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“By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments” (1 John 2:3). True believers obey God’s commandments. Before Jesus ascended to Heaven after His resurrection, He gave the following Great Commission to His disciples: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you” (Matt. 28:19-20). Notice that a true disciple was to observe, or obey, all of Christ’s commands. The apostle John understood well the Lord’s instruction. He knew...

One might think that casuistry is dead and buried. The controversies of the 17th century should be over once and for all. Rarely do any of our contemporaries still read the Lettres Provinciales [Provincial Letters] and the authors whom Pascal (1623-1662) attacks therein. These authors are casuists, that is to say, moralists who seek to resolve matters of conscience without succumbing to rigorism. On rereading the famous Lettres, we were struck by the similarity emerging between a controversial document written in the 17th century and the positions today defended by pastors and theologians aspiring to effect radical changes in the...

Monsignor Michel Schooyans, a top adviser to Pope St. John Paul II who was also close to Pope Benedict XVI, has issued a dire warning about the current trajectory in the Catholic Church. In a paper, published on LifeSiteNews, Professor Schooyans, a member of several Pontifical Academies and Councils, writes that “the Synod on the Family has revealed a profound malaise in the Church.” The retired professor from Belgium, now 86, speaks of the “crisis” in the Church, saying, “it is futile to close our eyes: the Church is challenged in its very foundations.” (Click here to read Professor Schooyans'...

In my last column before a brief hiatus (to attend the important Roman Forum Conference at Lake Garda, Italy), I promised further discussion of Pope Francis’ latest scandalous inflight press conference, this time on the return to Rome from an utterly pointless (and needlessly expensive) trip to Armenia. At the risk of being facetious, it would appear that at this point in the Bergoglian pontificate one can speak of a Rule of Bergoglio: No Papal Press Conference Shall Be Without at Least One Major Error Against the Faith. This time we had the following whopper concerning Luther, who literally invented...

Who was Isaiah? Msgr. Charles Pope • July 11, 2016 • Prophet Isaiah by Antonio BalestraWe are reading excerpts from the Prophet Isaiah this week in the Daily Liturgy, particularly from passages in which God’s judgment on unbelief and sin is proclaimed. I will write a bit more on this tomorrow, but perhaps for today there is some benefit in looking at Isaiah by way of overview. Let’s consider key elements of his life, struggle, and message. If you already have a firm grasp on Isaiah’s life and teachings and would like to read a shorter meditation, you can...

July 12 No Confidence in the Flesh “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.” JOHN 6:63 If we grow impatient and fall into the flesh then we become weaker. To react in the flesh diminishes spiritual authority, and this must be avoided at all costs. Allowing the flesh to have its way for only a moment guarantees defeat against a spiritual adversary. “We worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh” (Philippians 3:3). To lose all confidence in the flesh is to take the higher ground of...

In a press release issued today, an international group of “Catholic academics and pastors” states that they have petitioned Rome to address serious theological problems with the post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation, Amoris Laetitia. Among the 45 signatories are Catholic prelates, scholars, professors, authors, and clergy from various pontifical universities, seminaries, colleges, theological institutes, religious orders, and dioceses around the world. They have asked the College of Cardinals, in their capacity as the Pope’s official advisers, to approach the Holy Father with a request that he repudiate “the errors listed in the document in a definitive and final manner, and to authoritatively...

July 11 Strategic Spiritual Warfare “Thanks be to God, Who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 CORINTHIANS 15:57 Everyone has their own way of waging warfare. Some emphasize intercessory prayer, and believe the secret is in getting hundreds of people praying for the same thing. Others lean towards praise and worship. Some stress binding and loosing. Others believe the key is in locating and naming certain spirits which supposedly control different parts of the world. Still others think there must be some prophetic act to be performed or declaration to be made. Here is the problem...

"Offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (1 Pet. 2:5). Praise consists of reciting God’s attributes and mighty works. "Praise the Lord" is a common expression today. Some see it as a catchy slogan, others commercialize it, still others reduce it to nothing more than "P.T.L." But despite such attempts to trivialize it, praising the Lord remains the believer's expression of love and gratitude to a God who has been abundantly gracious to him. That was the cry of David's heart when he said, "I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be...

“What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, that you also may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3). Enjoying communion with both God and Jesus Christ is solid proof that one’s salvation is real. When we hold baptisms in the church I pastor, invariably every person who gives their testimony will describe the overwhelming sense of forgiveness they now feel and the new purpose they have for their lives. They are expressing a wonderful result of salvation in Christ, of which Jesus...

Love Lightens Every Load – A Homily for the 15th Sunday of the Year Msgr. Charles Pope • July 9, 2016 • One could easily reduce today’s Gospel to trite moralisms: Help people in trouble; Be kind to strangers; etc. While these are certainly good thoughts, I would argue that it is about far deeper things than human kindness or ethics. This is a Gospel about the transformative power of God’s love and our need to receive it. It is not a Gospel that can be understood as a demand of the flesh.Let’s look at the Gospel in three...

The Church of England's governing body may face a conservative rebellion over its discussions on gay marriage. Despite pleas from senior bishops, a number of conservative Anglicans are considering boycotting the Church's private conversations over sexuality, designed to prevent a fracture over gay marriage. A deep fissure exists within the Church over whether or not to accomodate gay relationships in some way. A memo sent round to some members of the Church's governing synod listed "reasons not to participate" in conversations, which aim to reconcile opposing factions. The note, seen by Christian Today, offers a damning assessment of the secret...

Despite the fact that four of the fourteen independent Eastern Orthodox churches of the world opted not to show up, an expert on Orthodoxy insists that the "Holy and Great Council" in Crete in late June was significant, arguing that meeting together to hash out issues is part of the DNA of Orthodoxy.From June 19-26, leaders of ten of the fourteen “autocephalous,” or independent, Eastern Orthodox churches of the world met together on the island of Crete, marking the first time such a representative summit of Orthodox churches had assembled in a millennium. Originally the idea was for the “Holy...

I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:(Deuteronomy 30:19)And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.(Luke 22:31-32)Historic and prophetic events are rapidly coming crashing down around us, in breathtaking rates of speed and severity. In the past week alone, We beheld with horror...

The Lake Garda Statement Regarding the “Catholic” Apotheosis of Luther Final Session of the 24th Annual Roman Forum Summer Symposium Feast of Saints Cyril and Methodius July 7th, 2016 Our civilization is so sick that even the best efforts to prop up its few tottering remnants manifest the pathetic illness that has step by step brought the entire structure crumbling down. The disease in question is a willful, prideful, irrational, and ignorant obsession with “freedom”. But this is a malady that gained its initial effective entry into Christendom in union with the concept of the natural world as the realm...

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island, July 8, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – It’s become clear that Pope Francis’s exhortation Amoris Laetitia is “marked by ambiguity,” and that seemed to be the Holy Father’s intention, Bishop Thomas J. Tobin wrote on Thursday. In a Facebook post, the Providence, Rhode Island bishop wrote that the document allows for a wide range of interpretations and that is why so many prelates and commentators have different takes on it. He wrote: Upon reflection, it’s become pretty clear that Pope Francis’ document on marriage and the family, ‘Amoris Laetitia’ is marked by ambiguity, and that’s intentional on the Holy...

"Offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (1 Pet. 2:5). Every faculty you have is to be used for God’s glory. In Romans 12:1 Paul pleads with believers to present their bodies to God as a living and holy sacrifice, which is an appropriate and acceptable act of worship. But as someone has rightly said, the problem with living sacrifices is they tend to crawl off the altar. That's because sacrificial living demands spiritual discipline and constant dependence on the Holy Spirit. We as Christians aren't always willing to do that. According to Paul, the motivation and...

“These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13). The apostle John presents eleven objective and subjective tests for assurance of salvation. The New Testament epistles are filled with enough material on assurance to fill volumes of commentaries. Yet there is one small epistle, 1 John, that was written to deal exclusively with the issue of assurance. The apostle John states his reason for writing this letter in our verse for today: “These things I have written to...

"You . . . are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (1 Pet. 2:5). Spiritual sacrifices are acts of praise and worship offered to God through Jesus Christ. The primary mission of a Hebrew priest was to offer acceptable sacrifices to God. That's why God gave detailed instructions regarding the kinds of sacrifices He required. For example, if a lamb was offered, it had to be perfect—without deformity or blemish. Then it had to be sacrificed in a prescribed manner. It was a serious...

“We also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation” (Romans 5:11). The final link in the chain that eternally binds believers to Christ is their joy or exultation in God. Perhaps nowhere outside of Scripture has Christian joy been expressed more beautifully than in these stanzas from Charles Wesley’s hymn “O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing”: O for a thousand tongues to sing My great Redeemer’s praise, The glories of my God and King, The triumphs of His grace! Hear Him, ye deaf; His praise, ye dumb, Your loosened tongues...