint review by the Holy See and the SSPX, which only made...

Part Three:  The Will of God Eighth Commandment Table of Contents     In both versions of the Decalogue, the wording of the Eighth Commandment is the same: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor (Exodus 20:16; Deuteronomy 5:20). Throughout the Old Testament, the full meaning of this commandment includes both the prohibition against telling a lie and the precept of telling the truth. Thus, “Lips that tell the truth abide firm forever; the tongue that lies lasts only for a moment. Lips that lie are abhorrent to Yahweh; dear to Him those who speak the truth” (Proverbs 12:19, 19:22).The...

Featured Term (selected at random):WAKE A watch or vigil. The term was originally applied to the all-night vigil in Anglo-Saxon times before certain major holidays. By the sixteenth century it was used of the holiday itself, and of the fair held to honor a local saint. In some countries, e.g., Ireland, a wake is the watch over the body of the deceased before burial. And more commonly a wake is the period, one or two days before the funeral, when mourners may visit the body of the deceased and offer their condolences to the bereaved. THe Church now provides for...

Devotion to Mary 1411. It is unscriptural to attribute power to Mary. That is a very unscriptural statement. At His mother's request Jesus changed water into wine at Cana, though He had said, "My time is not yet come." St. James tells us that "the prayer of a just man availeth much." Jas 5:16. How much more the prayer of Mary! 1412. Does the Bible sanction such prayers to Mary? Yes. All through the Bible you will find God conferring favors through the prayers of others. In the Old Testament we read of the prayers of Abraham, Moses, and of...

HINSDALE, Ill. — Sister Donna Quinn referred to herself as a “peacekeeper” when she escorted women into a Chicago-area abortion business to shield them from pro-life advocates.But leaders of her Sinsinawa Dominican community, saying they fully support Church teaching on abortion, have told her that her actions violated her profession as a religious sister. Now, Sister Donna may be facing further discipline as the bishops of Madison, Wis., and Joliet, Ill., and the archbishop of Chicago, Cardinal Francis George, consider whether she formally cooperated with abortions by volunteering at the business. Under canon law, the penalty for formal cooperation with...

The Holy Scriptures witness a single Second Coming and a single physical resurrection for the blessing of the righteous and the punishment of the wicked. This bodily resurrection is depicted in Rev 20:11-15 , "And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened ... The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done." It should be noted that the "first resurrection" mentioned in Rev 20:4-6 is the present blessed...

John Nelson Darby (1800-1882), who was the leader of the Brethren movement and the “father of modern Dispensationalism,” took Margaret Macdonald’s new teaching on the rapture, made some changes (she taught a partial rapture of believers while he taught that all believers would be raptured) and incorporated it into his Dispensational understanding of Scripture and prophecy. Darby would spend the rest of his life speaking, writing and traveling, spreading the new rapture theory. The Plymouth Brethren openly admitted and were even proud of the fact that among their teachings were totally new ones which had never been taught by the...

Living the Abundant Life Today's Scripture "The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows)" (John 10:10, AMP) Today's Word from Joel and Victoria Too many people today have a barely-get-by mentality, "Barely able to pay my bills, got an okay job, an okay marriage." Friend, don’t settle there. Jesus came so we could live an abundant life! That means an abundance of joy, an abundance of peace, an abundance of health, an abundance in our...

The Forgiveness of God "In Him we have . . . the forgiveness of sins . . ." —Ephesians 1:7 Beware of the pleasant view of the fatherhood of God: God is so kind and loving that of course He will forgive us. That thought, based solely on emotion, cannot be found anywhere in the New Testament. The only basis on which God can forgive us is the tremendous tragedy of the Cross of Christ. To base our forgiveness on any other ground is unconscious blasphemy. The only ground on which God can forgive our sin and reinstate us...

Part Three:  The Will of God Seventh and Tenth Commandments Table of Contents     The biblical precept of the Seventh Commandment, like the Sixth, is a short imperative, “You shall not steal.” It is the same in both versions of the Decalogue. The Tenth Commandment, as already seen, is that part of the Ten Commandments which forbids coveting what belongs to someone else, whether his house, servant, ox, donkey, or anything else. Deuteronomy distinguishes between coveting “your neighbor’s wife,” and “setting your heart” on other possessions, including the neighbor’s field (Exodus 20:15; Deuteronomy 5:19). Like the Sixth and Ninth Commandments, the...

The Vatican has just completed a five day conference on astrobiology where scientists convened to discuss the detection and implications of extraterrestrial life. A major driving force behind the conference was the Director of the Vatican Observatory, the Jesuit priest Father Jose Gabriel Funes. In May 2008, Funes gave an interview to the Vatican’s L’Osservatore Romano newspaper saying that the existence of intelligent extraterrestrials posed no problems to Catholic theology. The conference itself was officially convened by the Vatican's Pontifical Academy of Sciences, chaired by its religious leader Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, and was held on private Vatican grounds from...

Setting the Record Straight on Rapture By Holly Deyo The purpose of the following material is not to debate the existence of Rapture or when that event would occur, as it is to establish that this is a doctrine of long-standing. A well-circulated notion says that John Darby was the first to begin teaching Rapture in 1828. This may be an effort to discredit Rapture, to remove people's hope and dispirit them, or it may be perpetuated through ignorance. Whatever is the case, it is simply incorrect. Consider that while the word "rapture" was not used until Jerome in 400...

Featured Term (selected at random):EPISCOPAL CURIA The group of persons who assist a bishop, or the prelate taking the place of a bishop, in the administration of a diocese. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Continue in the Faith Today's Scripture "If indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard…" (Colossians 1:23, NAS) Today's Word from Joel and Victoria Have you been holding on to a promise or dream in your heart that seems to be taking a long time? When things don't go the way we've planned, it's easy to get discouraged and feel tempted to give up. But God wants to breathe new life into your dreams. He wants to breathe new hope into your heart....

"When He Has Come" "When He has come, He will convict the world of sin . . ." —John 16:8 Very few of us know anything about conviction of sin. We know the experience of being disturbed because we have done wrong things. But conviction of sin by the Holy Spirit blots out every relationship on earth and makes us aware of only one— "Against You, You only, have I sinned . . ." ( Psalm 51:4 ). When a person is convicted of sin in this way, he knows with every bit of his conscience that God would...

Part Three:  The Will of God Sixth and Ninth Commandments Table of Contents     In the Catholic version of the Decalogue, the Sixth and Ninth Commandments are coupled together. They both prescribe the practice of chastity. The biblical text for the Sixth Commandment is simply “You shall not commit adultery” in both Exodus 20:14 and Deuteronomy 5:18. But the Ninth Commandment is part of a longer prohibition of covetousness. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his servant, man or woman, or his ox or his donkey, or anything that is his (Exodus...

A Reality Check from the Discipleship Front November 19th, 2009 by Archbishop Charles Chaput What the hell don’t you understand about the term separation of Church and State. Keep your evil hands off of our Health Care Bill. Mind your own business. We don’t care about your beliefs, and if you want to meddle in our affairs, we will be coming for you. If that’s how you want to play, we will come for your pedophile priests, your ill-gotten money you stole for decades. The Catholic church is just another organized crime syndicate that should be put out of business....

NEWS AND EVENTS: September 15, 2009 Marian visionary Maria Alfonsina Danil Ghattas to be Beatified November 22 VATICAN CITY, 8 SEP 2009 (VIS) - The Office of Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff today announced that the following rites of beatification, approved by the Holy Father, will take place over the coming months:- Servant of God Eustachio Kugler (ne Joseph), German professed religious of the Hospitaller Order of St. John of God: at 2 p.m. on Sunday 4 October in the cathedral of Regensburg, Germany.- Servant of God Ciriaco Maria Sancha y Hervas, Spanish cardinal and archbishop, founder of the...

Freepers- I need some help finding a book explaining the dovetail of science and religion. Here is my senario: My 15 year old nephew has been raised Catholic, goes to Mass every week, made all sacraments. Mom is practicing, father, agnostic but was raised Catholic.

Scenario:It's a scorching hot Saturday afternoon in early September. Your wife has taken the little ones to the pool. It's just you and your oldest, ten-year-old Matthew, staying in to watch the big game. Mark McGuire has now hit 59 home runs! And the way he's been connecting, he could catch Roger Maris' thirty-seven year old record of 61 homers in today's game. Your son is decked out in his "McGuire" jersey and you've just poured ice-cold drinks for the start of the game when the doorbell rings. You hurry to the door, thinking of ways to get rid of...

Hell is clearly the biggest loser in the Four Last Things Popularity Poll. If there were anything in the Tradition we could get rid of, this would obviously be the thought of everlasting damnation.The ancient Catholic truth about Hell should terrify us. But it should terrify us into our wits, not out of them. It should prompt us to ask “How do I avoid such a thing?” just as a grisly photograph of a car crash in driver’s ed should prompt us to pay attention. And that, in turn, should prompt us to ask “What exactly am I avoiding? What...

Featured Term (selected at random):ISAIAH Author of the longest prophetic book in the Old Testament, he was the son of Amoz, born about 760 B.C. in Jerusalem. His writing paralleled the reigns of three Judaean kings, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. His mission was to proclaim the fall of Israel and Judah and the punishment that would befall the nation because of its sinfulness. The beauty of his style and the consistent nobility of his message made him one of the most revered of biblical writers. Constantly he pleaded with his people to place their trust in God and not in...

Pray For an Open Door Today's Scripture "And at the same time pray for us also, that God may open a door to us…" (Colossians 4:3, AMP) Today's Word from Joel and Victoria In this life, we are blessed with so many opportunities and privileges. In this day and age, we have tools and resources to figure almost anything out. It's easy to just depend on our own natural ability to make things happen. But God wants to be intimately involved in our lives. He wants us to come to Him, depend on Him, and allow Him to show...

Everyone has sorrow. Being a Christian does not exempt anyone from grief. But faith in Christ brings a transformation of sorrow. Not only are we taught to endure the sorrows that come to us patiently and submissively--but we are assured that there is a blessing in them for us, if we accept them with love and trust. One of the deepest truths taught in the Bible--is that earthly sorrow has a mission in the sanctifying of life. "No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who...

Winning into Freedom "If the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed" —John 8:36 If there is even a trace of individual self-satisfaction left in us, it always says, "I can’t surrender," or "I can’t be free." But the spiritual part of our being never says "I can’t"; it simply soaks up everything around it. Our spirit hungers for more and more. It is the way we are built. We are designed with a great capacity for God, but sin, our own individuality, and wrong thinking keep us from getting to Him. God delivers us from sin—...

Part Three:  The Will of God Fifth Commandment Table of Contents     The wording of the Fifth Commandment is identical in the two biblical texts of the Decalogue, “You shall not kill” (Exodus 20:13; Deuteronomy 20:5-17). Already in the Old Testament the prohibition was understood to mean “You shall not murder.” Always understood was that it was forbidden to kill an innocent person.The first recorded crime in the moral degradation after the Fall was the murder of Abel by his envious brother Cain (Genesis 4:1-16). Cain’s punishment by God reveals the gravity of the sin of murder. Several times, the prophets...

  You may want to sit down for this, but flamboyantly apostate Episcopal bishop John Shelby Spong actually thrilled me with a prescient bit of insight into Scripture! How is this possible?   Well, there is a basic principle at work in the universe called the Gomer Pyle Axiom of High and Low Expectations. It works this way: When you expect great things from somebody, then merely above-average performances are often denounced as disappointing failures. So when PIXAR --whose worst movies still tower over the junk Hollywood emits -- makes Cars, people groan at what a weak effort it...

A Vatican/SSPX Discussion Can Vatican II's Teaching on Religious Liberty Be Reconciled with Tradition? John Salza, J.D. REMNANT GUEST COLUMNIST   Pope Benedict, Cardinal Hoyos, Bishop Fellay (Aug. 2005)(POSTED 11/17/09 www.RemnantNewspaper.com) As the long-awaited dialogue between the Vatican and the Society of Saint Pius X gets underway, one of the more contentious issues that will be on the table is the Second Vatican Council's teaching on religious liberty found in Dignatius Humane (DH).  Following is a brief critique of DH in light of the traditional teachings of the Church. The fact that volumes have been written evaluating whether DH is compatible with tradition demonstrates that...

Rabbi Yaakov Levi had moved to Sunshine, Florida, a small town near Miami, to bolster the Jewish community in the area. Rabbi Levi, whose nickname was Yankee, was twenty-four and slim, with a full, dark beard. His soft brown eyes were magnified by a pair of thick glasses. He was accompanied by his young wife, Rebecca. She was warm-hearted, and generous, but not at all shy about speaking her mind. Together they started a synagogue, Congregation Bais Simcha. The small congregation loved their young rabbi and rebbetzin. By the end of their third year in Sunshine, Rebecca had given birth...

Featured Term (selected at random):UNITY The condition or state of oneness, especially among persons. What ultimately unites people is their common beliefs or convictions, and their common desires and affections. Union is the state of uniting different people. It is their state of mind agreeing on certain ideas and of will attaching its desires or love to certain objects that unify. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

The doomsday film 2012 had a mega-weekend at the box office. It took in $225 million over a period of five days, a combination of $65 million domestically and $160 million internationally Wednesday through Sunday (Nov. 11–16, 2009). In anticipation of the hype and hysteria of the Mayan Calendar end-of-the-world scenario, Christians had their books ready for an answer. Mark Hitchcock, pastor of Faith Bible Church in Edmond, Oklahoma, is the author of 2012: The Bible and the End of the World. To his credit, Hitchcock offers a critical evaluation of the supposed Mayan prophecy. He even takes issue with...

Press Past Adversity Today's Scripture "For a great and effective door has opened to me, and there are many adversaries" (I Corinthians 16:9, NKJ) Today's Word from Joel and Victoria Are you walking by faith or sight today? In other words, are you choosing to believe God no matter what your circumstances look like, or are you making decisions and focusing your mind on what you can see. Remember, it's always darkest right before the dawn appears. I believe that you are about to give birth to that promise. The enemy sees the supernatural doors that are opened before...

The Eternal Goal "By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing . . . I will bless you . . ." —Genesis 22:16-17 Abraham, at this point, has reached where he is in touch with the very nature of God. He now understands the reality of God. My goal is God Himself . . . At any cost, dear Lord, by any road. "At any cost . . . by any road" means submitting to God’s way of bringing us to the goal.There is no possibility of questioning God when He speaks, if...

Part Three:  The Will of God Fourth Commandment Table of Contents     The first three commandments pertain to our relationship with God. They oblige us to recognize God as our Lord and Master, to honor His Name in language and song, and to pay Him public homage as a people whom He has called to be His own. With the Fourth Commandment, we enter on a new relationship with God. If the first three commandments summarize what may be called “religion,” the last seven synthesize “morality.” From the fourth through the tenth precepts, our duties toward others are identified as the...

A call came in recently from a woman who wanted to remind me about all the "good fruits" associated with the alleged Marian apparitions at Medjugorje. You know, the thousands of confessions and conversions, rosaries and other prayers prayed, and even numerous priestly vocations which are attributed to men having made a pilgrimage there. Well . . . I don't deny that there are good "fruits" associated with Medjugorje, but even so, I am strongly disinclined to believe that it is the site of authentic Marian apparitions. And, as I explained to the caller, I personally do not agree that...

Featured Term (selected at random):FRUSTULUM The small portion of food, a few ounces, formerly permitted at breakfast on fast days. This was provided by canon law (Canon 1251), which permitted taking some food, morning and evening, in addition to the one full meal per day. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

“Do we regard the Christian way as the only way, so that salvation is not to be found outside it; or do we regard the other great religions of mankind as other ways of life and salvation?” - Religious Philosopher John Hick Pluralism, the belief that all religions are equal, contradicts the entire premise of religion. If all religion is equally true, what is the point of subscribing exclusively to one? People initially believe in a certain doctrine or religion because of faith and conviction that it is true. Likewise they reject other doctrine as false. Within respective faiths, most...

When it comes to porn, the question facing many men is simple: is it really wrong? Is it really that big of a deal? I mean, it's just an image on a screen. It's not someone I know (so it's not lust, right?), or someone I'm having an actual affair with, so I'm still faithful to my wife. It's just sexual release, like masturbation, and we all know that masturbation is not condemned in the Bible. It's not even mentioned. And isn't sex a good thing, so what's wrong in watching it happen? I'm just admiring beauty. And besides, I'm...

Walk by Faith Today's Scripture . . . whatever you do, do all to the glory of God —1 Corinthians 10:31 Today's Word from Joel and Victoria Are you walking by faith or sight today? In other words, are you choosing to believe God no matter what your circumstances look like, or are you making decisions and focusing your mind on what you can see. As believers, we have to remember that we aren't just subject to this natural realm–what we can see, hear, touch, and smell. No, we have access to the unseen, supernatural realm where all the...

Still Human! ". . . whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" —1 Corinthians 10:31 In the Scriptures, the great miracle of the incarnation slips into the ordinary life of a child; the great miracle of the transfiguration fades into the demon-possessed valley below; the glory of the resurrection descends into a breakfast on the seashore. This is not an anticlimax, but a great revelation of God.We have a tendency to look for wonder in our experience, and we mistake heroic actions for real heroes. It’s one thing to go through a crisis grandly, yet quite...