Posted on 05/21/2007 12:59:30 PM PDT by NYer
First you get down on your knees, fiddle with your rosaries,
Bow your head with great respect, and genuflect, genuflect, genuflect!
Do whatever steps you want if you have cleared them with the Pontiff.
Everybody say his own Kyrie eleison,
Doin’ the Vatican Rag.
Get in line in that processional, step into that small confessional.
There the guy who’s got religion’ll tell you if your sin’s original.
If it is, try playin’ it safer, drink the wine and chew the wafer,
Two, four, six, eight, time to transubstantiate!
So get down upon your knees, fiddle with your rosaries,
Bow your head with great respect, and genuflect, genuflect, genuflect!
Make a cross on your abdomen, when in Rome do like a Roman;
Ave Maria, gee, it’s good to see ya!
Gettin’ ecstatic an’ sorta dramatic an’ doin’ the Vatican Rag!
**“I was touched by the Virgin Mary. Most Protestant converts say Catholic devotion to Mary was their greatest hurdle. For me, it wouldn’t have happened without Mary,” Babcox said.**
This brings tears to my eyes. Maybe because I have attended the Liturgy of the Hours with a large group of priests and seminarians chanting it. Absolutely beautiful. I can only imagine how all the light going out except for the one spotlighting the icon of the Blessed Mother touched him.
Your satire is not appreciated. This is a real story about a real faith conversion. If it doesn’t fit you, please don’t come to the thread.
Thank you, Salvation. I thot it was inappropriate too.
"So Jesus said to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever.' After this many of his disciples drew back and no longer went about with him. Jesus said to the twelve, 'Will you also go away?'"
Most Protestants believe that the bread and wine offered by the Catholic priest in the Holy Mass are only symbols of Christ's body and blood. They do not believe that Christians have to actually eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ to have eternal life. They do not believe that Christ's flesh is actual food, and His blood actual drink. Why, then, does Jesus repeatedly say in these verses that we must eat His flesh and drink His blood or we have no life in us? Why does Christ say that His flesh is food indeed, and His blood is drink indeed, if His flesh and blood really aren't food and drink indeed? This teaching of Jesus on the Eucharist is the most profound in all of Scripture, and these verses are very problematic to the Protestant contention that the bread and wine of the Mass are just symbols.
When John 6 is prayerfully read, we see how Jesus gradually teaches the faithful about the life-giving bread from heaven that He will give to the world (through the multiplication of the loaves, the reference to the raining manna given to the Israelites, and finally to the bread that Jesus will give which is His flesh). When the Jews question Jesus about how he could possibly give them His flesh to eat, Jesus becomes more literal in His explanation. As we learned in the link on The Eucharist, Jesus says several times that we must eat (in Greek, "phago") His flesh to gain eternal life (which literally means "to chew").
When the Jews further question the strangeness of His teaching, Jesus uses an even more literal verb (in Greek, "trogo") to describe how we must eat His flesh to have eternal life (which literally means "to gnaw or crunch"). The word “trogo” is only used two other times in the New Testament (Matt. 24:38; John 13:18) and it is always used literally (physically eating). Protestants are unable to provide a single example of where "trogo" is ever used in a symbolic sense. To drive His point home, Jesus says that His flesh is real food indeed, and His blood is real drink indeed (Jesus says nothing about the bread being a symbol of His body and blood).
What is perhaps most compelling about the foregoing passages is what happens at the end of Jesus' discourse. We know that the Jews understood Jesus as speaking literally. This is demonstrated by their question, "How can this man give us His flesh to eat?" They could not conceive of why consuming Jesus' flesh was life-giving and how they could possibly do such a thing. We also know that Jesus responds to their question by being even more literal about eating His flesh and drinking His blood. But we learn at the end of Jesus' discourse that many of His followers, because of the difficulty of His teaching, decided to no longer follow Him - and Jesus let them go. Then He turned to His apostles and asked them, "Will you also go away?"
Would Jesus, the Incarnate Word of God who became man to save humanity, allow his followers to leave Him if they misunderstood His teaching? Of course not, especially when the teaching regarded how they were to obtain eternal life which was at the heart of Jesus' mission. Jesus always explained the meaning of His teachings to His disciples. Mark 4:34. Jesus did not say, "Hey, guys, come back here, you got it all wrong." He didn't do this because they did not have it all wrong. They understood correctly - we must eat Jesus' flesh and drink His blood, or we have no life within us. The Protestant who contends that the Catholic offering of bread and wine in the Mass is just a symbol (and does not miraculously become the body and blood of Christ through the actions of the priest acting "in persona Christi") must address John 6:53-58, 66-67 - why Jesus used the words He did, and why Jesus allowed His followers to leave Him if they understood Him correctly (which is the only time in Scripture where Christ allows His disciples to leave Him based upon a doctrinal teaching).
When we meditate upon this mystery with an open mind and heart, we come to believe and know that the Eucharist is the way the Father gives us His Son in the eternal covenant of love by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Eucharist is an extension of the Incarnation. If we can believe in the Incarnation (that God become a little baby), than believing that God makes Himself substantially present under the appearance of bread and wine is easy. The Church has thus taught for 2,000 years that the Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian faith - the consummation of the sacrificed Paschal lamb, by which we are restored to God and share in His divine life. Thus, Saint Paul says, "our Paschal lamb has been sacrificed; therefore, let us celebrate the feast." 1 Corinthians 5:7-8.
You're too ignorant of both Catholicism and Scripture to reach such an easily refutable conclusion.
87 member, shrinking church (down from 160 10 years ago). Liberal PCUSA, of course.
Jesus & Mary - Two Hearts beating as one!
Two more videos available of Neal Babcox on AirMaria.com! Here's one thumbnail:
Video - Neil Babcox: Protestant Pastor becomes Catholic
 FI News #12 - Protestant Pastor Neil Babcox converts to Catholicism because of the Blessed Virgin Mary. >>> Play |
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Ave Maria!
After being a Protestant Pastor for over 30 years, first in a nondenominational church and then in three Presbyterian churches, Neil Babcox makes the journey home to the Catholic Faith on the Solemnity of All Saints, November 1, 2006. While most Protestant converts find Catholic devotion to Our Lady an extremely difficult obstacle to becoming Catholic, for Neil it was just the opposite: Her irresistible tenderness drew him into the fullness of Christ's Church. Neil spent his first Easter with the Franciscans of the Immaculate and shared his story with AirMaria.com in two episodes. Watch Neil in this first episode as he shares how the Immaculate brought him home; and be sure to tune in to EWTN, Marcus Grodi's The Journey Home on May 21st at 8pm where Neil will share more of his story.
Links:
EWTN, Marcus Grodi, The Journey Home--upcoming guest Neil Babcox:
Conversion story of Neil Babcox
Ave Maria!
And your point is...?
Where are you getting this erroneous information — or are you just being sarcastic?
Journey Home - May 21 - Neil Babcox (former Presbyterian) - A minister encounters Mary
Going Catholic - Six journeys to Rome
My (Imminent) Reception into the Roman Catholic Church
A Convert's Pilgrimage [Christopher Cuddy]
Lutheran professor of philosophy prepares to enter Catholic Church
Patty Bonds (former Baptist and sister of Dr. James White) to appear on The Journey Home - May 7
Pastor and Flock Become Catholics
The journey back - Dr. Beckwith explains his reasons for returning to the Catholic Church
Famous Homosexual Italian Author Returned to the Church Before Dying of AIDS
Dr. Francis Beckwith Returns To Full Communion With The Church
Catholic Converts - Stephen K. Ray (former Evangelical)
Catholic Converts - Malcolm Muggeridge
Catholic Converts - Richard John Neuhaus
Catholic Converts - Avery Cardinal Dulles
Catholic Converts - Israel (Eugenio) Zolli - Chief Rabbi of Rome
Catholic Converts - Robert H. Bork , American Jurist (Catholic Caucus)
Catholic Converts - Marcus Grodi
MuttTheHoople, in the future, when posting lyrics be sure to include a source and link, if available.
Here is the conversion story of Neil Babcox, already posted to the forum in May.
Why would I be interested?
Thanks for the ping!
Because of this post to which you were pinged ...
Will the Pope's Pronouncement Set Ecumenism Back a Hundred Years?
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